Indeed, this is why the gospel was proclaimed even to those who have died, so that they could be judged in their mortal flesh like all humans and live in the spiritual realm like God.

For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who refuse to obey the gospel of God?

So then, those who suffer according to God's will should entrust their souls to their faithful Creator and continue to do what is good.

Therefore, as a fellow elder, a witness of the Messiah's sufferings, and one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I appeal to the elders among you:

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you by the Messiah Jesus to his eternal glory, will restore you, establish you, strengthen you, and support you.

Through Silvanus, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written this short letter to encourage you and to testify that this is to be the true grace of God in which you are to stand firm!

Your sister church in Babylon, chosen along with you, sends you greetings, as does Mark, whom I regard as a son.

Greet one another with a loving kiss. Peace be to all of you who are in the Messiah!

From: Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus, the Messiah. To: Those who have received faith that is as valuable as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the full knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence.

For the person who lacks these qualities is blind and shortsighted, and has forgotten the cleansing that he has received from his past sins.

For he received honor and glory from God the Father when these words from the Majestic Glory were spoken about him: "This is my Son, whom I love. I am pleased with him."

Now there were false prophets among the people, just as there also will be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.

and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was greatly distressed by the immoral conduct of lawless people

especially those who satisfy their flesh by indulging in its passions and who despise authority.

They have left the straight path and wandered off to follow the path of Bosor's son Balaam, who loved the reward he got for doing wrong.

By talking high-sounding nonsense and using sinful cravings of the flesh, they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error.

My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus, the Messiah, one who is righteous.

It is he who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world's.

The person who says, "I have come to know him," but does not continually keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth has no place in that person.

But whoever continually keeps his commandments is the kind of person in whom God's love has truly been perfected. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:

The one who says that he abides in him must live the same way he himself lived.

The person who says that he is in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.

The person who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no reason for him to stumble.

But the person who hates his brother is in the darkness and lives in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the evil one.

I have written to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, because you are strong and because God's word remains in you and you have overcome the evil one.

And the world and its desires are fading away, but the person who does God's will remains forever.

Who is a liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? The person who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.

No one who denies the Son has the Father. The person who acknowledges the Son also has the Father.

I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

Since you know that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by God.

And everyone who has this hope based on him keeps himself pure, just as the Messiah is pure.

Everyone who keeps living in sin also practices disobedience. In fact, sin is disobedience.

No one who remains in union with him keeps on sinning. The one who keeps on sinning hasn't seen him or known him.

Little children, don't let anyone deceive you. The person who practices righteousness is righteous, just as the Messiah is righteous.

The person who practices sin belongs to the evil one, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason that the Son of God was revealed was to destroy what the Devil has been doing.

No one who has been born from God practices sin, because God's seed abides in him. Indeed, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born from God.

This is how God's children and the Devil's children are distinguished. No person who fails to practice righteousness and to love his brother is from God.

Do not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because what he was doing was evil and his brother's actions were righteous.

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love one another. The person who does not love remains spiritually dead.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life present in him.

The person who keeps his commandments abides in God, and God abides in him. This is how we can be sure that he remains in us: he has given us his Spirit.

This is how you can recognize God's Spirit: Every spirit who acknowledges that Jesus the Messiah has become human and remains so is from God.

But every spirit who does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. You have heard that he is coming, and now he is already in the world.

Little children, you belong to God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

Dear friends, let us continuously love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God.

The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God abides in the one who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, and he abides in God.

We have come to know and rely on the love that God has for us. God is love, and the person who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

There is no fear where love exists. Rather, perfect love banishes fear, for fear involves punishment, and the person who lives in fear has not been perfected in love.

Whoever says, "I love God," but hates his brother is a liar. The one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love the God whom he has not seen.

And this is the commandment that we have from him: the person who loves God must also love his brother.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born from God, and everyone who loves the parent also loves the child.

because everyone who is born from God has overcome the world. Our faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

Who overcomes the world? Is it not the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This man, Jesus the Messiah, is the one who came by water and blood not with water only, but with water and with blood. The Spirit is the one who verifies this, because the Spirit is the truth.

The person who believes in the Son of God believes this testimony personally. The person who does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony that he has given about his Son.

The person who has the Son has this life. The person who does not have the Son of God does not have this life.

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray that God would give him life. This applies to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not telling you to pray about that.

We know that the person who has been born from God does not go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one cannot harm them.

We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true God. We are in union with the one who is true, his Son Jesus the Messiah, who is the true God and eternal life.

From:aThe Elder To: The chosen lady and her children, whom I genuinely love, and not only I but also all who know the truth,

Everyone who does not remain true to the teaching of the Messiah, but goes beyond it, does not have God. The person who remains true to the teaching of the Messiah has both the Father and the Son.

because the one who welcomes him shares in his evil deeds.

From: The Elder To: My dear friend Gaius, whom I genuinely love.

I wrote a letter to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be in charge, will not recognize our authority.

For this reason, when I come I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with that, he refuses to receive the brothers. He even tries to stop those who want to accept them and throws them out of the church.

Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The person who does what is good is from God. The person who does what is evil has never seen God.

From: Jude, a servant of Jesus the Messiah, and yet a brother of James. To: Those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept safe by Jesus, the Messiah.

Now I want to remind you, even though you are fully aware of these things, that the Lord who once saved his people from the land of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe.

He has also held in eternal chains those angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their assigned place. They are held in deepest darkness for judgment on the great day.

These people are stains on your love feasts. They feast with you without any sense of awe. They are shepherds who care only for themselves. They are waterless clouds blown about by the winds. They are autumn trees that are fruitless, totally dead, and uprooted.

They are wild waves of the sea, churning up the foam of their own shame. They are wandering stars for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.

These are the people who cause divisions. They are worldly, devoid of the Spirit.

Show mercy to those who have doubts.

Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling and to make you stand joyful and faultless in his glorious presence,

who testified about this message from God and the testimony about Jesus the Messiah.

How blessed is the one who reads aloud and those who hear the words of this prophecy and obey what is written in it, for the time is near!

From John to the seven churches in Asia. May grace and peace be yours from the one who is, who was, and who is coming, from the seven spirits who are in front of his throne,

and from Jesus the Messiah, the witness, the faithful one, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

Look! He is coming in the clouds. Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. So be it! Amen.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," declares the Lord God, "the one who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty."

Then I turned to see who was talking to me, and when I turned I saw seven gold lamp stands.

"To the messenger of the church in Ephesus, write: "The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lamp stands, says this:

"I know what you've been doing, your toil, and your endurance. I also know that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles, but are not, and have found them to be false.

"Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To everyone who conquers I will give the privilege of eating from the tree of life that is in God's paradise.'"

"To the messenger of the church in Smyrna, write: "The first and the last, who was dead and became alive, says this:

"I know your suffering and your poverty though you are rich and the slander committed by those who claim to be Jews but are not. They are the synagogue of Satan.

"Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be hurt by the second death.'"

"To the messenger of the church in Pergamum, write: "The one who holds the sharp, two-edged sword, says this:

"I know where you live. Satan's throne is there. Yet you hold on to my name and have not denied your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed in your presence, where Satan lives.

But I have a few things against you: You have there some who hold to the teaching of Balaam, the one who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice immorality.

You also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

"Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone. On the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the person who receives it.'"

But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and who teaches and leads my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

Look! I am going to strike her with illness. Those who commit adultery with her will also suffer greatly, unless they repent from acting like her.

I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will reward each of you as your actions deserve.