Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 455
2:22–3:12
1 John
443
don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth
and lies. And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ.
Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. Anyone who
denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the
beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with
the Father. And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.
I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you
astray. But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so
you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you
everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie.
So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.
And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he
returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.
Since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do
what is right are God’s children.
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and
that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends,
we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will
be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for
we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will
keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law
of God. And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there
is no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But
anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do
what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.
But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil,
who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to
destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they
can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. So now we can
tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone
who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not
belong to God.
This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love
one another. We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and
