This book is one of the letters that the Apostle John wrote to his fellow believers. We call this book

1 John

1

1 John 1:1-4

We apostles proclaim to you the message about the One who has lived eternally, so that you may be joined together with us and we may be completely happy.

1I, John, am writing to you about the one who existed before there was anything else. He is the one whom we apostles listened to as he taught us! We saw him! We ourselves looked at him and touched him! He is the one who taught us the message that enables people to have eternal life (OR, live spiritually). 2Because he came here to the earth and we have seen him, we proclaim to you clearly that the one whom we have seen is the one who has always lived. He was previously with his Father in heaven, but he came to live among us. 3We proclaim to you the message about Jesus, the one whom we saw and heard, in order that you may have a close relationship with us. The ones whom we have a close relationship with are God our Father and his Son Jesus Christ. 4I am writing to you about these things so that you ◄will be convinced/believe► that they are true, and as a result we may be completely joyful.

We should continue to be morally pure, because God is morally pure, and he is able to forgive our sins on the basis that Jesus died to acquit us of the guilt of all our sins.

1 John 1:5—2:2

5The message that we heard from Christ and proclaim to you is this: God is pure in every way. He never sins. He is like [MET] a brilliant light that has no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have a close relationship with God, but we conduct our lives in an impure manner, that is like living [MET] in evil darkness. We are lying. We are not conducting our lives according to God’s true message. 7But living in a pure manner, as God is living in a pure manner [MET] in every way, is like living in God’s light. If we do that, we have a close relationship with each other. Not only that, but God ◄acquits us/removes the guilt► of all our sins because he accepts what his Son Jesus did for us when his blood flowed from his body when he died. So we should conduct our lives ◄in a manner according to what God says is pure►. 8Those who say they never behave sinfully are deceiving themselves, and refusing to accept as true what God says about them. 9But God will do what he says that he will do, and what he does is always right. So, if we confess to him that we have behaved sinfully, he will forgive us for our sins and ◄will free us from/remove► the guilt of all our sins. Because of that, we should confess to him that we have behaved sinfully. 10Because God says that everyone has sinned, those who say/claim that they have never behaved sinfully talk as though God lies! They reject what God says about us!

2

1You who are very dear to me, I am writing this to you to say, “Do not sin!” But if any of you believers sins, God can forgive you because we have Jesus Christ, who is the righteous one, who speaks to the Father on our behalf and asks him to forgive us. 2Remember that Jesus Christ voluntarily sacrificed his own life for us, so that as a result God forgives our sins. Yes, God is able to forgive our sins, but not only ours! He is also able to forgive the sins of people everywhere!

We should conduct our lives as Christ did, obeying what God commands us to do. We will then be loving God in the manner in which he wants us to.

1 John 2:3-6

3I will tell you how we can be sure that we ◄know/have a close relationship with► God. If we obey what he commands us to do, that shows us that we have a close relationship with him. So we must always obey what he commands us to do. 4Those who say, “We ◄know/have a close relationship with► God,” and do not obey what God commands us to do, are liars. They are not conducting their lives according to God’s true message. 5But those who obey what God commands them to do are the people who love God in the manner in which he wants us to. I will tell you how we can be sure that we have a close relationship with God: 6If we say that we are living as God wants us to, we should conduct our lives as Christ did.

We ought to love our fellow believers in order to continue behaving like people living in the light.

1 John 2:7-11

7Dear friends, I am not writing a new additional command to you. Instead, I am writing to you a command which was given to you when you first [MTY] believed in Christ. That command is part of the message that you have always heard. 8Nevertheless, I can say that the command I am writing to you is a new command. It is new because what Christ did was new, and what you are doing is new, because you have been ceasing to conduct your lives in a morally impure manner and are now truly conducting your lives in a pure manner. That is like [MET] no longer living in darkness. Instead, it is like living where a brilliant light is already shining. 9Those who claim that they are pure in every way, like people [MET] living in the light, but hate any of their fellow believers, are still behaving in an impure manner, like [MET] people who are continually living in darkness. 10But those who love their fellow believers are continuing to conduct their lives like people who are living in the light. They are people who please God [LIT]. So you should love your fellow believers. 11But those who hate any of their fellow believers are still conducting their lives in an impure way, like [MET] people who are living in darkness. They do not know that they will eventually destroy themselves eternally. They have become spiritually blind [PRS, MET], unaware of spiritual truth.

