You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

And likewise was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works [when she] welcomed the messengers and sent [them] out by a different route?

Not many should become teachers, my brothers, [because you] know that we will receive a greater judgment.

For we all stumble [in] many [ways]. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he [is] a perfect individual, able to hold in check his whole body also.

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these [things] ought not to be so!

A spring does not pour forth from the same opening fresh and bitter [water, does it]?

A fig tree is not able, my brothers, to produce olives, or a grapevine figs. Neither can a saltwater spring produce fresh water.

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth.

This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but [is] earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

From where [are] conflicts and from where [are] quarrels among you? [Is it] not from this, from your pleasures that wage war among your members?

You desire and do not have; you murder and are filled with envy, and are not able to obtain; you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, in order that you may spend [it] on your pleasures.

Adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes [himself] an enemy of God.

Do not speak evil of one another, brothers. The one who speaks evil of a brother or judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge [of the law].

you who do not know {what will happen tomorrow}, {what your life will be like}. For you are a smoky vapor that appears for a short time and then disappears.

Therefore, to the one who knows to do good and does not do [it], to him it is sin.

You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous [person]; he does not resist you.

Brothers, do not complain against one another, in order that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge stands before the doors!

Now above all, my brothers, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no, no, in order that you may not fall under judgment.

Elijah was a human being with the same nature as us, and {he prayed fervently} for [it] not to rain, and it did not rain on the land [for] three years and six months.

whom, [although you] have not seen, you love; in whom now you believe, [although you] do not see [him], and you rejoice greatly with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

to whom it was revealed that they were serving not themselves but you with reference to the same [things] which now have been announced to you through those who proclaimed the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, {things into which} angels desire to look.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former desires [you used to conform to] in your ignorance,

[because you] know that you were redeemed from your futile way of life inherited from your ancestors not with perishable things like silver or gold,

[because you] have been born again, not from perishable seed but imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

who once [were] not a people, but now [are] the people of God, the ones [who were] not shown mercy, but now are shown mercy.

[Live] as free [persons], and not using your freedom as a covering for evil, but as slaves of God.

Domestic slaves, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to those [who are] good and gentle, but also to those [who are] unjust.

who did not commit sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth,

who [when he] was reviled, did not revile in return; [when] suffering, he did not threaten, but entrusted [himself] to the one who judges justly,

Let your adornment not be the external [kind], braiding hair and putting on gold jewelry or putting on [fine] clothing,

like Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you have become [when you] do good and are not frightened with respect to any terror.

Husbands, in the same way live with [your wives] {knowledgeably}, as with the weaker female vessel, showing [them] honor as fellow heirs also of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

not repaying evil for evil or insult for insult, but on the other hand blessing [others], because for this [reason] you were called, so that you could inherit a blessing.

For "The one who wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and [his] lips must not speak deceit.

But even if you might suffer for the sake of righteousness, [you are] blessed. And do not be afraid of their intimidation or be disturbed,

And also, corresponding to [this], baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

with respect to which they are surprised [when] you do not run with [them] into the same flood of dissipation, [and so they] revile [you].

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, [when it] takes place to test you, as [if] [something] strange were happening to you.

By all means do not let anyone of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.

But if [someone suffers] as a Christian, he must not be ashamed, but must glorify God with this name.

shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not by compulsion but willingly, in accordance with God, and not greedily but eagerly,

and not as lording it over {those under your care}, but being examples for the flock.

For [if] these [things] are yours and are increasing, this does not make [you] useless or unproductive in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For [the one] for whom these [things] [are] not present is blind, being nearsighted, {having forgotten the cleansing} of his former sins.

For we did not make known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [by] following ingeniously concocted myths, but [by] being eyewitnesses of that one's majesty.

recognizing this above all, that every prophecy of scripture does not come about from one's own interpretation,

And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment,

and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others} [when he] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly,

and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings,

whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment.

But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things} they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed,

For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known [it], to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.

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

The Lord is not delaying the promise, as some consider slowness, but is being patient toward you, [because he] does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

Therefore, dear friends, [because you] know [this] beforehand, guard yourselves so that you do not lose your own safe position [because you] have been led away by the error of lawless persons.

If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

If we say that we do not have sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

My little children, I am writing these [things] to you in order that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous [one],

and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world.

The one who says "I have come to know him," and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this person.

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 message which you have heard.

But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,

because everything [that is] in the world--the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance of material possessions--is not from the Father, but is from the world.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But [they went out], in order that it might be shown that all of them are not of us.

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because every lie is not of the truth.

Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father [either]; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

And [as for] you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you do not have need that anyone teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all [things], and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you reside in him.

And now, little children, remain in him, so that whenever he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.

See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called children of God, and we are! Because of this the world does not know us: because it did not know him.

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

Everyone who resides in him does not sin. Everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him.

Everyone who is fathered by God does not practice sin, because his seed resides in him, and [he is] not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God.

By this the children of God and the children of the devil are evident: everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, namely, the one who does not love his brother.

not as Cain, who was of the evil one and violently murdered his brother. And {for what reason} did he violently murder him? Because his deeds were evil and the [deeds] of his brother [were] righteous.

Do not marvel, brothers, if the world hates you.

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

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that every murderer does not have eternal life residing in him.

But whoever has the world's material possessions and observes his brother {in need} and shuts his heart against him, how does the love of God reside in him?

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

Dear friends, if our heart does not 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.

and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, [of] which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

The one 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] propitiation for our sins.

[There] is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear includes punishment, and the one who is afraid has not been perfected in love.

If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen is not able to love God whom he has not seen.

For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,

This is the one who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and with 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 the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

If anyone should see his brother sinning a sin not [leading] to death, he should ask, and he will grant life to him, to those who sin not [leading] to death. ([There] is a sin [leading] to death; I do not say that he should ask about that.

All unrighteousness is sin, and [there] is a sin not [leading] to death.)

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

The elder, to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth--and not I alone, but also all those who know the truth--

And now I ask you, lady (not as [if I were] writing a new commandment to you, but [one] that we have had from the beginning), that we should love one another.