If you know that He is upright, you must know that everyone who practices uprightness is born of Him.

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.

You know that He appeared to take our sins away, and that there is no sin in Him.

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.

We know what love is from the fact that He laid down His life for us; and so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

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.

His command is this, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and practice loving one another, just as He commanded us to do.

Whoever practices obedience to His commands remains in union with Him and He in union with him; and in this way we know that He remains in union with us, by the Spirit that He has given us.

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.

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.

By the fact that He has given us a portion of His Spirit we can be sure that we remain in union with Him and He in union with us.

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

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.

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 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?

Because there are three that testify to it, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three agree.

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 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.

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.

Any wrongdoing is sin; and there are sins that do not lead to death.

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.

because of the truth that lives on in our hearts and will be with us forever:

I am happy to find that some of your children are living by the truth, just as we had been commanded from the Father to do.

And now I beg you, my lady, not as though I were writing you a new command, but one which we had from the beginning, that we continue to love one another.

Now love means this, that we keep on living in accordance with His commands. The command is this, that we continue to live in love.

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.

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.

So we ought to show hospitality to such men, to prove that we cooperate with them for the truth.

So, if I come, I will remind you of what he is doing, how with malicious insinuations he is talking about me. Not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers himself, he interferes with those who want to do so, and tries to put them out of the church.

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.

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.

Now I want to remind you, though you know it all already, that although the Lord had saved a people out of the land of Egypt, He afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

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!

They are blots on your love feasts while they feast with you, daringly caring for no one but themselves; rainless clouds swept along by winds; leafless trees that bear no fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;

wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shame; wandering stars that are forever doomed to utter darkness.

It was about such men also that Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied when he said: "See! The Lord comes with myriads of His people

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,

and save, snatching them out of the fire; and others you must pity with dread, loathing even the clothes that are soiled by their lower nature.

John to the seven churches in Asia: spiritual blessing and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven spirits that are before His throne,

I turned to see who it was that was speaking to me, and as I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,

and among the lampstands One resembling the Son of Man, wearing a robe that reached to His feet, and with a belt of gold around His breast.

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,

But I hold it against you that you do not love me as you did at first.

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

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."'"

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.

So repent, or else I will quickly come and make war upon them with the sword that comes from my mouth.

"I know what you are doing, I know your love and faithfulness, your service and patient endurance, and I know that you are now working harder than you did at first.

But I hold it against you that you are tolerating that Jezebel of a woman who claims to be a prophetess, and by her teaching is misleading my slaves to practice immorality and to eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols.

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.

To him who conquers and continues to the very end to do the works that please me, I will give authority over the heathen;

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 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.

"I know what you are doing, and that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.

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 advise you to buy of me gold that has been refined in the fire, so that you may become rich, and white clothes to put on, to hide your shameful nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes, to make you see.

After this I had another vision: A door was standing open in heaven, and the first voice, like a trumpet, that I had heard speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place."

The One who was seated on it looked like jasper or sardius, and around the throne there was a rainbow that looked like an emerald.

But one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping! See! The Lion who sprang from the tribe of Judah, who belongs to the line of David, has conquered, so that He can open the book and break its seven seals."

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.

saying in a loud voice: "The Lamb that was slaughtered deserves to receive power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing."

Then I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, underneath the earth, and on the sea, and all that they contain, say: "Blessing, honor, glory, and power be to Him who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb forever."

The sky was swept away just like a scroll that is rolled up; and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind should blow on the earth, the sea, or any tree.

And I heard the number of those who were marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand. Those that were marked with the seal were from every tribe of the children of Israel:

After this I looked, and there was a vast throng that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

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.

The star is called Absinthus, that is, Wormwood. So one-third of the waters turned to wormwood, and great numbers of people died of the waters, because they had turned bitter.

Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and one-third of the sun was cursed with a plague, and one-third of the moon, and one-third of the stars, so that one-third of them were darkened, and there was no light for one-third of the day and for one-third of the night.

Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky upon the earth. To this angel the key to the pit of the abyss was given,

Out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, but the power that was given to them was like the power of earthly scorpions.

they had hair that looked like women's hair; their teeth were like lions' teeth;

they had breastplates that seemed to be made of steel; the noise of their wings was like the noise of vast numbers of chariots and horses rushing into battle;

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