JOHANNES' FIRST

What was from the beginning,
What we heard,
What we saw with our eyes,
What we observed and our hands felt
Concerning the message of life.
And the life appeared,
And we saw and are testifying and are declaring to you
the life, the eternal life,
which was directed toward the Father
and which appeared to us.
What we saw and heard we are also declaring to you, so that you too would have a partnership with us. Now also the parnership, ours, is with the Father and with his son, Anointed Jesus. And we are writing these things so that your joy would be full.
1:5 And this is the announcement that we heard from him and that we are declaring to you: "God is light, and no darkness is in him at all."
If we claim that we have a partnership with him and if we are walking in darkness, we would be lying and not doing the truth. But if we are walking in the light, as he is in the light, we have a partnership with truth; the blood of his son Jesus is cleansing us from all sin.
If we claim that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, he is trustworthy and just, so that he will let our sins go and will cleanse us from all wrong.
If we claim that we have not sinned, we are making him a liar, and his message is not in us. My children, I am writing these things to you so that you would not sin. And if anyone should sin, we have an advisor toward the Father: Anointed Jesus the Just One. And he is an atonement for our sins--but not for ours only, but for the whole creation's also.
2:3 And in this way we know that we have known him: if we are keeping his precepts. The one who says that he knows him and who does not keep his precepts is a liar, and in this person the truth is not. But the one who keeps his message, truly, in him God's love has been made complete.
In this way we know that we are in him: the one who says that he is remaining in him is bound to walk just as he walked. Beloved: I am not writing you a new precept, but an old precept that you had from the beginning. The precept, the old one, is the message that you heard.
8 Again, I am giving you a new precept. Whatever truth is in him is also in you, because the darkness is fading away, and the light--the true light--is already shining. The one who says he is in the light and who hates his brother is in the darkness to the present time.
The one who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no stumbling-block in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, and is walking in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
12 I am writing to you, children, because your sins have disappeared on account of his name.
I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known him from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young people, because you are victorious over the evil one.
I wrote to you, young children, because you have known the Father.
I wrote to you, fathers, because you have known him from the beginning.
I wrote to you, young people, because you are strong, and God's message remains in you, and you are victorious over the evil one.
15 Do not love creation, nor the things in creation. If anyone loves creation, the love of the Father is not in him. Because everything that is in creation--the strong desire of the flesh, the strong desire of the eyes, the pride of material things--these are not from the Father but are from creation. And the creation is passing away, along with its strong desires, but the one who does what God wants remains for the age.
18 Young children, it is the last hour. And just as you heard that one who opposes the Anointed One is coming, even now many who oppose the Anointed One have arisen. By this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from among us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they left so that it would become apparent that not all of them belong to us.
And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all these things. I didn't write to you because you don't know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie belongs to the truth. Who is the liar, if not the one who denies, "The Anointed One is not Jesus?" This person is the one who opposes the Anointed One, the one who denies the Father and the son. No one who denies the son has the Father either; the one who acknowledges the son has the Father also.
What you have heard from the beginning, let this remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will also remain in the son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to you: life, eternal life.
I wrote these things to you about your being deceived. And the anointing that you received from him remains in you. And you have no need for someone to teach you. But just as this same anointing is teaching you about all things (and is truth and is not a lie), just as it taught you, remain in him.
And now, children, remain in him so that if he should appear, we would have freedom of speech and would not be ashamed before him in his presence. If you know that he is just, you know also that everyone who does what is right has been fathered by him. Look at what sort of love the Father has given us, that we should be called God's children! And we are. For this reason, creation does not know us: because it did not know him.
3:2 Beloved, we are now God's children, and it has not yet become apparent what we will be. We know that if it should become apparent, then we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him is purifying himself, just as he is pure. Everyone who does sin is also doing lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
And you know that he appeared so that he would bear sin; and there is no sin in him. No one who stays in him is sinning; no one who is sinning has seen him, nor does he know him.
7 Children, no one should deceive you: the one who does what is right is just, even as he is just. The one who does sin is from the Accuser, because from the beginning the Accuser has been sinning. For this reason God's son appeared: so that he might release the deeds of the Accuser. No one who has been fathered by God is doing sin, because God's seed remains in him. And he is unable to sin, because he was fathered by God.
10 In this way, God's children and the Accuser's children become apparent: Everyone who does not do what is right, the one who does not love his brother, is not from God. Because this is the announced message that we heard from the beginning: that we should love one another. We should not be just as Kain was, who was of the evil one and who murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but those of his brother were just.