I am writing all these matters to you because I know that God has forgiven your sins and also because you have come to know the Father and Christ, who has always existed, and because you have overcome the evil one.

1 John 2:12-14

12-13I am writing this to you whom I love as though [MET] you were my little children, to you who are spiritually mature people who are like [MET] fathers, and to you spiritually vigorous/strong people who are like [MET] young men. Remember that your sins have been forgiven {God has forgiven your sins} on account of what Christ [MTY] has done. You now know Christ, the one who always existed. You have defeated the evil one, Satan. 14I will say it again: I have written this to you because you have come to know the Father, because you now know Christ, the one who always existed, because you are spiritually strong, because you continue to obey God’s word, and because you have defeated the evil one, Satan.

Do not esteem the evil manner in which other people in the world live, since you want to live forever.

1 John 2:15-17

15Do not desire to conduct you lives in the evil manner in which godless people in the world [MTY] conduct their lives, and do not love anything that the evil people in the world [MTY] consider to be good. Those who desire to conduct their lives in the evil manner in which other people of the world [MTY] conduct their lives do not really love God, their Father, at all. 16Keep in mind that all the evil human desires in the world are actions/things such as these: People desire to do what their self-directed nature strongly desires. People desire to possess whatever ◄appeals to their senses/they see or hear about►. People boast about the material things that they possess. Such evil ways of living do not originate/come from the Father! Instead they originate/come from the ◄godless people in the world/people in the world who conduct their lives in a manner that displeases God► [MTY]! 17The godless people in the world [MTY], along with what they desire, will disappear, but those who do what God wants them to do will live forever! You know that it is now the final period of this age when there are liars who deny that Jesus is God’s Chosen One. But you have the power of God’s Spirit and you know what is true and what is false. So continue to live according to the true message that you heard when you began to believe in Christ, in order that you may continue to live united both to God’s Son and to the Father.

1 John 2:18-25

18You who are very dear to me, it is now ◄the final part [MTY] of this age/the final period of time before Jesus returns►. Just like you heard from us apostles that a person who opposes Christ will come/appear, even now there are many people who oppose Christ. That is why we know that it is the final part of this age (OR, before Jesus returns) [MTY]. 19The people who oppose Christ refused to remain in our congregations, but they never really ◄belonged with us/were fellow believers►. If they had ◄belonged with us/been fellow believers►, they would have remained with us. But because they left, everyone can clearly know that none of them ◄belongs with us/is a fellow believer►. 20But as for you, you have been given the power of God’s Spirit, which comes from Christ (OR, God), the Holy One. As a result, you all know how to ◄distinguish false teaching from/recognize what is false teaching and what is► the true message. 21I am writing this letter to you, not because you do not know what is God’s true message, but because you do know what it is. You also know that no false message originates/comes from God, who is the source of all truth. 22The worst liars are the ones who deny that Jesus is ◄the Messiah/the one whom God chose to rescue us►. They are the ones that we told you about, the ones who oppose Christ. They refuse to acknowledge/admit that God is the Father and that Jesus is his Son (OR, the one who is also God). 23Those who refuse to acknowledge/admit that Jesus is God’s Son do not have a relationship with the Father. But those who acknowledge/admit that Jesus is God’s Son not only have a relationship with God’s Son, but they have a relationship with the Father also. 24So, as for you, you must continue to conduct your lives according to the true message that you heard when you began [MTY] to believe in Christ. If you continue to do that, you will continue to have a close relationship with both God’s Son and the Father. 25And what God told us is that he will cause us to live forever!

Continue to conduct your lives according to what you were originally taught by God’s Spirit.

1 John 2:26-27

26I have written this to you to ◄warn you about/tell you to beware of► those who want to deceive you concerning the truth about Christ. 27As for you, God’s Spirit, whom you received from Christ, remains in you. So you do not need anyone to teach you anything else that they claim/say is the truth. God’s Spirit is teaching you all of God’s truth that you need to know. God’s Spirit is truthful and never says anything that is false. So continue to conduct your lives in the way that he has taught you.

Continue to live united to Christ, so that you will be confident that he will accept you when he returns.

1 John 2:28-29

28Now, while some people are trying to persuade you to accept their false teaching, I urge you, who are all very dear to me, to continue to have a close relationship with Christ. We need to do that in order that we may be confident that he will accept us when he comes back again. If we do that, we will not be ashamed when we stand before him when he comes. 29Since you know that Christ always does what is right, you know that all those who continue doing what is right are the ones who have become children of God.

3

Do not allow anyone to seduce you to sin, because you are God’s children, and his children maintain themselves free from evil behavior by not continuing to sin as the devil’s children do.

1 John 3:1-10

1Think about how much our heavenly Father loves us! He allows us to ◄say that we are/be called► his children! And it is indeed true that we are his children. But people in the world [MTY] who are unbelievers have not understood who God is. So they do not understand who we are, that we belong to God. 2Dear friends, even though ◄at present/now► we are God’s children, he has not yet ◄made clear/revealed► to us what we will be like in the future. However, we know that when Christ comes back again, we will be like him, because we will see what he is really like. 3So, all those who confidently expect to see Christ as he actually is/what Christ is like when he returns must keep themselves pure in every way, just like Christ, who is pure in every way. 4But everyone who continues sinning is refusing to obey God’s laws, because that is what sin is, refusing to obey God’s laws. 5You know that Christ came in order to completely remove the guilt of our sins. You know also that he never sinned. 6Those who continue doing what Christ wants them to, do not continue sinning repeatedly. But those who repeatedly sin have not understood who Christ is, nor have they had a close relationship with him. 7So I urge you, who are all very dear to me, do not let anyone deceive you by telling you that it is all right to sin. If you continue doing what is right, you are righteous, just like Christ is righteous. 8But if anyone continues sinning, he is like the devil, because the devil has always been sinning. And the reason why God’s Son became a human being was to destroy what the devil has done. 9People do not continue sinning repeatedly if they have become children of God. Instead, they continue to conduct their lives according to the character/nature that God produced in them [MET]. They cannot continually sin because God has caused them to become his children. 10Those who are God’s children are clearly different from those who are ◄the devil’s/Satan’s► children. The way that we can know who are Satan’s children is this: Those who do not do what is right are not God’s children. Specifically, those who do not love their fellow believers are not God’s children Instead, they are Satan’s children.

Because we have been changed from being spiritually dead people to being spiritually alive people, we should love each other genuinely by helping our fellow believers who are in need.

1 John 3:11-18

11The message that you heard when you first [MTY] believed in Christ is that we should love each other. 12We should not hate others as did Adam’s son, Cain, who belonged to Satan, the evil one. Because Cain hated his younger brother, he murdered him. ◄I will tell you about why he murdered his brother./Do you know why he murdered his brother [RHQ]?► It was because Cain habitually conducted his life in an evil way, and he hated his younger brother because his younger brother conducted his life righteously. 13You should not be amazed/surprised, my fellow believers, when unbelievers [MTY] hate you. 14We know that we have been changed from being spiritually dead [MET] to being spiritually alive. We know this because we love our fellow believers. Those who do not love their fellow believers are still spiritually [MET] dead. 15Those who hate any of their fellow believers, God considers [MET] them to be murderers. And you know that no murderer has eternal life. 16The way that we now know how to truly love our fellow believers is by remembering that Christ ◄voluntarily died/gave his life► for us. So, when our fellow believers need something, we should be willing to help them. We should even be willing to die for them. 17Many of us have the things that are necessary for us to live in this world. If we become aware that any of our fellow believers do not have what they need and if we refuse to ◄provide for them/give to them what they need►, it is clear that we do not love God as we claim/say that we do. 18I say to all of you whom I love dearly, let us not merely say [MTY] that we love our fellow believers! Let us genuinely/really love them by doing things to help them!

We must believe in God’s Son and love each other in order to be confident that we have a close relationship with God and that we will receive what we ask from him.

