The Living Bible (393 page)

1 John
2

My little children, I am telling you this so that you will stay away from sin. But if you sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. His name is Jesus Christ, the one who is all that is good and who pleases God completely.
²
 He is the one who took God’s wrath against our sins upon himself and brought us into fellowship with God; and he is the forgiveness for our sins,
*
and not only ours but all the world’s.

    
³
 And how can we be sure that we belong to him? By looking within ourselves: are we really trying to do what he wants us to?

    
⁴
 Someone may say, “I am a Christian; I am on my way to heaven; I belong to Christ.” But if he doesn’t do what Christ tells him to, he is a liar.
⁵
 But those who do what Christ tells them to will learn to love God more and more. That is the way to know whether or not you are a Christian.
⁶
 Anyone who says he is a Christian should live as Christ did.

    
⁷
 Dear brothers, I am not writing out a new rule for you to obey, for it is an old one you have always had, right from the start. You have heard it all before.
⁸
 Yet it is always new, and works for you just as it did for Christ; and as we obey this commandment,
to love one another,
the darkness in our lives disappears and the new light of life in Christ shines in.

    
⁹
 Anyone who says he is walking in the light of Christ but dislikes his fellow man is still in darkness.
¹⁰
 But whoever loves his fellow man is “walking in the light” and can see his way without stumbling around in darkness and sin.
¹¹
 For he who dislikes his brother is wandering in spiritual darkness and doesn’t know where he is going, for the darkness has made him blind so that he cannot see the way.

    
¹²
 I am writing these things to all of you, my little children, because your sins have been forgiven in the name of Jesus our Savior.
¹³
 I am saying these things to you older men because you really know Christ, the one who has been alive from the beginning. And you young men, I am talking to you because you have won your battle with Satan. And I am writing to you younger boys and girls because you, too, have learned to know God our Father.

    
¹⁴
 And so I say to you fathers who know the eternal God, and to you young men who are strong with God’s Word in your hearts, and have won your struggle against Satan:
¹⁵
 Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love these things you show that you do not really love God;
¹⁶
 for all these worldly things, these evil desires—the craze for sex, the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance—these are not from God. They are from this evil world itself.
¹⁷
 And this world is fading away, and these evil, forbidden things will go with it, but whoever keeps doing the will of God will live forever.

    
¹⁸
 Dear children, this world’s last hour has come. You have heard about the Antichrist who is coming—the one who is against Christ—and already many such persons have appeared. This makes us all the more certain that the end of the world is near.
¹⁹
 These “against-Christ” people used to be members of our churches, but they never really belonged with us or else they would have stayed. When they left us it proved that they were not of us at all.

    
²⁰
 But you are not like that, for the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you know the truth.
²¹
 So I am not writing to you as to those who need to know the truth, but I warn you as those who can discern the difference between true and false.

    
²²
 And who is the greatest liar? The one who says that Jesus is not Christ. Such a person is antichrist, for he does not believe in God the Father and in his Son.
²³
 For a person who doesn’t believe in Christ, God’s Son, can’t have God the Father either. But he who has Christ, God’s Son, has God the Father also.

    
²⁴
 So keep on believing what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will always be in close fellowship with both God the Father and his Son.
²⁵
 And he himself has promised us this:
eternal life.

    
²⁶
 These remarks of mine about the Antichrist are pointed at those who would dearly love to blindfold you and lead you astray.
²⁷
 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, in your hearts, so that you don’t need anyone to teach you what is right. For he teaches you all things, and he is the Truth, and no liar; and so, just as he has said, you must live in Christ, never to depart from him.

    
²⁸
 And now, my little children, stay in happy fellowship with the Lord so that when he comes you will be sure that all is well and will not have to be ashamed and shrink back from meeting him.
²⁹
 Since we know that God is always good and does only right, we may rightly assume that all those who do right are his children.

1 John
3

See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children—think of it—and we really
are!
But since most people don’t know God, naturally they don’t understand that we are his children.
²
 Yes, dear friends, we are already God’s children, right now, and we can’t even imagine what it is going to be like later on. But we do know this, that when he comes we will be like him, as a result of seeing him as he really is.
³
 And everyone who really believes this will try to stay pure because Christ is pure.

    
⁴
 But those who keep on sinning are against God, for every sin is done against the will of God.
⁵
 And you know that he became a man so that he could take away our sins, and that there is no sin in him, no missing of God’s will at any time in any way.
⁶
 So if we stay close to him, obedient to him, we won’t be sinning either; but as for those who keep on sinning, they should realize this: They sin because they have never really known him or become his.

