It is what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have beheld, what our own hands have touched, about the very message of life --

and that life has been unveiled to us, and we have seen it and now testify to it and we now announce it to you, yea, the eternal life that was with the Father and has been unveiled to us.

I repeat, it is what we have seen and heard that we now announce to you, so that you too may share this fellowship with us, for this fellowship that we have is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ;

And this is the message that we have heard from Him and now announce to you: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him.

If we say "We have fellowship with Him," and yet live in darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth.

But if we continue to live in the light, just as He is in the light, we have unbroken fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son continues to cleanse us from every sin.

If we claim "We have not sinned," we are making Him a liar, and His message is not in our hearts.

My dear children, I am writing you this so that you may not sin; yet if anyone ever sins, we have One who pleads our case with the Father, Jesus Christ, One who is righteous.

Dearly beloved, I am not writing you a new command, but an old one that you have had from the beginning. That old command is the message that you have heard.

I am writing to you, dear children, because for His sake your sins have been forgiven.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the evil one. I write to you, little children, because you know the Father.

I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and God's message is always in your hearts, and you have conquered the evil one.

Little children, it is the last hour, just as you have heard that Antichrist is Coming, and already many Antichrists have appeared; so we may be sure that it is the last hour.

They have gone out from our own number, but they did not really belong to us; for if they had, they would have stayed with us. It was to show that none of those who went out really belonged to us.

But you have been anointed by the Holy One. You all know the truth;

No one who disowns the Son can have the Father. Whoever owns the Son has the Father too.

Let what you have heard from the beginning continue to live in your hearts; if you do, you will always remain in union with the Son and the Father.

The anointing of the Spirit which you received still remains in your hearts, and so you have no need that anyone should teach you. But just as that anointing of His teaches you about everything, and as it is true and no falsehood, and as it has taught you to do so, you must continue to live in union with Him.

And now, dear children, I repeat, you must continue to live in union with Him, so that if He is unveiled, we may have unshaken confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame when He comes.

it is so because the message that you have heard from the beginning is this: We should love one another.

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love our brothers. Whoever does not continue to love continues still in death.

Anyone who keeps on hating his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer can have eternal life remaining in him.

Dearly beloved, stop believing every so-called spiritual utterance, but keep testing them to see whether they come from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

and no spiritual utterance which disowns Jesus can come from God; it is the utterance of Antichrist. You have heard that it is coming, and right now it is already in the world.

You are children of God, dear children, and you have conquered these men, because He who is in our hearts is greater than he who is in the world.

This is the way God's love for us has been shown, namely, God has sent His only Son into the world that we through Him might have life.

We have seen and now testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world.

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life.

I have written this to you who believe in the person of the Son of God, so that you may know that you already have eternal life.

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask for anything that is in accordance with His will, He will listen to us.

And if we know that He listens to us in whatever we ask Him for, we know that we get from Him the things that we have asked Him for.

For many impostors have gone out into the world, men who do not own that Jesus Christ continues to come in human form. A person like this is the impostor and the Antichrist.

Look out for yourselves, so as not to lose what we have worked for, but so as to get your full reward.

Though I have much to write you, I do not choose to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to see you and talk with you face to face, so that your happiness may be complete,

For I am happy to have some brothers come and testify to the truth that is in you, since you are living by the truth.

I have no greater spiritual blessing than this, to hear that my children are living by the truth.

They have testified before the church to your love. You will please send them off on their journey in a way befitting the service of God.

For they have started out for His name's sake and so accept nothing from the heathen,

I have written briefly to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to be first among them, refuses to listen to me.

I have much to say to you, but I do not want to write it with pen and ink.

Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James, to those who have been called, who are beloved by God the Father and have been kept through union with Jesus Christ:

For certain persons have sneaked in -- their doom was written down long ago -- godless persons, who turn the favor of our God into an excuse for licentiousness, and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Alas for them, because they have trod the road that Cain did; for gain they have rushed into Balaam's error and have perished in rebellion like that of Korah!

to execute judgment upon all, to convict all the godless of their godless deeds which in their godlessness they have committed, and of all the harsh things that godless sinners have said against Him."

But you, dearly beloved, must remember the words that have already been spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,

So write what you have seen, what is and what is to take place hereafter.

The open secret of the seven stars that you have seen in my right hand, and of the seven golden lampstands, is this: The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

"I know what you have done; your hard work and patient endurance; that you cannot tolerate wicked persons; that you have tested those who claimed to be apostles although they were not, and have found them to be imposters,

You are showing patient endurance, and you have borne it for my sake, and have not grown weary.

So remember the heights from which you have fallen, and repent and do as you did at first, or else I will surely come and move your lampstand from its place -- if you do not repent.

But you have it to your credit that you hate what the Nicolaitans are doing, as I do too.

Do not be so afraid of what you are to suffer. See! The devil is going to throw some of you into prison to be tested there and for ten days to suffer pressing troubles. Each one of you must prove to be faithful, even if you have to die, and I will give you the crown of life.

"I know where you live, where Satan has his throne. Yet you are clinging to my name and have never renounced your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful martyred witness, who was put to death among you, right where Satan lives,

Yet I hold it somewhat against you that you have among you some who are clinging to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap for the children of Israel, to entice them to eat the meat that had been sacrificed to idols and to commit immoral practices.

