AFV2020 - I John

Chapter 1

1:1  That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our own eyes, that which we observed for ourselves and our own hands handled, concerning the Word of life;

1:2  (And the life was manifested, and we have seen, and are bearing witness, and are reporting to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us;)

1:3  That which we have seen and have heard we are reporting to you in order that you also may have fellowship with us; for the fellowship—indeed, our fellowship— is with the Father and with His own Son, Jesus Christ.

1:4  These things we are also writing to you, so that your joy may be completely full.

1:5  And this is the message that we have heard from Him and are declaring to you: that God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him.

1:6  If we proclaim that we have fellowship with Him, but we are walking in the darkness, we are lying to ourselves, and we are not practicing the Truth.

1:7  However, if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His own Son, cleanses us from all sin.

1:8  If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1:9  If we confess our own sins, He is faithful and righteous, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1:10  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.

Chapter 2

2:1  My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And yet, if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father; Jesus Christ the Righteous;

2:2  And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

2:3  And by this standard we know that we know Him: if we keep His commandments.

2:4  The one who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

2:5  On the other hand, if anyone is keeping His Word, truly in this one the love of God is being perfected. By this means we know that we are in Him.

2:6  Anyone who claims to dwell in Him is obligating himself also to walk even as He Himself walked.

2:7  Brethren, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the message that you have heard from the beginning.

2:8  Again, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

2:9  Anyone who claims that he is in the light, but hates his brother, is in the darkness until now.

2:10  The one who loves his brother is dwelling in the light, and there is no cause of offense in him.

2:11  But the one who hates his brother is in darkness, and is walking in darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

2:12  I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you through His name.

2:13  I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known Him Who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I am writing to you, little children, because you have known the Father.

2:14  I wrote to you, fathers, because you have known Him Who is from the beginning. I wrote to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God is dwelling in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

2:15  Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him

2:16  Because everything that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pretentious pride of physical life—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

2:17  And the world and its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

2:18  Little children, it is the last time; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, by which we know that it is the last time.

2:19  They went out from among us, but they were not of us because if they were of us, they would have remained with us; nevertheless, they left that they might be exposed to show that they all were not of us.

2:20  But you have the anointing from the Holy One, and you have knowledge of all things pertaining to salvation.

2:21  I did not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you understand that not one lie comes from the truth.

2:22  Who is the liar if it is not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the antichrist—the one who denies the Father and the Son.

2:23  Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either.

2:24  Therefore, let what you have heard from the beginning dwell in you; if what you have heard from the beginning is dwelling in you, then you will be dwelling in the Son and in the Father.

2:25  And this is the promise that He has promised us: eternal life.

2:26  These things I have written to you concerning those who are leading you astray.

2:27  But you yourselves have dwelling in you the anointing that you received from Him; and you do not have need of anyone to indoctrinate you; for the same anointing instructs you in all spiritual things, and is true, and is not a lie; and if you do exactly as it has taught you, you will be dwelling in Him.

2:28  And now, little children, dwell in Him, so that when He is manifested we may have boldness, and not be put to shame before Him at His coming.

2:29  If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been begotten by Him.

Chapter 3

3:1  Behold! What glorious love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God! For this very reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him.

3:2  Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be; but we know that when He is manifested, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him exactly as He is.

3:3  And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure.

3:4  Everyone who practices sin is also practicing lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness.

3:5  And you know that He appeared in order that He might take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.

3:6  Everyone who dwells in Him does not practice sin; anyone who practices sin has not seen Him, nor has known Him.

3:7  Little children, do not allow anyone to deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.

3:8  The one who practices sin is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God appeared that He might destroy the works of the devil.

3:9  Everyone who has been begotten by God does not practice sin because His seed of begettal is dwelling within him, and he is not able to practice sin because he has been begotten by God.

3:10  By this standard are manifest the children of God and the children of the devil. Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, and neither is the one who does not love his brother.

