Let us then make offerings of praise to God at all times through him, that is to say, the fruit of lips giving witness to his name.

Give ear to those who are rulers over you, and do as they say: for they keep watch over your souls, ready to give an account of them; let them be able to do this with joy and not with grief, because that would be of no profit to you.

Make prayers for us, for we are certain that our hearts are free from the sense of sin, desiring the right way of life in all things.

Now may the God of peace, who made that great keeper of his flock, even our Lord Jesus, come back from the dead through the blood of the eternal agreement,

Because you have the knowledge that the testing of your faith gives you the power of going on in hope;

But let this power have its full effect, so that you may be made complete, needing nothing.

Let it not seem to such a man that he will get anything from the Lord;

But let the brother of low position be glad that he is lifted up;

But the man of wealth, that he is made low; because like the flower of the grass he will come to his end.

Of his purpose he gave us being, by his true word, so that we might be, in a sense, the first-fruits of all the things which he had made.

What use is it, my brothers, for a man to say that he has faith, if he does nothing? will such a faith give him salvation?

You have the belief that God is one, and you do well: the evil spirits have the same belief, shaking with fear.

Do you not see, O foolish man, that faith without works is of no use?

You see that his faith was helping his works and was made complete by them;

You see that a man's righteousness is judged by his works and not by his faith only.

Do not all be teachers, my brothers, because we teachers will be judged more hardly than others.

Now if we put bits of iron into horses' mouths so that they may be guided by us, we have complete control of their bodies.

But the wisdom which is from heaven is first holy, then gentle, readily giving way in argument, full of peace and mercy and good works, not doubting, not seeming other than it is.

You make your request but you do not get it, because your request has been wrongly made, desiring the thing only so that you may make use of it for your pleasure.

O you who are false to God, do you not see that the friends of this world are not God's friends? Every man desiring to be a friend of this world makes himself a hater of God.

Or does it seem to you that it is for nothing that the holy Writings say, The spirit which God put into our hearts has a strong desire for us?

But he gives more grace. So that the Writings say, God is against the men of pride, but he gives grace to those who make themselves low before him.

But the right thing to say would be, If it is the Lord's pleasure and if we are still living, we will do this and that.

Say no hard things against one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged; see, the judge is waiting at the doors.

We say that those men who have gone through pain are happy: you have the story of Job and the troubles through which he went and have seen that the Lord was full of pity and mercy in the end.

But most of all, my brothers, do not take oaths, not by the heaven, or by the earth, or by any other thing: but let your Yes be Yes, and your No be No: so that you may not be judged.

So then, make a statement of your sins to one another, and say prayers for one another so that you may be made well. The prayer of a good man is full of power in its working.

Elijah was a man of flesh and blood as we are, and he made a strong prayer that there might be no rain; and there was no rain on the earth for three years and six months.

Be certain that he through whom a sinner has been turned from the error of his way, keeps a soul from death and is the cause of forgiveness for sins without number.

Who, by the power of God are kept, through faith, for that salvation, which will be seen at the last day.

So that the true metal of your faith, being of much greater value than gold (which, though it comes to an end, is tested by fire), may come to light in praise and glory and honour, at the revelation of Jesus Christ:

To whom your love is given, though you have not seen him; and the faith which you have in him, though you do not see him now, gives you joy greater than words and full of glory:

And it was made clear to those prophets that they were God's servants not for themselves but for you, to give you word of the things which have now come to your ears from the preachers of the good news through the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; things which even angels have a desire to see.

Being conscious that you have been made free from that foolish way of life which was your heritage from your fathers, not through a payment of things like silver or gold which come to destruction,

But through holy blood, like that of a clean and unmarked lamb, even the blood of Christ:

Who through him have faith in God who took him up again from the dead into glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.

And as you have made your souls clean, being ruled by what is true, and loving one another without deceit, see that your love is warm and from the heart:

Be full of desire for the true milk of the word, as babies at their mothers' breasts, so that you may go on to salvation;

But you are a special people, a holy nation, priests and kings, a people given up completely to God, so that you may make clear the virtues of him who took you out of the dark into the light of heaven.

My loved ones, I make this request with all my heart, that, as those for whom this world is a strange country, you will keep yourselves from the desires of the flesh which make war against the soul;

Being of good behaviour among the Gentiles; so that though they say now that you are evil-doers, they may see your good works and give glory to God when he comes to be their judge.

Because it is God's pleasure that foolish and narrow-minded men may be put to shame by your good behaviour:

This is God's purpose for you: because Jesus himself underwent punishment for you, giving you an example, so that you might go in his footsteps:

He took our sins on himself, giving his body to be nailed on the tree, so that we, being dead to sin, might have a new life in righteousness, and by his wounds we have been made well.

Wives, be ruled by your husbands; so that even if some of them give no attention to the word, their hearts may be changed by the behaviour of their wives,

And you husbands, give thought to your way of life with your wives, giving honour to the woman who is the feebler vessel, but who has an equal part in the heritage of the grace of life; so that you may not be kept from prayer.

Last of all, see that you are all in agreement; feeling for one another, loving one another like brothers, full of pity, without pride:

Not giving back evil for evil, or curse for curse, but in place of cursing, blessing; because this is the purpose of God for you that you may have a heritage of blessing.

Being conscious that you have done no wrong; so that those who say evil things about your good way of life as Christians may be put to shame.