And you also have among you some who are clinging to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

I have given her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality.

and I will surely strike her children dead. So all the churches will know that I am He who searches men's inmost hearts, and that I will repay each of you for exactly what you have done.

But to the rest of you at Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching and have not learned the 'deep things' of Satan -- as they speak of them -- to you I say, I have no extra burden to lay on you,

but keep your hold on what you have until I come.

he will govern them with a scepter of iron and shatter them like earthen jars -- just such authority as I have received from my Father --

"To the messenger of the church at Sardis write: 'The One who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars speaks as follows: "I know what you are doing; you have the reputation of being alive, but in reality you are dead.

Wake up, and strengthen what is left, although it is on the very point of dying, for I have not found a thing that you have done complete in the sight of God.

So remember what you have received and heard, and continue to obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will never know the hour when I come upon you.

Yet you have in Sardis a few who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me in white, for they deserve to do so.

"I know what you are doing. See! I have put before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have but little strength, and yet you have obeyed my message and you have not disowned my name.

I will make some, who claim to be Jews although they are not, but are lying -- I will make them come and fall at your feet and find out that I have loved you.

Because you have kept my message with the patient endurance that I give you, I also will keep you from the time of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test the inhabitants of the earth.

I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one may take away your crown.

Because you say, 'I am rich, I have already become rich, I need nothing,' and you do not know that you are the very one that is wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked;

I will give to him who conquers the privilege of taking his seat with me on my throne, just as I have conquered and taken my seat with my Father on His throne.

And the four living creatures have each of them six wings, and they are dotted with eyes all around and beneath the wings. And day and night they never cease saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and is and is to come."

"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to have ascribed to you the glory, honor, and power; for you created everything, And since you willed it so, they came into existence and were created."

Then they sang a new song: "You deserve to take the book and break its seals, because you have been slaughtered, and with your blood have bought men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation,

and have made them a kingdom of priests for our God; and they will rule over the earth."

I answered him, "You know, my lord." He said to me: "These are the people who are coming through the great persecution, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

They were told not to injure the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only the people who did not have the mark of God's seal on their foreheads.

When the seven thunders had rumbled, I was going to write it down, but I heard a voice from heaven say: "Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down!"

They have the power to shut up the sky, so that no rain will fall upon the earth as long as they prophesy, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with any plague as often as they please.

Then, when they have finished testifying, the wild beast that is coming up out of the abyss will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,

saying: "We give you thanks, Lord God Almighty, who are and were, because you have assumed your great power and begun to reign.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "The salvation, power, and kingdom of our God, and the sovereignty of His Christ, have already come, because the accuser of our brothers, who always day and night accuses them before our God, has been hurled down.

But they have conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the message to which they bore testimony, because they did not cling to life but courted death.

I saw that one of his heads seemed to have been mortally wounded, but its mortal wound had been healed. And the whole world was so amazed that they followed the wild beast,

All the inhabitants of the earth whose names, from the foundation of the world, have not been written in the slaughtered Lamb's book of life, will worship him.

Permission has also been given him to impart life to the statue of the wild beast so that it can speak, and to have all who do not worship the statue of the wild beast killed.

And he makes all, great and small, rich and poor, freemen and slaves, have a mark stamped on their right hands or on their foreheads,

These are the men who have not been defiled by relations with women, for they are as pure as virgins, These are the men who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been redeemed from among men as the first fruits for God and the Lamb,

and they have never been known to tell a lie with their lips; they are blameless.

himself will have to drink the wine of God's vengeance, poured unmixed into the cup of His wrath, and be tortured with fire and brimstone before the eyes of the holy angels and the Lamb.

The smoke of their torture will go up forever and ever, and they will have no rest day or night -- those who worship the wild beast and his statue, and anyone who bears the mark of his name."

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: 'Blessed are the dead who from this time die as Christians.'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "let them rest from their toils, for the things they have done are going with them."

Because they have shed the blood of your people and prophets, you have given them blood to drink; they deserve it."

in whose prostitution the kings of the earth have joined, and with the wine of whose prostitution the inhabitants of the earth have been intoxicated."

The wild beast that you saw, once was but now is no more; he is going to come up out of the abyss, but he is going to be destroyed. The inhabitants of the earth, whose names from the foundation of the world have not been written in the book of life, will be astonished when they see that the wild beast once was but now is no more, and yet is to come.

There are also seven kings; five have fallen, one is on the throne, the other has not yet come, and when he does he must stay but a little while,

The ten horns that you saw are ten kings, who have not yet become kings, but for a single hour they accept authority as kings allied with the wild beast.

They have one common policy. They give their power and authority to the wild beast.

because all the nations have fallen by drinking the raging wine of her immorality; the kings of the earth have joined her in her immorality, and the businessmen of the earth have grown rich from the wealth of her luxury."

The kings of the earth who have joined her in her immorality and luxury will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke from her burning.

The ripe fruit of your soul's desire has gone from you, all your luxury and splendor have perished from your hands, and people will never find them again.