3:11  For this is the message that you heard from the beginning—that we should love one another;

3:12  Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and murdered his own brother. And what was the reason that he murdered him? Because his own works were wicked, but his brother's works were righteous.

3:13  My brethren, do not be amazed if the world hates you.

3:14  We know that we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren. The one who does not love his brother is dwelling in death.

3:15  Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life dwelling within him.

3:16  By this very act we have known the love of God because He laid down His life for us: and we ourselves are to lay down our lives for the brethren.

3:17  But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his feelings of compassion from him, how can the love of God be dwelling in him?

3:18  My little children, we should not love in word, nor with our tongues; rather, we should love in deed and in truth.

3:19  And in this way we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him,

3:20  That if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things.

3:21  Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, then we have confidence toward God.

3:22  And whatever we may ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and practice those things that are pleasing in His sight.

3:23  And this is His commandment: that we believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and that we love one another, exactly as He gave commandment to us.

3:24  And the one who keeps His commandments is dwelling in Him, and He in him; and by this we know that He is dwelling in us: by the Spirit which He has given to us.

Chapter 4

4:1  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

4:2  By this test you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

4:3  And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. And this is the spirit of antichrist, which you heard was to come, and even now it is already in the world.

4:4  You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is He Who is in you than the one who is in the world.

4:5  They are of the world; because of this, they speak of the world, and the world listens to them.

4:6  We are of God; the one who knows God listens to us; the one who is not of God does not listen to us. By this means we know the Spirit of the truth and the spirit of the deception.

4:7  Beloved, we should love one another because love is from God; and everyone who loves has been begotten by God, and knows God.

4:8  The one who does not love does not know God because God is love.

4:9  In this way the love of God was manifested toward us: that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.

4:10  In this act is the love—not that we loved God; rather, that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

4:11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also are duty-bound to love one another.

4:12  No one has seen God at any time. Yet, if we love one another, God dwells in us, and His own love is perfected in us.

4:13  By this standard we know that we are dwelling in Him, and He is dwelling in us: because of His own Spirit, which He has given to us.

4:14  And we have seen for ourselves and bear witness that the Father sent the Son as the Savior of the world.

4:15  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God.

4:16  And we have known and have believed the love that God has toward us. God is love, and the one who dwells in love is dwelling in God, and God in him.

4:17  By this spiritual indwelling, the love of God is perfected within us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because even as He is, so also are we in this world.

4:18  There is no fear in the love of God; rather, perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. And the one who fears has not been made perfect in the love of God.

4:19  We love Him because He loved us first.

4:20  If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how is he able to love God Whom he has not seen?

4:21  And this is the commandment that we have from Him: that the one who loves God should also love his brother.

Chapter 5

5:1  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten by God; and everyone who loves Him Who begat also loves him who has been begotten by Him.

5:2  By this standard we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments.

5:3  For this is the love of God: that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

5:4  Now then, everyone who is begotten by God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world—our faith.

5:5  Who is the one who overcomes the world? Even the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

5:6  This is He Who came by water and blood—Jesus the Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.

5:7  And it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is the truth.

5:8  For there are three that bear witness on the earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three witness unto the one truth.

5:9  If we accept the witness of men, the witness of God is superior. For this is the witness of God, which He has witnessed concerning His Son.

5:10  The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar because he has not believed in the witness that God has witnessed concerning His Son.

5:11  And this is the witness: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

5:12  The one who has the Son has eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have eternal life.

5:13  These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

5:14  And this is the confidence that we have toward Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

5:15  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we may ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.

5:16  If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin that is not unto death, he shall ask, and He will give him life for those who do not sin unto death. There is a sin unto death; concerning that sin, I do not say that he should make any supplication to God.

5:17  All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death.

5:18  We know that anyone who is begotten by God does not practice sin; for the one who has been begotten by God keeps himself by the power of God, and the wicked one does not touch him.

5:19  We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the wicked one.

5:20  And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, so that we may know Him Who is true; and we are in Him Who is true, and in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and the eternal life.

5:21  Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.