    
⁷
 Oh, dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: if you are constantly doing what is good, it is because you
are
good, even as he is.
⁸
 But if you keep on sinning, it shows that you belong to Satan, who since he first began to sin has kept steadily at it. But the Son of God came to destroy these works of the devil.
⁹
 The person who has been born into God’s family does not make a practice of sinning because now God’s life is in him; so he can’t keep on sinning, for this new life has been born into him and controls him—he has been
born again.

    
¹⁰
 So now we can tell who is a child of God and who belongs to Satan. Whoever is living a life of sin and doesn’t love his brother shows that he is not in God’s family;
¹¹
 for the message to us from the beginning has been that we should love one another.

    
¹²
 We are not to be like Cain, who belonged to Satan and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing wrong and he knew very well that his brother’s life was better than his.
¹³
 So don’t be surprised, dear friends, if the world hates you.

    
¹⁴
 If we love other Christians, it proves that we have been delivered from hell and given eternal life. But a person who doesn’t have love for others is headed for eternal death.
¹⁵
 Anyone who hates his Christian brother is really a murderer at heart; and you know that no one wanting to murder has eternal life within.
¹⁶
 We know what real love is from Christ’s example in dying for us. And so we also ought to lay down our lives for our Christian brothers.

    
¹⁷
 But if someone who is supposed to be a Christian has money enough to live well, and sees a brother in need, and won’t help him—how can God’s love be within
him
?
¹⁸
 Little children, let us stop just
saying
we love people; let us
really
love them, and
show it
by our
actions.
¹⁹
 Then we will know for sure, by our actions, that we are on God’s side, and our consciences will be clear, even when we stand before the Lord.
²⁰
 But if we have bad consciences and feel that we have done wrong, the Lord will surely feel it even more,
*
for he knows everything we do.

    
²¹
 But, dearly loved friends, if our consciences are clear, we can come to the Lord with perfect assurance and trust,
²²
 and get whatever we ask for because we are obeying him and doing the things that please him.
²³
 And this is what God says we must do: Believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.
²⁴
 Those who do what God says—they are living with God and he with them. We know this is true because the Holy Spirit he has given us tells us so.

1 John
4

Dearly loved friends, don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is. For there are many false teachers around,
²
 and the way to find out if their message is from the Holy Spirit is to ask: Does it really agree that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, actually became man with a human body? If so, then the message is from God.
³
 If not, the message is not from God but from one who is against Christ, like the “Antichrist” you have heard about who is going to come, and his attitude of enmity against Christ is already abroad in the world.

    
⁴
 Dear young friends, you belong to God and have already won your fight with those who are against Christ because there is someone in your hearts who is stronger than any evil teacher in this wicked world.
⁵
 These men belong to this world, so, quite naturally, they are concerned about worldly affairs and the world pays attention to them.
⁶
 But we are children of God; that is why only those who have walked and talked with God will listen to us. Others won’t. That is another way to know whether a message is really from God; for if it is, the world won’t listen to it.

    
⁷
 Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God and those who are loving and kind show that they are the children of God, and that they are getting to know him better.
⁸
 But if a person isn’t loving and kind, it shows that he doesn’t know God—for God is love.

    
⁹
 God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into this wicked world to bring to us eternal life through his death.
¹⁰
 In this act we see what real love is: it is not our love for God but his love for us when he sent his Son to satisfy God’s anger against our sins.

    
¹¹
 Dear friends, since God loved us as much as that, we surely ought to love each other too.
¹²
 For though we have never yet seen God, when we love each other God lives in us, and his love within us grows ever stronger.
¹³
 And he has put his own Holy Spirit into our hearts as a proof to us that we are living with him and he with us.
¹⁴
 And furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now tell all the world that God sent his Son to be their Savior.
¹⁵
 Anyone who believes and says that Jesus is the Son of God has God living in him, and he is living with God.

    
¹⁶
 We know how much God loves us because we have felt his love and because we believe him when he tells us that he loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him.
¹⁷
 And as we live with Christ, our love grows more perfect and complete; so we will not be ashamed and embarrassed at the day of judgment, but can face him with confidence and joy because he loves us and we love him too.

    
¹⁸
 We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do to us and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us.
¹⁹
 So you see, our love for him comes as a result of his loving us first.

    
²⁰
 If anyone says “I love God,” but keeps on hating his brother, he is a liar; for if he doesn’t love his brother who is right there in front of him, how can he love God whom he has never seen?
²¹
 And God himself has said that one must love not only God but his brother too.