By this the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed: Everyone who does not practice righteousness -- the one who does not love his fellow Christian -- is not of God.

not like Cain who was of the evil one and brutally murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brother's were righteous.

Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

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.

But whoever has the world's possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person?

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth.

Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God,

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love.

If anyone says "I love God" and yet hates his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

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

Jesus Christ is the one who came by water and blood -- not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

(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.)

The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life.

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.

All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin not resulting in death.

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.

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),

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.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus as Christ coming in the flesh. This person is the deceiver and the antichrist!

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

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him any greeting,

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.

I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not acknowledge us.

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!

Dear friend, do not imitate what is bad but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does what is bad has not seen God.

I have many things to write to you, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink.

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 even when Michael the archangel was arguing with the devil and debating with him concerning Moses' body, he did not dare to bring a slanderous judgment, but said, "May the Lord rebuke you!"

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.

When I saw him I fell down at his feet as though I were dead, but he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid! I am the first and the last,

I know your works as well as your labor and steadfast endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have even put to the test those who refer to themselves as apostles (but are not), and have discovered that they are false.

I am also aware that you have persisted steadfastly, endured much for the sake of my name, and have not grown weary.

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.

I know the distress you are suffering and your poverty (but you are rich). I also know the slander against you by those who call themselves Jews and really are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Do not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. The devil is about to have some of you thrown into prison so you may be tested, and you will experience suffering for ten days. Remain faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown that is life itself.

I know where you live -- where Satan's throne is. Yet you continue to cling to my name and you have not denied your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed in your city where Satan lives.

Therefore, repent! If not, I will come against you quickly and make war against those people with the sword of my mouth.

I have given her time to repent, but she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality.

But to the rest of you in Thyatira, all who do not hold to this teaching (who have not learned the so-called "deep secrets of Satan"), to you I say: I do not put any additional burden on you.

Wake up then, and strengthen what remains that was about to die, because I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.

Therefore, remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will never know at what hour I will come against you.

But you have a few individuals in Sardis who have not stained their clothes, and they will walk with me dressed in white, because they are worthy.

I know your deeds. (Look! I have put in front of you an open door that no one can shut.) I know that you have little strength, but you have obeyed my word and have not denied my name.

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 say, "I am rich and have acquired great wealth, and need nothing," but do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked,

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!

Each one of the four living creatures had six wings and was full of eyes all around and inside. They never rest day or night, saying: "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God, the All-Powerful, Who was and who is, and who is still to come!"

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!"

"Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees until we have put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."

For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them.

They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat,

Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. And there was no light for a third of the day and for a third of the night likewise.

They were told not to damage the grass of the earth, or any green plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their forehead.

The locusts were not given permission to kill them, but only to torture them for five months, and their torture was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person.

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.

The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood -- idols that cannot see or hear or walk about.

Furthermore, they did not repent of their murders, of their magic spells, of their sexual immorality, or of their stealing.

When the seven thunders spoke, I was preparing to write, but just then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders spoke and do not write it down."

But do not measure the outer courtyard of the temple; leave it out, because it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample on the holy city for forty-two months.

These two have the power to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time they are prophesying. They have power to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want.

For three and a half days those from every people, tribe, nation, and language will look at their corpses, because they will not permit them to be placed in a tomb.

But the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, so there was no longer any place left in heaven for him and his angels.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the ruling authority of his Christ, have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, the one who accuses them day and night before our God, has been thrown down.

But they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.

and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed.

The second beast was empowered to give life to the image of the first beast so that it could speak, and could cause all those who did not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

These are the ones who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from humanity as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb,

And the smoke from their torture will go up forever and ever, and those who worship the beast and his image will have no rest day or night, along with anyone who receives the mark of his name."

Who will not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name, because you alone are holy? All nations will come and worship before you for your righteous acts have been revealed."

Thus people were scorched by the terrible heat, yet they blasphemed the name of God, who has ruling authority over these plagues, and they would not repent and give him glory.

(Look! I will come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays alert and does not lose his clothes so that he will not have to walk around naked and his shameful condition be seen.)

The beast you saw was, and is not, but is about to come up from the abyss and then go to destruction. The inhabitants of the earth -- all those whose names have not been written in the book of life since the foundation of the world -- will be astounded when they see that the beast was, and is not, but is to come.

five have fallen; one is, and the other has not yet come, but whenever he does come, he must remain for only a brief time.

The beast that was, and is not, is himself an eighth king and yet is one of the seven, and is going to destruction.

The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but will receive ruling authority as kings with the beast for one hour.

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, so you will not take part in her sins and so you will not receive her plagues,

So I threw myself down at his feet to worship him, but he said, "Do not do this! I am only a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony about Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony about Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

The angel then threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished. (After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.)

Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. These had not worshiped the beast or his image and had refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.) This is the first resurrection.

And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever.

If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more -- or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist."

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God lights it up, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Its gates will never be closed during the day (and there will be no night there).

Night will be no more, and they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

But he said to me, "Do not do this! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets, and with those who obey the words of this book. Worship God!"

Then he said to me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy contained in this book, because the time is near.