1 John
Chapter 1
1 We want to tell you about the One who is called the Word, [1] that is He who gives us life and who already existed before the world was created. We’ve heard Him and seen Him with our own eyes. And we really have seen Him, we’ve even touched Him with our own hands. 2 It’s true that He who gives life was revealed to us, and we had many opportunities to see Him. Now we testify and give you a report about the One who gives eternal life, that is He who lived with God the Father from the beginning and was revealed by the Father to us. 3 So we're telling you what we’ve seen and heard so that we have a close relationship in our fellowship. And it isn’t just that we have a close relationship to each other, but we also have a close relationship with the Father and His Son, who is Christ Jesus. 4 Because of that we're writing this letter to you so that through that close relationship our joy will be complete.
God forgives our sin
5 And this is the message that we’ve heard from God’s Son and we’re now telling you. God is like light, and there’s no darkness in Him at all. 6 So if we say that we have a close relationship with God, yet we still live like people who are in darkness, it means we’re lying and aren’t carrying out the true teachings from God. 7 But if we live in the light like God lives in the light, we and our brothers and sisters in the faith will continue to have a close relationship, and the blood of Jesus, [2] who is God’s Son, keeps cleansing us from every sin.
8 If one of our brothers says, “I don’t sin,” it means that he hasn’t accepted the true teaching from God and he has deceived himself. 9 But if we admit our sins to God who is very just and faithful, then according to His promise He will definitely forgive us and cleanse our hearts from the evil things that we’ve done. 10 If one of our brothers says, “I’ve never sinned,” it’s as if he considers God to be a Liar, and obviously the true teachings from God haven’t found a place in his heart.
Chapter 2
Jesus our Advocate
1 My children whom I love, I’m writing this letter to you so that none of you will commit sin. But if one of us does sin, we have an Advocate who defends us before the Father, that is Christ Jesus who always does what’s just. 2 Jesus surrendered Himself as the peacemaking sacrifice which wipes out all the sins of each of us so that God isn’t angry with us anymore. And His peacemaking sacrifice isn’t just to forgive our sins, but His sacrifice is sufficient to forgive everyone in the world who believes in Him. [1]
3 And this is the sign that we truly know God, that we obey His commands. 4 But if someone says, “I know God” even though that person doesn’t obey His commands, he’s a liar. It’s clear that the true teaching from God doesn’t have a place in his heart yet. 5 But if we obey God’s teachings more and more, it’ll be more and more obvious that we love God perfectly. In that way we know that we’re truly one with Him. [1] 6 If someone says that he lives in oneness with God, he should live like Christ Himself lived.
Love the brothers and sisters in the faith
7 Brothers and sisters whom I love, what I’m writing you now isn’t a new command, it’s an old command. For the command that I’m stressing here is the teaching that we’ve all heard from the beginning. 8 But what I’m writing to you can be called a new command, because it’s truly obvious in the life of Christ and is obvious in all of our lives too. For that reason it’s clear that the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is now shining in our lives.
9 If one of us says, “I live in the light” but he hates his brother in the faith, he’s actually still living in darkness. 10 Whereas the person who loves his brother in the faith lives in the light for sure. And a person like that won’t make another person fall into sin. 11 But a person who hates his brother in the faith is like a person who walks in the darkness and doesn’t know where he’s going because the darkness has made him unable to see anything at all.
12 I’m writing this letter to all of you children of mine [2] to remind each of you
that your sins have been forgiven by God because of Christ.
13 To you who are already spiritually mature, [3] I’m writing this to remind you
that you’ve known God’s Son who existed from the beginning.
To you who aren’t yet mature spiritually, [4] I’m writing to remind you
that you’ve overcome the evil one, the devil.
14 So my children, the purpose of this letter is to remind you
that you already know God the Father.
And to you who are already spiritually mature, don’t forget
that you’ve already known Him who has existed from the beginning.
