There is only one Lawgiver and Judge--he who has the power both to save and to destroy. But who are you that pass judgment on your neighbor?

You ought, rather, to say 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.'

He, then, who knows what is right but fails to do it--that is sin in him.

Listen to me, you rich men, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming upon you!

Your gold and silver are rusted; and the rust on them shall be evidence against you, and shall eat into your very flesh. It was fire, so to speak, that you stored up for yourselves in these last days.

Above all things, my Brothers, never take an oath, either by heaven, or by earth, or by anything else. With you let 'Yes' suffice for yes, and 'No' for no, so that you may escape condemnation.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be cured. Great is the power of a good man's fervent prayer.

Elijah was only a man like ourselves, but, when he prayed fervently that it might not rain, no rain fell upon the land for three years and a half.

Be sure that he who brings a sinner back from his mistaken ways will save that man's soul from Death, and throw a veil over countless sins.

given us the new Life of undying hope, that promises an inheritance, imperishable, stainless, unfading, which has been reserved for you in Heaven--

for you who, through faith, are being guarded by the power of God, awaiting a Salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last days.

that the genuineness of your faith--a thing far more precious than gold, which is perishable, yet has to be tested by fire--may win praise and glory and honour at the Appearing of Jesus Christ.

It was this Salvation that the Prophets, who spoke long ago of the blessing intended for you, sought, and strove to comprehend;

as they strove to discern what that time could be, to which the Spirit of Christ within them was pointing, when foretelling the sufferings that would befall Christ, and the glories that would follow.

And it was revealed to them that it was not for themselves, but for you, that they were acting as Ministers of the truths which have now been told to you, by those who, with the help of the Holy Spirit sent from Heaven, have brought you the Good News--truths into which even angels long to look.

Therefore concentrate your minds, with the strictest self-control, and fix your hopes on the blessing that is coming for you at the Appearing of Jesus Christ.

For you know that it was not by perishable things, such as silver and gold, that you were Ransomed from the aimless way of living which was handed down to you from your ancestors,

who, through him, are faithful to God who raised him from the dead and gave him honour, so that your faith and hope are now in God.

Now that, by your obedience to the Truth, you have purified your lives, so that there is growing up among you a genuine brotherly affection, love one another earnestly with all your hearts;

But the teaching of the Lord remains for ever.' And that is the Teaching of the Good News which has been told to you.

Now that you have done with all malice, all deceitfulness, insincerity, jealous feelings, and all back-biting,

like newly born infants, crave pure spiritual milk, so that you may be enabled by it to grow till you attain Salvation--

since 'you have found by experience that the Lord is kind.'

and, as living stones, form yourselves into a spiritual House, to be a consecrated Priesthood, for the offering of spiritual sacrifices that will be acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For there is a passage of Scripture that runs-- 'See, I am placing in Zion a choice and precious corner-stone; And he who believes in him shall have no cause for shame.'

It is to you, then, who believe in him that he is precious, but to those who do not believe he is 'a stone which, though rejected by the builders, has now itself become the corner-stone,'

Let your daily life among the Gentiles be so upright, that, whenever they malign you as evil-doers, they may learn, as they watch, from the uprightness of your conduct, to praise God 'at the time when he shall visit them.'

For God's will is this--that you should silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing what is right.

What credit can you claim when, after doing wrong, you take your punishment for it patiently? But, on the other hand, if, after doing right, you take your sufferings patiently, that does win the approval of God.

For it was to this that you were called! For Christ, too, suffered--on your behalf--and left you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

And he 'himself carried our sins' in his own body to the cross, so that we might die to our sins, and live for righteousness. 'His bruising was your healing.'

Again, you married women should submit to your husbands, so that if any of them reject the Message, they may, apart from the Message, be won over, by the conduct of their wives,

It was by this that the holy women of old, who rested their hopes on God, adorned themselves; submitting to their husbands,

Again, those of you who are married men should live considerately with their wives, showing due regard to their sex, as weaker than their own, and not forgetting that they share with you in the gift of Life. Then you will be able to pray without hindrance.

never returning evil for evil, or abuse for abuse, but, on the contrary, blessing. It was to this that you were called--to obtain a blessing!

Revere the Christ as Lord in your hearts; always ready to give an answer to any one who asks your reason for the hope that you cherish, but giving it humbly and in all reverence,

and keeping your consciences clear, so that, whenever you are maligned, those who vilify your good and Christian conduct may be put to shame.

It is better that you should suffer, if that should be God's will, for doing right, than for doing wrong.

For Christ himself died to atone for sins once for all--the good on behalf of the bad--that he might bring you to God; his body being put to death, but his spirit entering upon new Life.

And it was then that he went and preached to the imprisoned spirits,

For that was why the Good News was told to the dead also--that, after they have been judged in the body, as men are judged, they might live in the spirit, as God lives.

But the end of all things is near. Therefore exercise self-restraint and be calm, that you may be able to pray.

Whatever the gift that each has received, use it in the service of others, as good stewards of the varied bounty of God.

When any one speaks, let him speak as one who is delivering the oracles of God. When any one is endeavoring to serve others, let him do so in reliance on the strength which God supplies; so that in everything God may be honour ed through Jesus Christ--to whom be ascribed all honour and might for ever and ever. Amen.

Dear friends, do not be astonished at the fiery trials that you are passing through, to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

No, the more you share the sufferings of the Christ, the more may you rejoice, that, when the time comes for the manifestation of his Glory, you may rejoice and exult.

I need hardly say that no one among you must suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a criminal, or for interfering in matters which do not concern Christians.

But, if a man suffers as a Christian, do not let him be ashamed of it; let him bring honour to God even though he bears that name.

