just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You have become her children when you do what is good and are not frightened by anything alarming.

For the one who wants to love life
and to see good days
must keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit,

and he must turn away from evil
and do what is good.
He must seek peace and pursue it,

And who will harm you if you are deeply committed to what is good?

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.

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.

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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

in order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.

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.

Based on the gift each one has received, use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God.

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.

If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

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

For the time has come for judgment to begin with God’s household, and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?

So those who suffer according to God’s will should, while doing what is good, entrust themselves to a faithful Creator.

Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but freely, according to God’s will; not for the money but eagerly;

In the same way, you younger men, be subject to the elders. And all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because

God resists the proud
but gives grace to the humble.

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

Now the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will personally restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little.

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!

Simeon Peter, a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ:

To those who have obtained a faith of equal privilege with ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, a voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory:

This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him!

because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarus and delivered them to be kept in chains of darkness until judgment;

They willfully ignore this: Long ago the heavens and the earth were brought about from water and through water by the word of God.

as you wait for and earnestly desire the coming of the day of God. The heavens will be on fire and be dissolved because of it, and the elements will melt with the heat.

Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.

But whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him:

I have written to you, children,
because you have come to know the Father.
I have written to you, fathers,
because you have come to know
the One who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
because you are strong,
God’s word remains in you,
and you have had victory over the evil one.

And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.

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.

The one who commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works.

Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.

This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident.

Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.

If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his need—how can God’s love reside in him?

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

Dear friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we have confidence before 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.

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.

We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

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

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.

Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us.

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.

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.

And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.

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.

For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden,

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?

If we accept the testimony of men, God’s testimony is greater, because it is God’s testimony that He has given about His Son.

(The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about His Son.)

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have 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 bring death, he should ask, and God will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t bring death. There is sin that brings death. I am not saying he should pray about that.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the One who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One. We are in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.

Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically just as you are spiritually.

They have testified to your love in front of the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God,

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

Demetrius has a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. And we also testify for him, and you know that our testimony is true.

Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James:

To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.

For some men, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into promiscuity and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.

keep yourselves in the love of God, expecting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.

to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.

The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave Him to show His slaves what must quickly take place. He sent it and signified it through His angel to His slave John,

who testified to God’s word and to the testimony about Jesus Christ, in all he saw.

and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—the glory and dominion are His forever and ever. Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the One who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.”

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God’s word and the testimony about Jesus.

“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give the victor the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in God’s paradise.

“Write to the angel of the church in Thyatira:

“The Son of God, the One whose eyes are like a fiery flame and whose feet are like fine bronze, says:

“Write to the angel of the church in Sardis:

“The One who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.

Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before My God.

The victor: I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God, and he will never go out again. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God—the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God—and My new name.

“Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea:

“The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation says:

Flashes of lightning and rumblings of thunder came from the throne. Seven fiery torches were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.

Each of the four living creatures had six wings; they were covered with eyes around and inside. Day and night they never stop, saying:

Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God, the Almighty,
who was, who is, and who is coming.

Our Lord and God,
You are worthy to receive
glory and honor and power,
because You have created all things,
and because of Your will
they exist and were created.

Then I saw One like a slaughtered lamb standing between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth.

And they sang a new song:

You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because You were slaughtered,
and You redeemed people
for God by Your blood
from every tribe and language
and people and nation.

You made them a kingdom
and priests to our God,
and they will reign on the earth.

When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the people slaughtered because of God’s word and the testimony they had.

Then I saw Him open the sixth seal. A violent earthquake occurred; the sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair; the entire moon became like blood;

Then I saw another angel, who had the seal of the living God rise up from the east. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were empowered to harm the earth and the sea: