What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from the cravings that are at war within you?

You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your evil desires.

Adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

Or do you think it’s without reason the Scripture says that the Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously?

You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Come now, you rich people! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you.

Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who reaped your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

Brothers, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door!

Now above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. Your “yes” must be “yes,” and your “no” must be “no,” so that you won’t fall under judgment.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land.

let him know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his life from death and cover a multitude of sins.

and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

so that the genuineness of your faith—more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that would come to you searched and carefully investigated.

They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when He testified in advance to the messianic sufferings and the glories that would follow.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Angels desire to look into these things.

For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold,

but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

but the word of the Lord endures forever.

And this is the word that was preached as the gospel to you.

Like newborn infants, desire the pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it for your salvation,

since you have tasted that the Lord is good.

So honor will come to you who believe, but for the unbelieving,

The stone that the builders rejected—
this One has become the cornerstone,

and

A stone to stumble over,
and a rock to trip over.

They stumble because they disobey the message; they were destined for this.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people for His possession,
so that you may proclaim the praises
of the One who called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light.

Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.

Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation.

For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.

For you were called to this,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example,
so that you should follow in His steps.

He Himself bore our sins
in His body on the tree,
so that, having died to sins,
we might live for righteousness;
you have been healed by His wounds.

In the same way, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, even if some disobey the Christian message, they may be won over without a message by the way their wives live

Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives with an understanding of their weaker nature yet showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing.

but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame.

For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all,
the righteous for the unrighteous,
that He might bring you to God,
after being put to death in the fleshly realm
but made alive in the spiritual realm.

In that state He also went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison

who in the past were disobedient, when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while an ark was being prepared. In it a few—that is, eight people—were saved through water.

Now that He has gone into heaven, He is at God’s right hand with angels, authorities, and powers subject to Him.

So they are surprised that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of wild living—and they slander you.

For this reason the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged by men in the fleshly realm, they might live by God in the spiritual realm.

If anyone speaks, it should be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, it should be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To Him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of the Messiah, so that you may also rejoice with great joy at the revelation of His glory.

But if anyone suffers as a “Christian,” he should not be ashamed but should glorify God in having that name.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time,

Resist him and be firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

I have written you this brief letter through Silvanus (I know him to be a faithful brother) to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Take your stand in it!

By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.

knowing that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has also shown me.

And I will also make every effort that you may be able to recall these things at any time after my departure.

(for as he lived among them, that righteous man tormented himself day by day with the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—

For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.

For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.

so that you can remember the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the command of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles.

Through these waters the world of that time perished when it was flooded.

But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.

He speaks about these things in all his letters in which there are some matters that are hard to understand. The untaught and unstable twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.

Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, be on your guard, so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stability.

that life was revealed,
and we have seen it
and we testify and declare to you
the eternal life that was with the Father
and was revealed to us—

what we have seen and heard
we also declare to you,
so that you may have fellowship along with us;
and indeed our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son Jesus Christ.

We are writing these things
so that our joy may be complete.

My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One.

This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the message you have heard.

Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, “Antichrist is coming,” even now many antichrists have come. We know from this that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.

And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.

So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.

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Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.

You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in Him.

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.

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

This is how we will know we belong to the truth and will convince our conscience in His presence,

even if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience, and He knows all things.

Now this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us.

The one who keeps His commands remains in Him, and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us is from the Spirit He has given us.

This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

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

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

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit.

And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son as the world’s Savior.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God.

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him.

This is how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commands.

because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

And who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

For there are three that testify: