1 John

¹ Here is what was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and touched with our hands: about the Conversation of life, ² the Life that was made visible—we have seen it and told you about it and announced agelong life to you which was with the Father and was made visible to you. ³ We announce what we have seen and heard to you too so that you can also partake in community with us—specifically, our community with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And we write these things so that our joy can be filled up by it.

⁵ This is the message that we heard from him and announced to you: that God is light and there is no darkness in God at all. ⁶ If we say that we partake in community with God and keep walking in the dark, we are lying and not living out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light as God is in the light, we partake in community with each other, and the blood of God's Son Jesus cleanses us from all deviation. ⁸ If we were to say that we don’t have deviation, we are misleading ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we were to openly acknowledge our deviations, God is faithful and just, so that God would dismiss our deviations for us and cleanse us from all unjustness. ¹⁰ If we were to say that we haven’t deviated, we make God a liar and God's conversation is not among us.

¹ (My children, I am writing these things to you so that you won’t deviate.) And if someone deviates, we have an advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ who is just; ² and he is the means of reconciliation regarding our deviations, and not only regarding ours but also those of the whole world. ³ This is how we know that we have come to know him: if we pay attention to his directions. ⁴ Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but also doesn’t pay attention to his directions is a liar and is not connected with the truth. ⁵ But, whoever pays attention to what he has discussed, the love of God truly has matured within them; that’s how we know that we are connected with him. ⁶ Whoever claims staying connected with him owes it to walk just the same as he walked.

⁷ Loved ones, I’m not writing a new direction for you, but just the opposite, an ancient direction that you’ve had from the beginning. The ancient direction is the conversation that you listened to. ⁸ Yet again, I am writing a new direction for you, which is trustworthy in connection with him and with you, because the darkness is fading and the true light is already shining. ⁹ Whoever claims to be in the light but also hates a member of their Family is still in the dark. ¹⁰ Whoever loves their Family member stays in the light, and there is nothing to make them trip. ¹¹ But whoever hates their Family member is in the dark and walks in the dark and can’t see where they’re going because the darkness has blinded their eyes.

¹² Children, I’m writing to you that deviations have been dismissed for you because of his name. ¹³ Fathers, I’m writing to you that you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. Young people, I’m writing to you that you have triumphed over hardship. ¹⁴ Little children, I’m writing to you that you have come to know the Father. Fathers, I’m writing to you that you have come to know the one who is from the beginning. Young people, I’m writing to you that you are strong, and the conversation of God stays present among you, and you have triumphed over hardship.

¹⁵ You have neither loved the world system nor the things that are connected with the world system. If someone loves the world system, the love of the Father is not within them ¹⁶ because everything that is connected with the world system (bodily desires and the desires of the eyes and pretentious living) is not from the Father but rather is from the world system. ¹⁷ The world system, and its desires, is fading away, but the one who does what God desires stays present throughout the Age.

¹⁸ Little children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that a competing christ is coming, and now there have come to be many competing christs, which is how we have come to understand that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from among us, but they weren’t really part of us because if they were part of us, they would have stayed with us, but the result is that it’s been made clear that they all are not part of us. ²⁰ You do have an anointing from the Sacred One, and you all have understood. ²¹ I have not written to you that you haven’t understood the truth, but just the opposite, that you have understood it and that every lie is not part of the truth. ²² Who is the liar if not whoever rejects that Jesus is the Christ? This is the one who is a competing christ: whoever rejects the Father and the Son. ²³ Every person who rejects the Son does not have the Father either. Whoever openly acknowledges the Son also has the Father. ²⁴ May what you heard from the beginning stay present among you. If what you heard from the beginning stays present among you, you will stay connected both with the Son and with the Father. ²⁵ And this is the promise that he made to you: agelong life. ²⁶ I am writing to you these things about those misleading you. ²⁷ As for you, the anointing which you received from him stays among you, and you have no need for someone to teach you, but since his anointing teaches you about everything and is trustworthy and is not a lie—since it has taught you—you stay connected with him. ²⁸ And now, children, stay connected with him, so that if he is made visible we can have confidence to speak and not withdraw from him with shame at his arrival. ²⁹ If you have understood that he is just, you will know that everyone who behaves justly has been birthed by him.

¹ (See what kind of love the Father has given us: that we would be named children of God—and we are! The reason the world doesn’t understand us is because it didn’t understand him. ² Loved ones, we are God’s children right now, and what we will be has not yet been made clear. We have learned that if it were made clear, we would be like him because we would see him as he is. ³ Everyone who has this hope that’s dependent on him purifies themselves as Jesus is pure.)

⁴ Everyone who produces deviation also produces Torah-lessness; in fact, deviation is Torah-lessness. ⁵ And you have learned that he was made visible to lift away deviation, and deviation is not aligned with him. ⁶ Everyone who stays present with him does not deviate; everyone who deviates has not seen him or known him.

⁷ Children, may no one mislead you: Whoever produces justness is just as he is just. ⁸ Whoever produces deviation is from the False Accuser since the False Accuser deviated from the beginning. The Son of God was made visible for this: so that he would dismantle what the False Accuser has accomplished. ⁹ Everyone who has been birthed by God does not produce deviation because his seed stays present with him and is not able to deviate because they have been birthed by God. ¹⁰ This is how the children of God and the children of the False Accuser are distinguished: Everyone who doesn’t produce justness—everyone who doesn’t love any member of their Family—is not from God. ¹¹ That’s because this is the message you’ve heard from the beginning: that we should love each other, ¹² not being like Cain who was from the oppressive one and slaughtered his brother. And for what cause did he slaughter him? Because his actions were oppressive, but his brother’s actions were just.