As for the older men among you, who bear office in the Church, I, their fellow-Officer, and a witness to the sufferings of the Christ, who shall also share in the glory that is to be revealed--

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

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in his good time,

Stand firm against him, strong in your faith; knowing, as you do, that the very sufferings which you are undergoing are being endured to the full by your Brotherhood throughout the world.

I have been writing to you briefly by the hand of Silas, our true-hearted Brother (for so I regard him), to urge upon you, and to bear my testimony, that in what I have written is to be found the true love of God. On that take your stand.

For his divine power has given us everything that is needful for a life of piety, as we advance in the knowledge of him who called us by a glorious manifestation of his goodness.

For it was through this that he gave us what we prize as the greatest of his promises, that through them you might participate in the divine nature, now that you have fled from the corruption in the world, resulting from human passions.

Surely the man who has not these virtues is shortsighted even to blindness, and has chosen to forget that he has been purified from his sins of the past!

I shall, therefore, always be ready to remind you of all this, even though you know it and are firmly established in the Truth that you now hold.

for I know that the time for this 'tent' of mine to be put away is soon coming, as our Lord Jesus Christ himself assured me.

These were the words that we heard, borne to our ears from Heaven, when we were with him on that Sacred Mountain.

And still stronger is the assurance that we have in the teaching of the Prophets; to which you will do well to pay attention (as if it were a lamp shining in a gloomy place), until the Day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts.

But first be assured of this:--There is no prophetic teaching found in Scripture that can be interpreted by man's unaided reason;

suffering themselves, as the penalty for the suffering that they have inflicted. They think that pleasure consists in the self-indulgence of the moment. They are a stain and a disgrace, indulging, as they do, in their wanton revelry, even while joining you at your feasts.

First be assured of this, that, as the age draws to an end, scoffers, led by their own passions,

For they wilfully shut their eyes to the fact that long ago the heavens existed; and the earth, also--formed out of water and by the action of water, by the fiat of God;

and that by the same means the world which then existed was destroyed in a deluge of water.

But you, dear friends, must never shut your eyes to the fact that, to the Lord, one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise, as some count slowness; but he is forbearing with you, as it is not his will that any of you should perish, but that all should be brought to repentance.

The Day of the Lord will come like a thief; and on that day the heavens will pass away with a crash, the elements will be burnt up and dissolved, and the earth and all that is in it will be disclosed.

Regard our Lord's forbearance as your one hope of Salvation. This is what our dear Brother Paul wrote to you, with the wisdom that God gave him.

Do you, therefore, dear friends, now that you know this beforehand, be on your guard against being led away by the errors of reckless people, and so lapsing from your present steadfastness;

It is of what has been in existence from the Beginning, of what we have heard, of what we have seen with our eyes, of what we watched reverently and touched with our hands--it is about the Word who is the Life that we are now writing.

That Life was made visible, and we have seen it, and now bear our testimony to it, and tell you of that Immortal Life, which was with the Father and was made visible to us.

It is of what we have seen and heard that we now tell you, so that you may have communion with us. And our communion is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

And we are writing all this to you that our joy may be complete.

These, then, are the Tidings that we have heard from him and now tell you-- 'God is Light, and Darkness has no place at all in him.'

If we say that we have communion with him, and yet continue to live in the Darkness, we lie, and are not living the Truth.

If we say that there is no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth has no place in us.

If we say that we have not sinned, we are making God a liar, and his Message has no place in us.

And by this we know that we have learned to know him--by our laying his commands to heart.

but, whenever a man lays his Message to heart, in that man the love of God has indeed reached its perfection. By this we know that we are in union with God--

Dear friends, it is no new command that I am writing to you, but an old command, which you have had from the first. That old command is the Message to which you listened.

Yet, again, it is a new Command that I am writing to you-- manifest in Christ's life and in your own--for the Darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.

He who says that he is in the Light, and yet hates his Brother, is in the Darkness even now.

for all that the world can offer--the gratification of the earthly nature, the gratification of the eye, the pretentious life--belongs, not to the Father, but to the world.

And the world, and all that it gratifies, is passing away, but he who does God's will remains for ever.

My Children, these are the last days. You were told that an Anti-Christ was coming; and many Anti-Christ's have already arisen. By that we know that these are the last days.

From us, it is true, they went out, but they had never belonged to us; for, if they had belonged to us, they would have remained among us. They left us that it might be made clear that they do not, any of them, belong to us.

Who is a liar, if not the man who rejects the truth that Jesus is the Christ? He is the Anti-Christ--The man who rejects the Father and the Son.

But you--you still retain in your hears that consecration which you received from the Christ, and are not in need of any one to teach you; but, since his consecration of you teaches you about everything, and since it is a real consecration, and no lie, then, as it has taught you, maintain your union with him.

Yes, my Children, maintain your union with Christ, so that, whenever he appears, our confidence may not fail us, and we may not be ashamed to meet him at his coming.

Knowing him to be righteous, you realize that every one who lives righteously has received the new Life from him.

Think what love the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called 'Children of God'; as indeed we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it has not learned to know him.

Dear friends, we are God's Children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is that, when it is revealed, we shall be like Christ; because we shall see him as he is.

And you know that Christ appeared to take away our sins; and in him Sin has no place.

He who lives sinfully belongs to the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the first. It was for this that the Son of God appeared, that he might undo the Devil's work.

For these are the Tidings that we heard from the first--that we are to love one another.

We know that we have passed out of Death into Life, because we love our Brothers. The man who does not love remains in a state of Death.

Every one who hates his Brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has Immortal Life within him.

We have learned to know what love is from this--that Christ laid down his life on our behalf. Therefore we also ought to lay down our lives on behalf of our Brothers.

But, if any one has worldly possessions, and yet looks on while his Brother is in want, and steels his heart against him, how can it be said that the love of God is within him?