But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and not hypocritical.

Where do the conflicts and where do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, from your passions that battle inside you?

So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,

he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path will save that person's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those temporarily residing abroad (in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia) who are chosen

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

They were shown that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things now announced to you through those who proclaimed the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven -- things angels long to catch a glimpse of.

You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed -- not by perishable things like silver or gold,

Through him you now trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul,

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed.

For the one who wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from uttering deceit.

And he must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.

From Simeon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, have been granted a faith just as precious as ours.

For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.

For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory: "This is my dear Son, in whom I am delighted."

When this voice was conveyed from heaven, we ourselves heard it, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

-- if so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment at the day of judgment,

For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.

and saying, "Where is his promised return? For ever since our ancestors died, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation."

Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men and fall from your firm grasp on the truth.

This is what we proclaim to you: what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life --

Now this is the gospel message we have heard from him and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have already heard.

I am writing to you, fathers, that you have known him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, that you have conquered the evil one.

I have written to you, children, that you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, that you have known him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, that you are strong, and the word of God resides in you, and you have conquered the evil one.

because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. We know from this that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us.

Nevertheless you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

As for you, what you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.

Now as for you, the anointing that you received from him resides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, it is true and is not a lie. Just as it has taught you, you reside in him.

And now, little children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame when he comes back.

The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed: to destroy the works of the devil.

For this is the gospel message that you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another,

We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death.

and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing to him.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God,

but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.

You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world's perspective and the world listens to them.

We are from God; the person who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God.

And the commandment we have from him is this: that the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian too.

And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, then we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him.

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

From the elder, to an elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth (and not I alone, but also all those who know the truth),

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.

But now I ask you, lady (not as if I were writing a new commandment to you, but the one we have had from the beginning), that we love one another.

(Now this is love: that we walk according to his commandments.) This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning; thus you should walk in it.

From the elder, to Gaius my dear brother, whom I love in truth.

For they have gone forth on behalf of "The Name," accepting nothing from the pagans.

From Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, wrapped in the love of God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, without blemish before his glorious presence,

From John, to the seven churches that are in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from "he who is," and who was, and who is still to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

and from Jesus Christ -- the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has set us free from our sins at the cost of his own blood

But I have this against you: You have departed from your first love!

Therefore, remember from what high state you have fallen and repent! Do the deeds you did at the first; if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place -- that is, if you do not repent.

The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will permit him to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.'

just as I have received the right to rule from my Father -- and I will give him the morning star.

The one who conquers will be dressed like them in white clothing, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, but will declare his name before my Father and before his angels.

Listen! I am going to make those people from the synagogue of Satan -- who say they are Jews yet are not, but are lying -- Look, I will make them come and bow down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.

Because you have kept my admonition to endure steadfastly, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth.

The one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never depart from it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from my God), and my new name as well.

take my advice and buy gold from me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from me white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness will not be exposed, and buy eye salve to put on your eyes so you can see!

From the throne came out flashes of lightning and roaring and crashes of thunder. Seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, were burning in front of the throne

Then he came and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne,

They were singing a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were killed, and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

And another horse, fiery red, came out, and the one who rode it was granted permission to take peace from the earth, so that people would butcher one another, and he was given a huge sword.

Then I heard something like a voice from among the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat will cost a day's pay and three quarts of barley will cost a day's pay. But do not damage the olive oil and the wine!"

The sky was split apart like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.

They said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,

Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, who had the seal of the living God. He shouted out with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given permission to damage the earth and the sea:

Now I heard the number of those who were marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed from all the tribes of the people of Israel:

From the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand,

from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand,

from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand,

from the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed.

After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands.

Then one of the elders asked me, "These dressed in long white robes -- who are they and where have they come from?"

because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

The smoke coming from the incense, along with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand.

Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth, and there were crashes of thunder, roaring, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and a huge star burning like a torch fell from the sky; it landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

(Now the name of the star is Wormwood.) So a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from these waters because they were poisoned.

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

He opened the shaft of the abyss and smoke rose out of it like smoke from a giant furnace. The sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft.

In those days people will seek death, but will not be able to find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a single voice coming from the horns on the golden altar that is before God,

Then I saw another powerful angel descending from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun and his legs were like pillars of fire.