¹³ Similarly, Family, don’t be shocked if the world system hates you. ¹⁴ We have come to know that we have gone over from death to life since we love the members of the Family. Whoever doesn’t love stays in death. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates a member of their Family is a murderer, and you know that no murderer still has agelong life present within them. ¹⁶ This is how we have come to understand love: because Jesus set aside his very life for our sake; and we owe it to set aside our very lives for the sake of the members of our Family. ¹⁷ But whoever has the world’s kind of life and sees their Family member with a need and locks up compassion toward them—how is the love of God still present within them?

¹⁸ Children, we shouldn’t love with speech or the tongue, but instead, with action and in reality. ¹⁹ And this is how we will know that we are from the Truth—we will persuade our hearts in God's presence: ²⁰ If our hearts conclude that God is more important than our hearts and knows everything.

²¹ Loved ones, if our hearts don’t come to that conclusion, we have courage to speak with God, ²² and we receive whatever we request from God because we pay attention to God's directions and we do what God sees as pleasing. ²³ Specifically, this is God's direction: that we would place our trust in the name of God's Son Jesus Christ and love each other, just as he gave us the direction. ²⁴ Whoever pays attention to his direction stays present with him, and he stays present with them. This is how we know that he stays present among us: because of the Life-breath which he gave us.

¹ Loved ones, do not trust every spirit-breath, but examine whether the spirit-breaths seem to be from God because many false prophets have gone out to the world. ² This is how you recognize the Life-breath of God: Every spirit-breath that acknowledges Jesus Christ—who has come bodily—is from God, ³ and every spirit-breath who does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. In fact, that one belongs to a competing christ, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.

⁴ Children, you are from God and have triumphed over the false prophets because the one who is among you is bigger than the one who is in the world system. ⁵ The false prophets are from the world system; that’s why they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God; whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the true Life-breath and the mis-leading spirit-breath.

⁷ Loved ones, we should love each other because love is from God, and everyone who loves has come to be from God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God since God is love. ⁹ This is how the love of God is distinguished among you: that God has sent God's one-of-a-kind Son to the whole world so that we could be alive through him. ¹⁰ This is what love is like: Not that we have loved God but instead that God loved us and sent the Son, the means of reconciliation regarding our deviations.

¹¹ Loved ones, if this is how God loved us, we owe it to love each other too. ¹² No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God stays present among us, and the love of God is complete among us. ¹³ This is how we know that we stay present with God and God stays present among us: that God has given us some of God's Life-breath. ¹⁴ And we have seen it and we tell people that the Father has sent the Son, liberator of the whole world.

¹⁵ Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God stays present with them, and they stay present with God. ¹⁶ And we have come to know and trust the love which God has among us. God is love, and whoever stays present in love stays present with God, and God stays present with them. ¹⁷ This is how the love has been completed with us: that we have courage to speak on the day of assessment because we also are in this world system just like Jesus. ¹⁸ Fear is not connected with love; just the opposite, mature love banishes fear because fear engages in punishment, but whoever fears has not been brought to maturity regarding love.

¹⁹ We love because God loved us first. ²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” but also hates a member of their Family, they are a liar. That’s because whoever doesn’t love one of the members their Family whom they have seen is not able to love God whom they have not seen. ²¹ And this direction we have from God: Whoever loves God should love their Family member too.

¹ Everyone who trusts that Jesus is the Christ has been birthed by God, and everyone who loves the one who gives birth loves whoever is birthed by God. ² This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and follow through with God’s directions. ³ You see, the love of God is this: that we pay attention to God’s directions, and God’s directions are not burdensome. ⁴ That’s because everything that has been birthed by God triumphs over the world system. And this is the triumph happening over the world system: our trust. ⁵ Who is the one who triumphs over the world system if not whoever trusts that Jesus is the Son of God? ⁶ This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ—not with water only but with water and with blood. The Life-breath is a witness, since the Life-breath is truth, ⁷ because there are three witnesses: ⁸ the Life-breath and water and blood, and the three are one.

⁹ If we accept a declaration of what’s true from people, God’s declaration of what’s true is more important since this is God’s declaration that God has given about the Son. ¹⁰ (Whoever places their trust in the Son of God possesses in themselves the declaration of what’s true. Whoever does not trust God makes God out to be a liar because they have not placed their trust in what God has declared to be true about God’s Son.) ¹¹ And this is the declaration: God gave us agelong life, and this life is connected with the Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

¹³ I wrote these things to you—who place your trust in the name of the Son of God—so you would understand that you have agelong life. ¹⁴ And this is the courage to speak we have while we are with him because if we request anything based in what he desires, he hears us. ¹⁵ And if we have learned that he hears us—whatever we request—then we have learned that we have what we have requested from him. ¹⁶ If anyone learns that a member of their Family is deviating but not toward death, they will make the request, and he will give life to them. If it is a deviation toward death, I’m not saying to ask about that one. ¹⁷ Everything unjust is deviation, but there is also deviation that is not toward death.

¹⁸ We have come to know that everyone birthed by God doesn’t deviate, but whoever is birthed by God watches him, and harm can’t stick to them. ¹⁹ We have come to know that we are from God and the entire world system lies down with harm. ²⁰ We have come to know that the Son of God is present and has given us insight so that we can know the true one, and we are connected with the true one, with God’s Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and agelong life. ²¹ Children, keep watch over yourselves so that you stay away from idols.