Because if it is God's purpose for you to undergo pain, it is better to do so for well-doing than for evil-doing.

Because Christ once went through pain for sins, the upright one taking the place of sinners, so that through him we might come back to God; being put to death in the flesh, but given life in the Spirit;

Who, in the days of Noah, went against God's orders; but God in his mercy kept back the punishment, while Noah got ready the ark, in which a small number, that is to say eight persons, got salvation through water:

So that as Jesus was put to death in the flesh, do you yourselves be of the same mind; for the death of the flesh puts an end to sin;

So that you may give the rest of your lives in the flesh, not to the desires of men, but to the purpose of God.

And they are wondering that you no longer go with them in this violent wasting of life, and are saying evil things of you:

For this was the reason why the good news of Jesus was given even to the dead, so that they might be judged as men in the flesh, but might be living before God in the spirit.

If anyone has anything to say, let it be as the words of God; if anyone has the desire to be the servant of others, let him do it in the strength which is given by God; so that in all things God may have the glory through Jesus Christ, whose are the glory and the power for ever.

But be glad that you are given a part in the pains of Christ; so that at the revelation of his glory you may have great joy.

But if he undergoes punishment as a Christian, that is no shame to him; let him give glory to God in this name.

For this cause make yourselves low under the strong hand of God, so that when the time comes you may be lifted up;

Do not give way to him but be strong in your faith, in the knowledge that your brothers who are in the world undergo the same troubles.

I have sent you this short letter by Silvanus, a true brother, in my opinion; comforting you and witnessing that this is the true grace of God; keep to it.

And through this he has given us the hope of great rewards highly to be valued; so that by them we might have our part in God's being, and be made free from the destruction which is in the world through the desires of the flesh.

For I am conscious that in a short time I will have to put off this tent of flesh, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

And I will take every care so that you may have a clear memory of these things after my death.

Being conscious in the first place that no man by himself may give a special sense to the words of the prophets.

(Because the soul of that upright man living among them was pained from day to day by seeing and hearing their crimes):

But these men, like beasts without reason, whose natural use is to be taken and put to death, crying out against things of which they have no knowledge, will undergo that same destruction which they are designing for others;

Saying that they will be free, while they themselves are the servants of destruction; because whatever gets the better of a man makes a servant of him.

For if, after they have got free from the unclean things of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again taken in the net and overcome, their last condition is worse than their first.

For it would have been better for them to have had no knowledge of the way of righteousness, than to go back again from the holy law which was given to them, after having knowledge of it.

They are an example of that true saying, The dog has gone back to the food it had put out, and the pig which had been washed to its rolling in the dirty earth.

So that you may keep in mind the words of the holy prophets in the past, and the law of the Lord and Saviour which was given to you by his Apostles.

Having first of all the knowledge that in the last days there will be men who, ruled by their evil desires, will make sport of holy things,

But in taking this view they put out of their minds the memory that in the old days there was a heaven, and an earth lifted out of the water and circled by water, by the word of God;

And that the world which then was came to an end through the overflowing of the waters.

But, my loved ones, keep in mind this one thing, that with the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years are no more than one day.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his word, as he seems to some, but he is waiting in mercy for you, not desiring the destruction of any, but that all may be turned from their evil ways.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; and in that day the heavens will be rolled up with a great noise, and the substance of the earth will be changed by violent heat, and the world and everything in it will be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things are coming to such an end, what sort of persons is it right for you to be, in all holy behaviour and righteousness,

For this reason, my loved ones, as you are looking for these things, take great care that when he comes you may be in peace before him, free from sin and every evil thing.

And be certain that the long waiting of the Lord is for salvation; even as our brother Paul has said in his letters to you, from the wisdom which was given to him;

And as he said in all his letters, which had to do with these things; in which are some hard sayings, so that, like the rest of the holy Writings, they are twisted by those who are uncertain and without knowledge, to the destruction of their souls.

For this reason, my loved ones, having knowledge of these things before they take place, take care that you are not turned away by the error of the uncontrolled, so falling from your true faith.

That which was from the first, which has come to our ears, and which we have seen with our eyes, looking on it and touching it with our hands, about the Word of life

(And the life was made clear to us, and we have seen it and are witnessing to it and giving you word of that eternal life which was with the Father and was seen by us);

We give you word of all we have seen and everything which has come to our ears, so that you may be united with us; and we are united with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ:

And we are writing these things to you so that our joy may be made complete.

This is the word which came to us from him and which we give to you, that God is light and in him there is nothing dark.

If we say that we have no sin, we are false to ourselves and there is nothing true in us.

If we say openly that we have done wrong, he is upright and true to his word, giving us forgiveness of sins and making us clean from all evil.

If we say that we have no sin, we make him false and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may be without sin. And if any man is a sinner, we have a friend and helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, the upright one:

And by this we may be certain that we have knowledge of him, if we keep his laws.

But in every man who keeps his word, the love of God is made complete. By this we may be certain that we are in him:

He who says that he is living in him, will do as he did.

He who says that he is in the light, and has hate in his heart for his brother, is still in the dark.

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you were given word that the Antichrist would come, so now a number of Antichrists have come to you; and by this we are certain that it is the last hour.

They went out from us but they were not of us; if they had been of us they would still be with us: but they went out from us so that it might be made clear that they were not of us.

I have not sent you this letter because you have no knowledge of what is true, but because you have knowledge, and because that which is false has nothing in common with that which is true.