And to you who aren’t yet spiritually mature, don’t forget
that you’re strong because God’s Word lives in your hearts,.
and in that way you’ve overcome the devil.
15 Let’s not love the evil in this world or anything at all that’s in this world. If anyone loves worldly things, he doesn’t love God the Father at all. 16 For everything that comes from the world keeps us far from God. Worldly traits are all the evil desires that come from our bodies, the desire to possess what we see with our eyes and the feeling of arrogance because of what we own. Those three traits don’t come from God but from this world. 17 Remember that this world and everything in it that people desire are headed for destruction. But a person who does the will of God will continue to live forever.
Don’t follow false teachers
18 My children, the end of the age is already near. You’ve heard that the antichrist [5] will appear. So it’s not surprising that many false teachers have now arisen who are actually messengers of the antichrist. From that we clearly know that we’ve already entered the end of the age. 19 Those false teachers have masqueraded as our members, of course, but they weren’t actually our members. If they had truly been our members, they would certainly have stayed with us. But when they left us, that proved that they weren’t actually our members.
20 But we’ve received the anointing of the Holy Spirit which was given by the Most Holy One. [6] And because of that we can distinguish between true and false teaching. 21 I’m not writing this to you because you don’t know the true teaching but because you really do know it. And you also know that there’s no lie in that true teaching.
22 You’ll know who’s a false teacher by this: if a person says, “Jesus isn’t the Christ,” [7] it means that he’s a messenger of the antichrist. And people like that also deny both God the Father and His Son. 23 A person who doesn’t admit that Jesus is God’s Son doesn’t have a close relationship with God the Father. But a person who admits “Jesus is God’s Son,” has a close relationship with God the Father and with His Son too.
24 For that reason carefully keep the teaching in your hearts that you heard at the time you began to believe so that you’ll always be one with the Son and with God His Father. 25 And this is the promise that Jesus gave to us who are one with Him: we’ll live forever.
26 I’ve written this because there are people who are trying to deceive you. 27 But we’ve received the anointing of the Holy Spirit who’s always in us. So we don’t need to listen to any teacher who teaches outside of the Holy Spirit’s teachings. [8] For His Spirit always teaches us everything that we need, and His teaching is always true because He isn’t a liar. So according to what was taught to us by His Spirit, remain united with Christ.
28 So now my children whom I love, keep one with Christ so that when He returns we’ll welcome Him immediately without feeling afraid or ashamed. 29 We know that Christ always does what’s right. For that reason we can recognize those who have received new birth from God the Father by observing that they keep doing what’s right.
Chapter 3
We are God’s children
1 You should know that God’s love for us is so amazing that we’re called God’s children! And we are His children, of course. But people in this world can’t recognize our status as God’s children because they don’t know Christ. [1] 2 Brothers and Sisters whom I love, we’ve now become God’s children, but it isn’t clear what our state will be like later. However, we know that when Christ returns we’ll become like Him because we’ll see Him in His true state. 3 Everyone who hopes to see Christ purifies himself just like Christ is pure.
4 Everyone who sins breaks God’s Law, because breaking God’s Law is sin. 5 And I want you to remember that Christ came to wipe out the sin of people, and there’s no sin in Him. 6 So everyone who is one with Christ won’t keep on sinning. Everyone who keeps on sinning has never actually understood about Christ and has never known Him.
7 Because of that my children, whom I love, don’t let anyone deceive you that we who are one with Christ can commit sin. Christ lives right. And to become like Christ we should do what’s right. 8 But the devil has been sinning from the beginning, and people who keep sinning belong to the devil. The reason that the Son of God came into this world was to destroy all the works of the devil.
9 Whoever has received new birth from God the Father has become a child of God! And each of His children can’t possibly keep on sinning because the new life given to them by God is within them. Each of us who has received new birth from God can’t possibly keep sinning. 10 In that way the difference between we who are children of God and the children of the devil is obvious. The children of the devil don’t do what’s right and can’t possibly love us who’ve become God’s children.
