And God, the giver of every spiritual blessing, who through your union with Christ has called you to His eternal glory, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself make you perfect, firm, and strong,

By Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I regard him, I have written you this short letter, to encourage you and to testify that this is the true, unmerited favor of God. Stand firm in it.

Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have obtained the same precious faith that we have:

spiritual blessing and peace be to you in increasing abundance through a full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;

Therefore, brothers, be all the more in earnest to make certain to yourselves God's call and choice of you. For if you cultivate these qualities, you will never slip,

For when He received such honor and glory from God the Father, when from the majestic glory there was borne to Him a voice like this, "This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I take delight,"

for no prophecy has ever yet originated in man's will, but men who were led by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but hurled them down to Tartarus and committed them to dark dungeons to await their doom,

For they willfully ignore the fact that long ago the heavens existed and the earth that had been formed by God's command out of water and through water,

since you are awaiting and hastening the coming of the day of God, which will cause the heavens to blaze and dissolve and the heavenly bodies to burn up and melt away!

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.

but whoever practices obedience to His message really has a perfect love of God in his heart. By this we can be sure that we are in union with Him:

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.

and the world is passing away and with it the evil longings it incites, but whoever perseveres in doing God's will lives on forever.

See what wonderful love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called God's children, and that is what we are! This is why the world does not know what we are, because it has never come to know Him.

Dearly beloved, we are now God's children, but what we are going to be has not been unveiled. We know that if it is unveiled, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

Whoever practices sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has practiced sin from the beginning. This is why the Son of God appeared, to undo the devil's works.

No one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, because the God-given life-principle continues to live in him, and so he cannot practice sinning, because he is born of God.

This is the way to distinguish God's children from the devil's children. No one who fails to do right is God's child, and no one who fails to love his brother.

But if anyone has the world's means of supporting life and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how can love to God remain in him?

In this way we shall know by experience that we are on the side of the truth, and satisfy our consciences in God's sight,

because if our consciences do condemn us, God is greater than our consciences, and He knows everything.

Dearly beloved, if our consciences do not condemn us, we come with perfect confidence to God,

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.

In this way you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spiritual utterance which owns that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God,

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.

We are children of God. Whoever knows God by experience listens to us; whoever is not a child of God does not listen to us. This is the way to distinguish a true spiritual utterance from one that is false.

Dearly beloved, let us practice loving one another, because love originates with God, and everyone who practices loving is a child of God and knows God by experience.

Whoever does not love has never come to know God by experience, because God is love.

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.

In this way is seen the true love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dearly beloved, if God has loved us so, we ought to love one another too.

No one has ever seen God; yet if we practice loving one another, God remains in union with us, and our love for Him attains perfection in our hearts,

Whoever owns that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in union with him and he in union with God.

So we know by experience and trust the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever continues to love continues in union with God and God in union with him.

If anyone says, "I love God," and yet habitually hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

This is the command that we get from Him, that whoever loves God loves his brother too.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child.

This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God, by continuing to love God and to obey His commands.

For love to God means this, to practice obedience to His commands, and His commands are not burdensome,

for every child of God continues to conquer the world. Our faith is the victory that has conquered the world.

Now who is it that continues to conquer the world, if it is not the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is stronger still; because this is the testimony that God has borne to His Son.

Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his own heart. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has borne to His Son.

And this testimony is that God has given us eternal life, and this life is given through union with His Son.

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 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.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he will ask and God will grant him life; yea, He will grant it to any who do not commit a sin that leads to death. There is a sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.

We know that no one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, but the Son who was born of God continues to keep him, and the evil one cannot touch him.

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

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us insight to recognize the True One; and we are in union with the True One through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

spiritual blessing, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, in truth and love.

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

No one has God, who goes too far and fails to stay by the teaching of Christ. Whoever stays by this teaching has the Father and the Son.

If anyone continuously comes to see you without bringing this teaching, you must stop welcoming him to your house and stop bidding him good morning,

For whoever keeps on bidding him good morning is sharing in his wicked works.

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.

Dearly beloved, do not follow bad examples but good ones. Whoever practices doing right is God's child; whoever practices doing wrong has never seen God.

Demetrius has a good testimony from everybody and from truth itself; yea, from me too, and you know that my testimony to him is true.

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:

Dearly beloved, while I was doing my best to begin writing you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write and urge you to carry on a vigorous defense of the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's people.

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.

you must keep yourselves in the love of God and continue to wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to bring you to eternal life.

to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, as it was before all time, both now and forever and ever. Amen.

A revelation given by Jesus Christ which God gave to Him, to make known to His slaves what must very soon take place. He sent and communicated it through His angel to His slave John,

who testifies to what he saw, the message of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

and has made us a kingdom of priests for His God and Father: to Him be glory forever. Amen.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come, the Almighty.

I, John, your brother and companion with you in the trouble, the kingdom, and the patient endurance which Jesus gives, found myself on the island called Patmos, for preaching God's message and testifying to Jesus.

Let everyone who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give to him who conquers the privilege of eating the fruit of the tree of life that stands in the paradise of God."'"

"To the messenger of the church in Thyatira write: 'The Son of God, whose eyes are like coals of fire, and whose feet are like bronze refined to white heat, speaks as follows:

"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.

I will make him who conquers a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall never again go out of it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.

"To the messenger of the church in Laodicea write: 'The Amen, the true and faithful witness, the origin of God's creation, speaks as follows:

Out from the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder, while in front of it seven flaming lamps were burning; they were the seven spirits of God.

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 I saw, midway between the throne and the four living creatures, standing among the elders, a Lamb that looked as though He had been slaughtered. He had seven horns and seven eyes; the latter are the seven spirits of God which are sent on duty to every portion of the earth.

When He took it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each with a harp, and golden bowls that were full of incense, which represent the prayers of God's people.

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

When He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for being faithful to God's message and for the testimony they bore to it.

Then a white robe was given to each of them, and they were told to keep quiet a little while longer, until the number of their fellow-slaves and brothers, who were killed as they had been, was complete.

Then I saw another angel coming up from the east with the seal of the living God, and he cried out to the four angels who had the power to injure the earth and the sea:

"Do not injure the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we mark the slaves of our God with His seal on their foreheads."

twelve thousand from the tribe of Judah; twelve thousand from the tribe of Reuben; twelve thousand from the tribe of Gad;

and they cried in a loud voice: "Our salvation is due to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb."

Then all the angels stood around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,

saying: "Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!"

This is why they are before the throne of God, and day and night serve Him in His temple, and He who is seated on His throne will shelter them in His tent.

because the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will be their Shepherd, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

Then another angel with a censer of gold came and stood at the altar, and a great quantity of incense was given to him to mingle with the prayers of all God's people, on the altar of gold that stood before the throne.

So the smoke of the incense went up from the angel's hand to the presence of God for the prayers of His people.

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.

Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the corners of the altar of gold that was before God

but in the days when the seventh angel speaks, when he is about to blow his trumpet, then God's mysterious message, in accordance with the good news He gave to His slaves, the prophets, would be accomplished.

Then a measuring rod like a staff was given to me, and I was told: "Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar, counting those who worship there,

After three days and a half the breath of life from God came into them again, and they stood on their feet, and consternation seized those who saw them.