1 John 4

Don't Believe Everything You Hear

1 My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.

2 Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ-the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person-comes from God and belongs to God.3 And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!

4 My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world.5 These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world's language and the world eats it up.6 But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.

God Is Love

7 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God.8 The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love-so you can't know him if you don't love.9 This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him.10 This is the kind of love we are talking about-not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

11 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other.12 No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us-perfect love!

13 This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit.14 Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world.15 Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God.16 We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

To Love, to Be Loved

17 This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day-our standing in the world is identical with Christ's.18 There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life-fear of death, fear of judgment-is one not yet fully formed in love.

19 We, though, are going to love-love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

20 If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see?21 The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.

1 John 5

1 Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten. If we love the One who conceives the child, we'll surely love the child who was conceived.2 The reality test on whether or not we love God's children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands?3 The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome.

The Power That Brings the World to Its Knees

4 Every God-begotten person conquers the world's ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith.5 The person who wins out over the world's ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.

6 Jesus-the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God's presence at Jesus' baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us.7 A triple testimony:8 the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement.

9 If we take human testimony at face value, how much more should we be reassured when God gives testimony as he does here, testifying concerning his Son.10 Whoever believes in the Son of God inwardly confirms God's testimony. Whoever refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to believe God's own testimony regarding his Son.

11 This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son.12 So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.

The Reality, Not the Illusion

13 My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion.14 And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he's listening.15 And if we're confident that he's listening, we know that what we've asked for is as good as ours.

16 For instance, if we see a Christian believer sinning (clearly I'm not talking about those who make a practice of sin in a way that is "fatal," leading to eternal death), we ask for God's help and he gladly gives it, gives life to the sinner whose sin is not fatal. There is such a thing as a fatal sin, and I'm not urging you to pray about that.17 Everything we do wrong is sin, but not all sin is fatal.

18 We know that none of the God-begotten makes a practice of sin-fatal sin. The God-begotten are also the God-protected. The Evil One can't lay a hand on them.19 We know that we are held firm by God; it's only the people of the world who continue in the grip of the Evil One.20 And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God-what a gift!-and we are living in the Truth itself, in God's Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus is both True God and Real Life.21 Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles.

2 John 1

1 My dear congregation, I, your pastor, love you in very truth. And I'm not alone-everyone who knows the Truth2 that has taken up permanent residence in us loves you.

3 Let grace, mercy, and peace be with us in truth and love from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, Son of the Father!

4 I can't tell you how happy I am to learn that many members of your congregation are diligent in living out the Truth, exactly as commanded by the Father.5 But permit me a reminder, friends, and this is not a new commandment but simply a repetition of our original and basic charter: that we love each other.6 Love means following his commandments, and his unifying commandment is that you conduct your lives in love. This is the first thing you heard, and nothing has changed.

Don't Walk Out on God

7 There are a lot of smooth-talking charlatans loose in the world who refuse to believe that Jesus Christ was truly human, a flesh-and-blood human being. Give them their true title: Deceiver! Antichrist!

8 And be very careful around them so you don't lose out on what we've worked so diligently in together; I want you to get every reward you have coming to you.9 Anyone who gets so progressive in his thinking that he walks out on the teaching of Christ, walks out on God. But whoever stays with the teaching, stays faithful to both the Father and the Son.

10 If anyone shows up who doesn't hold to this teaching, don't invite him in and give him the run of the place.11 That would just give him a platform to perpetuate his evil ways, making you his partner.

12 I have a lot more things to tell you, but I'd rather not use paper and ink. I hope to be there soon in person and have a heart-to-heart talk. That will be far more satisfying to both you and me.13 Everyone here in your sister congregation sends greetings.