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

and maintain good conduct among the non-Christians, so that though they now malign you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God when he appears.

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.

Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you.

after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.

in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires.

For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries.

Now it was for this very purpose that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead, so that though they were judged in the flesh by human standards they may live spiritually by God's standards.

Whoever speaks, let it be with God's words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice in the degree that you have shared in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice and be glad.

But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear such a name.

So as your fellow elder and a witness of Christ's sufferings and as one who shares in the glory that will be revealed, I urge the elders among you:

Then when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that never fades away.

Resist him, strong in your faith, because you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering.

Through Silvanus, whom I know to be a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, in order to encourage you and testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.

Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire.

But concerning the one who lacks such things -- he is blind. That is to say, he is nearsighted, since he has forgotten about the cleansing of his past sins.

Therefore, I intend to remind you constantly of these things even though you know them and are well established in the truth that you now have.

since I know that my tabernacle will soon be removed, because our Lord Jesus Christ revealed this to me.

Indeed, I will also make every effort that, after my departure, you have a testimony of these things.

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."

(for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)

Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality. For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved.

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.

For they deliberately suppress this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water.

Through these things the world existing at that time was destroyed when it was deluged with water.

Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day.

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.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the honor both now and on that eternal day.

and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us).

What we have seen and heard we announce to you too, so that you may have fellowship with us (and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ).

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

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

Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments.

But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.

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, little children, that your sins have been forgiven because of his name.

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.

I have not written to you that you do not know the truth, but that you do know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

Who is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son.

Now this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.

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.

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

(See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God's children -- and indeed we are! For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know him.

Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.

And you know that Jesus was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

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.

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

We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.

And by this we will know that we are of the truth and will convince our conscience in his presence,

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

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

Now this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment.

And the person who keeps his commandments resides in God, and God in him. Now by this we know that God resides in us: by the Spirit he has given us.

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.

By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him.

In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit.

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him and he in God.

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

By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world.

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

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father loves the child fathered by him.

By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments.

For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down,

because This is the conquering power that has conquered the world: our faith.

Now who is the person who has conquered the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

For there are three that testify,

If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, because this is the testimony of God that he has testified concerning his Son.

(The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning his Son.)

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.

And this is the confidence that we have before him: that whenever we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

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.

If anyone sees his fellow Christian committing a sin not resulting in death, he should ask, and God will grant life to the person who commits a sin not resulting in death. There is a sin resulting in death. I do not say that he should ask about that.

We know that everyone fathered by God does not sin, but God protects the one he has fathered, and the evil one cannot touch him.

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

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us insight to know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life.

because of the truth that resides in us and will be with us forever.

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.

Watch out, so that you do not lose the things we have worked for, but receive a full reward.

Though I have many other things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come visit you and speak face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

Dear friend, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul.

I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are living according to the truth.

Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we become coworkers in cooperation with the truth.

Therefore, if I come, I will call attention to the deeds he is doing -- the bringing of unjustified charges against us with evil words! And not being content with that, he not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but hinders the people who want to do so and throws them out of the church!

Demetrius has been testified to by all, even by the truth itself. We also testify to him, and you know that our testimony is true.

Dear friends, although I have been eager to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel compelled instead to write to encourage you to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

Now I desire to remind you (even though you have been fully informed of these facts once for all) that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe.

You also know that the angels who did not keep within their proper domain but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept in eternal chains in utter darkness, locked up for the judgment of the great Day.

But these men do not understand the things they slander, and they are being destroyed by the very things that, like irrational animals, they instinctively comprehend.