We should love each other
11 This is the message that you’ve heard from the beginning: we should love each other. 12 Let’s not be like Cain who was the son of the devil and killed his younger brother. And why did he kill his younger brother? Because Cain did what was evil, whereas his younger brother did what was right.
13 Brothers and Sisters, let’s not be surprised when people in this world hate us. 14 We’re no longer included with those whose lives are spiritually dead [2] but are included with those who have been made spiritually alive. We know that because we do love our brothers and sisters. If we don’t love our brothers and sisters then we’re still spiritually dead. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is actually a murderer. And we know for sure that a murderer hasn’t been made spiritually alive, so he doesn’t have eternal life.
16 We know the meaning of love by this, Christ loved us to the extent that He sacrificed His life for us. So we should also be willing to sacrifice for our brothers and sisters. 17 If one of us has enough earthly possessions and sees his brother suffering in need, yet closes his heart’s door to his brother, the birth from God which enables us to love our fellowman isn’t in that person’s heart. 18 So my beloved children, let’s not just claim that we love our fellowman with our mouths, but we should sincerely love our fellowman with visible deeds.
19-20 Now if we love our fellowman, it means that we may be certain that we’re living according to the true teachings from God, and this will help us when we come to God in prayer. Sometimes we still feel guilty. But if we obviously love our fellowman, we can calm our hearts with the awareness that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything. 21 Brothers and sisters whom I love, if our hearts don’t feel guilty, we can come to God in prayer without feeling afraid 22 because it’s obvious that we obey His commands and do what pleases His heart. When we make a request to Him in that condition we’ll receive answers to our prayers. 23 And this is His command that I stress, we should believe in [2] His Son Christ Jesus and love each other according to the command that Christ gave us. 24 We who keep obeying God’s commands remain one with God and God remains one with us. And we know that we’re still one with God if His Spirit which He gave us is still in us.
Chapter 4
Do not follow false teaching
1 My beloved brothers and sisters, don’t quickly believe someone who claims that he has received his teaching or his prophecy from the Holy Spirit. But first you have to test his teaching or prophecy to know whether it’s really from the Holy Spirit or from another spirit. For there are already many false teachers and false prophets in the world. 2-3 This is one way to test if the Spirit of God is in someone. If a person admits “I believe that Jesus is the Christ [1] who has come from God into this world as a human with a normal body,” it means the spirit in him comes from God. But if a person doesn’t admit that, it means the spirit that’s in him isn’t from God. That person is a messenger of the antichrist. [2] And you know that the antichrist is coming and is already in this world.
4 So my beloved children, we are from God, and we’ve overcome those false teachers. For the spirit that’s in us is greater than the spirit of the antichrist [3] which is now already in this world. 5 Those false teachers come from this world, and because of that their teachings agree with the thinking of worldly people. So only worldly people listen to them. 6 But we belong to God, so the people who know God listen to us, while those who don’t belong to God don’t listen to us. In that way we can know if a person has the Spirit of Truth which is God’s Spirit or a spirit that leads astray.
Love is from God
7 My beloved brothers and sisters, let’s love each other. For love is from God, and everyone who loves has received new birth from God and knows God. 8 If someone doesn’t love his brother in the faith, it means he doesn’t know God because God loves everyone. 9 And God showed His love to us by sending His only Son into this world in order that we could receive eternal life through His Son. 10 So this extraordinary love is obvious. It wasn’t when we loved God, but when God showed His love to us, that is when God sent His Son to become the peace-making sacrifice which wiped away our sin in God’s sight so that God was no longer angry with us.
11 My beloved brothers and sisters, if God loves us so much, then we also have to love each other. 12 No one who has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives as one with us and His love is perfectly obvious through us.
13 We can know if we live as one with God and He lives as one with us through His Spirit that has been given to us. 14 We who saw and witnessed Jesus testify to you that this is true. God the Father has sent His Son to become the King of Salvation for mankind in this world! 15 If anyone admits “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God,” then God is one with him and he’s one with God. 16 So we know and believe the love of God for us.
God loves all mankind. And if we keep on loving our brothers and sisters in the faith it means we keep being one with God, and God is one with us. 17 When we live as one with God, then the love of God is more and more perfectly obvious among us. For that reason we aren’t afraid of the Judgment Day because it’s proven that we live in this world just like Christ lived. 18 If that love from God is in our hearts, it means that we won’t fear God’s punishment anymore, because that perfect love wipes out fear. Whoever is still afraid to be judged by God still considers that he deserves to be punished. So the person who's afraid like that hasn’t yet experienced God’s perfect love.
19 We should love each other because God loved us first. 20 If someone says, “I love God” but still hates his brother, he’s a deceiver. The person who doesn’t love his brother who is visible can’t possibly love God who’s invisible. 21 And of course God has given this commandment to us: whoever loves God has to love his brother too.
Chapter 5
The children of God are victorious over the evil in this world
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ [1] has received new birth from God the Father. And everyone who loves the Father also loves each member of God’s family, that is everyone who has also received new birth from the Father. 2 This is how we know that we truly love each of the other children of God, if we love God and do His commands. 3 Loving God means that we obey His commands. And that isn’t too hard to do 4 because everyone who receives new birth from God is given the power to defeat the evil that’s in this world. And what makes us victorious over the evil in this world is that we believe completely in Jesus. 5 No one can defeat the evil in this world except for us who believe that Jesus is God’s Son.
Our Savior came to earth as a human with a normal body
6 Christ Jesus is the only one who has come to earth showing these two signs from God: the sign of water and the sign of blood. [2] Jesus didn’t show just the sign of water but the sign of blood also. And the Holy Spirit, who can always be believed, also testifies to us that Jesus came from God with a normal human body. 7 So God has given three true witnesses about Jesus, 8 that is the Holy Spirit, water and blood. And these three give the same testimony.
9-11 Think about this. We usually believe it when a person tells about something that he himself has seen. But it’s even greater if the One who gives the testimony to us is God Himself! For the important things that God openly claims about His Son are summarized as follows: God has given eternal life to us and that eternal life is only given to people who are one with His Son. Everyone who believes in God’s Son is certain in his heart that these things are true. But whoever doesn’t believe in these things that God claims is saying that God is a Liar, because he refuses to believe God’s testimony about His Son. 12 Whoever has a close relationship with His Son has eternal life. But whoever doesn’t have a close relationship with God’s Son doesn’t have eternal life.
Our assurance about eternal life
13 I’ve written this letter to you who believe in [3] God’s Son so that you know that you have eternal life now. 14 In that way we aren’t afraid anymore to come before God in prayer! If what we ask is according to His will, God will listen to and answer our prayers. 15 And if we are confident that God is answering our requests, we may be certain that we’ve received what we asked of Him.
16 One example is when we see our brother in the faith commit a sin. (Here I mean committing the kind of sin that doesn’t result in eternal death. [4] ) We should ask God to save that brother, and God will give him life. (I emphasize again that I’m speaking about a person who commits a sin that doesn’t result in eternal death. For there is a kind of sin that brings eternal death. I don’t request that we ask God on behalf of a person who commits sin like that. 17 All evil deeds are sin but not all sin leads to eternal death.)
18 We know that everyone who has received new birth from God can’t keep on sinning. For Jesus, God’s own Son, always protects us so that the devil [5] can’t do anything to us. 19 We know that we’ve become children of God even though the whole world is controlled by the devil.
20 We know that God’s Son has come. He has given us understanding so that we know the true God. And we live as one with God because we are one with His Son Christ Jesus. He’s also the true God, [6] because He’s always worthy to be believed and is the source of eternal life.
21 My children whom I love, keep yourselves far away from all idols.