Holman Christian Standard Bible (360 page)

17
 In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world. 
18
 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. 
19
 We love because He first loved us. 

Keeping God's Commands

20
 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen. 
21
 And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.

1 John

5
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the
•Messiah
has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him.
2
 This is how we know that we love God's children when we love God and obey His commands.
3
 For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden, 
4
 because whatever has been born of God conquers the
•world
. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
5
 And who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 

The Certainty of God's Testimony

6
 Jesus Christ — He is the One who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the One who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
7
 For there are three that testify:
8
 the Spirit, the water, and the blood  — and these three are in agreement.
9
 If we accept the testimony of men, God's testimony is greater, because it is God's testimony that He has given about His Son.
10
 (The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about His Son.)
11
 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

12
 The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn't have the Son of God does not have life.
13
 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Effective Prayer

14
 Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 
15
 And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for. 

16
 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not bring death, he should ask, and God will give life to him — to those who commit sin that doesn't bring death. There is sin that brings death. I am not saying he should pray about that.
17
 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that does not bring death.

Conclusion

18
 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the One who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.

19
 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

20
 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One. We are in the true One — that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

21
 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

2 John

Greeting

1
The Elder: 

To the elect lady and her children: I love all of you in the truth — and not only I, but also all who have come to know the truth  —
2
 because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever.

3
 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. 

Truth and Deception

4
 I was very glad to find some of your children
•walking
in the truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father.
5
 So now I urge you, dear lady — not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning — that we love one another. 
6
 And this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love. 

7
 Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. 
8
 Watch yourselves so you don't lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward. 
9
 Anyone who does not remain in Christ's teaching but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son. 
10
 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don't say, “Welcome,” to him;
11
 for the one who says, “Welcome,” to him shares in his evil works. 

Farewell

12
 Though I have many things to write to you, I don't want to do so with paper and ink. Instead, I hope to be with you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete.

13
 The children of your elect sister send you greetings.

3 John

Greeting

1
The Elder: 

To my dear friend Gaius: I love you in the truth. 

2
 Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically just as you are spiritually. 
3
 For I was very glad when some brothers came and testified to your faithfulness to the truth — how you are
•walking
in the truth. 
4
 I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Gaius Commended

5
 Dear friend, you are showing faithfulness by whatever you do for the brothers, especially when they are strangers.
6
 They have testified to your love in front of the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God, 
7
 since they set out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from pagans. 
8
 Therefore, we ought to support such men so that we can be coworkers with the truth.

Diotrephes and Demetrius

9
 I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them, does not receive us. 
10
 This is why, if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering us with malicious words. And he is not satisfied with that! He not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.

11
 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God. 
12
 Demetrius has a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. And we also testify for him, and you know that our testimony is true. 

Farewell

13
 I have many things to write you, but I don't want to write to you with pen and ink.
14
 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. 

Peace be with you. The friends send you greetings. Greet the friends by name.

Jude

Greeting

1
Jude, a
•slave
of Jesus Christ and a brother of James:

To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. 

2
 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 

Jude's Purpose in Writing

3
 Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write and exhort you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the
•saints
once for all.
4
 For some men, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into promiscuity and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.

Apostates: Past and Present

5
 Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: The Lord first saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe; 
6
 and He has kept, with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, the angels who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling.
7
 In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them committed sexual immorality and practiced perversions, just as angels did, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. 

8
 Nevertheless, these dreamers likewise defile their flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme glorious ones. 
9
 Yet Michael the archangel, when he was disputing with the Devil in a debate about Moses' body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you! ”
10
 But these people blaspheme anything they don't understand. What they know by instinct like unreasoning animals — they destroy themselves with these things.
11
 Woe to them! For they have traveled in the way of Cain, have abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam for profit, and have perished in Korah's rebellion. 

The Apostates' Doom

12
 These are the ones who are like dangerous reefs at your love feasts. They feast with you, nurturing only themselves without fear. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn — fruitless, twice dead, pulled out by the roots;
13
 wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever! 

14
 And Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied about them:

16
 These people are discontented grumblers,
•walking
according to their desires; their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering people for their own advantage.

17
 But you, dear friends, remember what was predicted by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
18
 they told you, “In the end time there will be scoffers walking according to their own ungodly desires.”
19
 These people create divisions and are unbelievers, not having the Spirit.

Exhortation and Benediction

20
 But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit, 
21
 keep yourselves in the love of God, expecting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
22
 Have mercy on those who doubt;
23
 save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

24
 Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy,
25
 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever.
•Amen
.

Revelation

Revelation

Prologue

1
The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave Him to show His
•slaves
 what must quickly take place. He sent it and signified it through His angel to His slave John, 
2
 who testified to God's word and to the testimony about Jesus Christ, in all he saw. 
3
 The one who reads this is blessed, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it are blessed, because the time is near!

4
 John:

To the seven churches in
•Asia
.

Grace and peace to you from the One who is, who was, and who is coming; from the seven spirits before His throne;
5
 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To Him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by His blood,
6
 and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father — the glory and dominion are His forever and ever.
•Amen
.