And no not wonder, brothers, if the creation hates you. We know that we have passed through from death into life because we love the brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
In this way, we have known love: because he laid down his life on our behalf. And we are bound to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers. But whoever has the material things of creation, and who observes his brother having a need, and who shuts up his compassions from him, how can God's love remain in him? Children, let us not love in word or with the tongue but in deed and truth.
19 And in this way we will know that we are of the truth, and we will persuade our hearts of this in his presence. Because if our hearts should fault us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. Beloved, if our hearts do not fault us, we have freedom of speech toward God, and we receive whatever we ask from him, because we are keeping his precepts and are doing the things that are pleasing in his sight.
And this is his precept: that we should trust the name of his son, Anointed Jesus, and that we should love one another, just as he gave us the precept. And the one who keeps his precepts remains in him, and he in them.
4:1 And in this way we know that that one remains in him: from the breath that he gave us. Beloved, do not trust every breathing, but examine the breathings to see if they are from God. Because many false prophets have gone out into creation. In this way we know God's breath: every breathing that acknowledges Anointed Jesus to have come in the flesh is from God, and no breathing that does not acknowledge Jesus is from God. And this is the one who opposes the Anointed One whom you have heard is coming. And now he is already in creation.
You are from God, children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in creation. They are from creation. On account of this, they are speaking from creation, and the creation hears them. We are from God. The one who was fathered by God hears us; the one who is not from God does not hear us. From this, we know the breath of the truth and the breath of deceit.
Beloved, we should love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God's love for us was showed in this: that God sent his unique son into creation so that we might live through him. Love is this way: it isn't that "We loved God," but that, "He loved us" and sent his son as an atonement for our sins.
Beloved, if God loved us this way, we are bound also to love one another. No one has ever observed God. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is made complete in us. In this way, we know that we are remaining in him and he in us: because he gave us from his breath. And we observed and are testifying that the Father sent his son to be savior of creation. Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is God's son, God is remaining in him and he in God. And we have known and trusted the love that God has in us.
16 God is love. And the one who stays in love stays in God, and God stays in him. In this way love is made complete with us, so that we would have freedom of speech in the day of judgment. Because just as he is, we also are in creation. There is no fear in love. On the contrary, completed love casts out fear, because fear holds punishment. But the one who fears has not been made complete in love. We love because he loved us first.
If someone says, "I love God," and yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother whom he sees is unable to love God whom he does not see. And we have this precept from him: that the one who loves God should also love his brother.
5:1 Everyone who trusts that Jesus is the Anointed One has been fathered by God. And everyone who loves the one who fathers a child also loves the one who is fathered by him. In this way we know that we love God's children: when we love God and are doing his precepts. For this is God's love: that we keep his precepts, and his precepts are not burdensome, because everyone who was fathered by God is victorious over creation. And this is the victory which is victorious over creation: our trust.
5 Now who is the one who is victorious over creation, if not the one who trusts that Jesus is God's son? This is the one who comes by water and blood, Anointed Jesus. Not in water only, but in water and blood. And the breath is the one who testifies, because the breath is the truth. Because there are three who testify: the breath, and the water, and the blood; and the three have one testimony.
If we receive the testimony of human beings, God's testimony is greater. Because this is God's testimony which he has testified about his son. The one who trusts in God's son has the testimony in him. The one who does not trust God makes him to be a liar, because he has not trusted in the testimony which God testified about his son. And this is the testimony:
That God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his son. The one who has the son has the life; the one who does not have the son does not have the life.
13 I have written these things to you so that those of you who trust in the name of God's son would know that you have eternal life. And this is the freedom of speech that we have toward him: that if we ask anything according to what he wants, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us if we ask, we know that we have the things we ask from him.
16 If someone notices his brother sinning a sin which is not toward death, he should ask, and God will give life to him who was sinning not toward death. There is a sin toward death. I am not saying that he should ask about that. All wrong is sin, and there is a sin which is not toward death. We know that no one who was fathered by God is sinning. On the contrary, the one who was fathered by God is following him, and the evil one does not touch him.
19 We know that we are from God and that the whole creation lies in the evil one. But we know that God's son came and gave us intelligence, so that we would know the True One. And we are in the True One, and in his son Anointed Jesus. He is the true God and eternal life. Children, guard yourselves from the "idols."

Back to the NET Contents Page