1 John 3:19-24

19When we truly love our fellow believers, we can be sure that we are conducting our lives according to the true message. As a result, we will not feel guilty/ashamed when we talk [MTY] to God. 20We can pray confidently, because although we might feel guilty/ashamed about our sins, God is ◄greater/more worthy to be trusted► than what we feel. He knows everything about us. 21Dear friends, when we do not feel guilty because of our sins, we can pray to God confidently. 22And, when we confidently pray to him and request something from him, we receive it because we do what he commands us to do, and because we do what pleases him. 23I will tell you what he commands us to do: We must believe that Jesus Christ is ◄his Son/the one who is also God►. We must also love each other, just like he commanded us to do. 24Those who do what God commands are ones who have a close relationship with God, and God has a close relationship with them. I will tell you how we can be sure that God has a close relationship with us: It is because we have his Spirit, whom he gave to us, that we can be sure that God has a close relationship with us.

4

Continue to test the teachings you hear to know whether or not they are from God. You should test those who teach them by whether or not they acknowledge that Jesus Christ came in human form and also by what kind of people listen to that kind of teaching.

1 John 4:1-6

1Dear friends, many people who have a false message are teaching it to people [MTY]. So do not trust every message that someone claims/says that God’s Spirit [MTY] gave to him. Instead, ◄test/think carefully about► the teachings that you hear in order to know whether they are from God or not. 2I will tell you how to recognize teachings that come from the Spirit of God: Those who affirm/say that Jesus Christ came from God to become a human like us are teaching a message that is from God. 3But those who do not affirm/say that about Jesus are not teaching a message from God. They are teachers who oppose Christ. You have heard that people like that are coming to be among us. Even now they are already here!

4As for you who are very dear to me, you belong to God, and you have refused the false messages that those people teach, because God, who enables you to do what he wants, is ◄greater/more powerful► than ◄Satan/the devil►, who enables ◄godless people/people who conduct their lives in a way that displeases God► [MTY]. 5As for those who are teaching what is false, they are ◄godless people/people whose lives are displeasing to God► [MTY]. Because of that, they teach what ◄godless people/people whose lives are displeasing to God► [MTY] want to hear. That is why the ◄godless people/people whose lives displease God► [MTY] listen to them. 6As for us (exc), because we belong to God, whoever ◄knows/has a close relationship with► God listens to us. But those who do not belong to God do not listen to us. That is how we can know whether the things that people are teaching [MTY] are true or whether they are false, and deceiving people.

We must love each other. God shows us what real love is.

1 John 4:7-11

7Dear friends, we must love each other, because God enables us to love each other, and because those who love their fellow believers have become God’s children and ◄know/have a close relationship with► him. 8God’s nature is to love all people. So those who do not love their fellow believers do not ◄know/have a relationship with► God. 9I will tell you how God has shown us that he loves us: He sent ◄his only Son/the only one who was also God► to live on the earth to enable us to live eternally as a result of our trusting in what he accomplished for us by dying for us. 10And God has shown us what it means to love another person: It does not mean that we loved God, but it means that God loved us and sent ◄his Son/the one who was also God► to sacrifice his life in order that our sins might be forgiven {he might forgive our sins}. 11Dear friends, since God loves us like that, we certainly ought to love each other!

In order to be assured that we are conducting our lives according to God’s character, we must love God and our fellow believers, because God loved us first.

1 John 4:12-21

12No one has ever seen God. Nevertheless, if we love each other, it is evident that God lives within us and that we love others just like he intends/wants us to do. 13I will tell you how we can be sure that we have a close relationship with God and that God is within us: He has put his Spirit within us. 14We apostles have seen ◄God’s Son/the one who is also God►, and we tell people that the Father sent him to save the people in the world [MTY] from being punished for their sins. 15So those who affirm/say that Jesus is the ◄Son of/one who is also► God, God is within them, and they have a close relationship with God. 16We have experienced how God loves us and we believe that he loves us. As a result, we love others. Because God’s nature is to love people, those who continue to love others have a close relationship with God, and God has a close relationship with them. 17We should love others completely. And if we do that, when the time comes for him to judge us, we will be confident that he will not condemn us (OR, that we have a close relationship with him). We will be confident of that because of our conducting our lives in this world as Christ did. 18We will not be afraid of God if we truly love him, because those who love God completely cannot possibly be afraid of him. We would be afraid only if we thought that he would punish us. So those who are afraid of God certainly are not loving God completely. 19We love God and our fellow believers because God loved us first. 20So those who say “I love God” but hate a fellow believer are lying. Those who do not love one of their fellow believers, whom they have seen, certainly cannot be loving God, whom they have not seen. 21Keep in mind that this is what God has commanded us: If we love him, we must also love our fellow believers.

