Translation in British English
1:1 From the outset, that which we have intimately heard, beheld with our own eyes, gazed upon, and our hands have touched, concerning the Word of life;
1:2 For indeed, the life was revealed, and we have seen, testified, and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was unveiled to us;
1:3 What we have seen and heard, we also communicate to you, so that you too may share in our communion: indeed, our communion is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1:4 And we pen these words to you so that your joy may be complete.
1:5 Thus, the message we have heard from Him and announce to you is that God is light, and in Him, there is no darkness whatsoever.
1:6 If we claim to have communion with Him yet walk in darkness, we deceive ourselves and do not live by the truth:
1:7 However, if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have communion with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son purifies us from all sin.
1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just 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.
2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one:
2:2 He is the atonement for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
2:3 By this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments.
2:4 Whoever says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in them.
2:5 But whoever keeps His word, in them truly the love of God has reached perfection. By this we know that we are in Him.
2:6 Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.
2:7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the message you have heard.
2:8 Yet, I am writing a new commandment to you, which holds true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
2:9 Whoever claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.
2:10 Whoever loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.
2:11 But whoever hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; they do not know where they are going because the darkness has blinded them.
2:12 I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name.
2:13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.
2:14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them.
2:16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
2:17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
2:18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
2:19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
2:20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
2:21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
2:22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.
2:23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
2:24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.
2:25 And this is what He promised us—eternal life.
2:26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
2:27 As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in Him.
2:28 And now, dear children, continue in Him, so that when He appears we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming.
2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him.
3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
3:3 All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.
3:4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
3:5 But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin.
3:6 No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him.
3:7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.
3:8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.
3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
3:11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
3:12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
3:13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
3:15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
3:19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence:
3:20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.
3:21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God
3:22 and receive from Him anything we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him.
3:23 And this is His commandment: that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
3:24 The one who keeps God’s commandments lives in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us.
4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
4:2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
4:3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
4:5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.
4:6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
4:9 This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.
4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
4:13 This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit.
4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
4:15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
4:17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
4:19 We love because He first loved us.
4:20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates a brother or sister, they are a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
4:21 And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
5:2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commandments.
5:3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,
5:4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
5:5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
5:6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
5:7 For there are three that testify:
5:8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
5:9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son.
5:10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about His Son.
5:11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
5:12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
5:15 And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.
5:16 Should anyone observe their brother committing a sin not leading to death, they ought to pray, and God will grant life to those who commit sin not unto death. There exists a sin leading to death; I do not advise that one should pray for that.
5:17 All wrongdoing is indeed sin, yet there is sin that does not lead to death.
5:18 We understand that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one born of God keeps themselves safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.
5:19 We are certain that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of wickedness.
5:20 We know that the Son of God has arrived and has endowed us with insight to recognise the truth. And we are in the truth, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
5:21 Dear children, guard yourselves from idols. Amen.
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