5

Those who believe that Jesus is God’s Chosen One are people who have been caused to live spiritually, and they love their fellow believers. They obey God’s commands and overcome the evils of human society.

1 John 5:1-5

1All those who believe that Jesus is the ◄Messiah/person God sent to rescue us► are ones who have truly become children of God. And everyone who loves a man who is someone’s father will be expected to love that man’s children as well. Similarly, those who love God, who has caused them to become his children [MET], should love their fellow believers, whom God has also caused to become his children. 2The way we can be sure that we truly love God’s children is this: We are loving them when we love God and do what he commands us to do. 3I say this because our obeying what God commands us to do is the same as loving him. And it is not burdensome/difficult for us to do what God commands us to do. 4All of us whom God has caused to become his children have been able to successfully resist ◄doing what/conducting our lives like► the people [MTY] who oppose God do. It is only by our trusting in Christ that we are able to ◄resist doing what/conducting our lives like► people in the world who are opposed to God [MTY] do. 5◄I will tell you who are the ones who are able to resist doing what the people who are opposed to God do./Do you know who are the ones who are able to resist conducting their lives like the people who are opposed to God [MTY] do? [RHQ]► It is those who believe that Jesus is ◄God’s Son/the man who is also God►.

Jesus came from God to earth. Those who believe in and live united to him have eternal life.

1 John 5:6-12

6Think about Jesus Christ. He is the one who came to earth from God. God showed that he had truly sent Jesus when Jesus was baptized in water [MTY] and when Jesus’ blood flowed from his body when he died. God showed this not only when Jesus was baptized [MTY], but also when Jesus’ blood flowed from his body when he died. And God’s Spirit declares truthfully that Jesus Christ came from God. The Spirit always speaks what is true. 7There are three ways by which we know that Christ came from God . 8Those three ways are: What God’s Spirit tells us, what God said when Jesus was baptized [MTY] in/with water, and Jesus’ blood that flowed from his body when he died on the cross. These three things all tell us the same thing, that Jesus came from God. 9We usually believe what other people say. But what God says is more reliable/trustworthy than what people say. So we must believe what God has said is true about ◄his Son/the one who is also God►. 10Those who trust in the Son of God know within their ◄inner beings/hearts► that what God says about his Son is true. But those who refuse to believe that what God says is true are saying that God is a liar, because they refuse to believe what God has said about ◄his Son/the one who is also God►. 11This is what God says to us: “I have given you eternal life!” We will live forever if we have a close relationship with his Son. 12Those who have a close relationship with God’s Son (OR, who have accepted what God’s Son has done for them) have already begun to live forever. But those who do not have a relationship with ◄God’s Son/the one who is also God► (OR, who have not accepted what God’s Son has done for them) have not begun to live forever.

We have a close relationship with God because we are united to his Son. Because of that relationship, we have eternal life.

1 John 5:13-21

13I have written this letter to you who believe that Jesus is [MTY] ◄God’s Son/the one who is also God► in order that you may know that you have eternal life. 14Because we have a close relationship with him, we are very confident that he hears us when we ask him to do anything that is in accordance with ◄his will/what he desires►. 15And since we know that he hears whenever we ask him for something, we also know that it is as though he has already done what we requested him to do.

16Those who see one of their fellow believers sinning in a way that does not result in being eternally separated from God should ask God to help that fellow believer; and as a result God will help that fellow believer and enable him or her to live eternally. But some people sin in a manner that causes them to be separated from God eternally. I am not saying that you should ask God to help people who sin like that. 17Everyone who does what is wrong is sinning, but there are some sins that do not cause a person to be separated from God. 18We know that if a person has new life from God [MET], that person does not continue sinning. Instead, the ◄Son of/one who is also► God protects him so that Satan, the evil one, does not harm him spiritually. 19We know that we belong to God, and we know that the evil one controls all the evil people in [MTY] the world. 20We also know that ◄God’s Son/the one who is also God► has come to us, and we know that he has enabled us to know God, the one who is really/truly God. So now we have a close relationship with God because we belong to Jesus Christ, the one who is the ◄Son of/man who is also► God. Jesus Christ is truly God, and he is the one who enables us to have eternal life.

21I say to you who are very dear to me, guard/keep yourselves from worshipping gods that have no real power!