1 John 2

1 My little children, these things I write unto you that you might rest in Him and His life, so that you do not enlist your members to clothe yourself with the life in the world that perishes in death, but find rest in the certainty of Him clothing you in His incorruptible life. And if any man finds himself pressed in by the death and corruption in the world telling him that he lacks life, we have One who is with the Father, and who testifies to our hearts of the certainty of our life, Jesus Christ the righteous and firstborn from the dead.

2 And in Him has God (provided Himself, the lamb satisfying His desire to be merciful to us, having) shown Himself favorable toward us in removing our death: and not ours only, but the entire world.

3 And here is how we know that we have become intimately acquainted with Him, when we keep (and are kept by) His commandment (to abide in Him, and He in us).

4 Whoever says, I know Him but (denies He is the Lord from heaven, the Word of God that came in flesh) does not keep His commandments; he is a liar (a deceiver), and the truth is not in him.

5 But whosoever (hears and believes) is kept by His Spirit, (abiding in the Word of life) in him truly is the hope of God to love and be good to him for all the ages to come, perfected in him: hereby do we know that we are in Him: (when we allow Him to serve us with His incorruptible life).

6 He that says he abides in Him (abides in eternal life and) ought to walk even as He walked, (knowing that as He possesses a life that cannot be hurt or injured by the corruption in the world, so also do we have the certainty of the same life to be revealed in us).

7 Brethren, I write no new teaching unto you but rather that same truth contained in the Word, which you have heard was God and with God from the beginning. The truth you have heard of old is the same Word of life that came in flesh and has now been manifested in immortal flesh.

8 So again, I write a new commandment unto you of the Word of life made flesh which contains the thing that is true in Him and you: Because it declares that in Him death was abolished, and the darkness has passed, and the true light of the life and immortality promised from the beginning now shines upon us in the face of Jesus Christ.

9 He that says he is in light and hates his brother is in darkness and does not see how his death has been conquered in the flesh.

10 He that loves his brother abides in the light, where he finds his life born from the Word of eternal life, a life that cannot ever be hurt or injured by the death and corruption in the world, but he rests in the life where he does not need to work to preserve himself and in that life, there is no occasion of stumbling in him.

11 But the one who hates his brother is in darkness, walking out of the way, and does not know where he is going, and not seeing that his death has been conquered in the flesh, he is animated by death to preserve his own life in the flesh, because the death contained in his body has blinded his eyes.

12 I write to you, little children, because you know your death has been sent away from you because (the Father who promised you His life from the beginning has manifested His life inside flesh in the Son) Jesus Christ.

13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him that is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because in Him, you are strengthened to overcome the word that the wicked one has planted in the world. I write to you, little children, because you have come to know Him as (Abba) Father.

14 I have written to you, fathers, because you have long known Him and His word from the beginning, I have written to you, young men, because you find your strength in the word of eternal life that is abiding in you, whereby you have overcome the death and corruption in the world.

15 Love not the life that is in the world that perishes in death, nor the corruptible things that you can gather to yourself in the world. If any man esteems the life the world offers and can serve him with over the Father’s life, he has never truly known the love of the Father (which He has spoken in the Son, promising to preserve his life in Him forever).

16 For all that the world can offer and produce is death; for the things in the world are these: the lust for the life that you can bring forth from your dying flesh and corruption in the world, the lust of your eyes seeing that the way that brings death looks good for food to make one wise, gathering a good life to oneself and the pride of boasting in what you can do, to gather or to possess a good life through the strength of your own hand, none of these come from the Father but are of the death in the world.

17 And the world passes away, along with the lust that death brought: but he who trusts in the Word of life that the Father has spoken about him in Christ abides with Him in the same life forever.

18 Little children, it is death’s last days (in the earth): and as you have heard that those who are (opposed to Christ) antichrist shall come, even now are there many in the world who oppose Christ; and by this, we know that it is death’s last days in the earth.

19 They went out from us to serve other gods, for if they had been abiding in the same fellowship of the Father, Son, and Spirit, they would have no doubt continued with us: but they went out of the way so that it might be manifest that they were not all of us in the truth.

20 But you have an inward persuasion that comes from the Holy One, and by Him do you know all truth.

21 I have not written unto you because you do not know the truth, but because you know Jesus the One who is the truth, and by Him are able to discern the lie, knowing that no lie is born of the truth found in Him.

22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ (is the eternal Son of the living God, the Word made flesh)? He is antichrist, whoever denies the Father and the Son (as true God from true God is antichrist).

23 Whosoever denies (the full deity and true humanity of Jesus Christ) the Son, (does not abide in the truth and) the same has denied the Father who sent Him: but he that confesses that Jesus is the Son of God (the self-same substance of the Father) has confessed the Father also and has both the Son and the Father abiding in him.

24 Allow, therefore, the Word of life which you have heard from the beginning and that came forth from the heart of the Father, being made flesh in the Son, to abide in you. For if that Word of life which (promised you His life that) you have heard from the beginning remains in you, so also does that Word keep you in fellowship and in union with the Son, and the Father.

25 And this is the promise which He has promised us (from the beginning and was put on full display in the resurrection of Jesus Christ), eternal life.

26 These things have I written to you concerning anyone who would come to seduce you (with a word that is contrary to the truth found in the testimony of the Son, Jesus Christ, denying that He is the Lord who came down from heaven).

27 But the Spirit of life which He promised, and you have received of Him will abide and remain in you so that you do not need anyone to teach you: and the same Spirit that teaches you all things pertaining to the truth, and discerns the lie, so also will guide you so that you abide in Him.

28 And now, little children abide in Him who is the Word that the Father has testified about us; so that when He shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed to stand before Him at his coming.

29 If we know that the One who came from the heart of the Father (Jesus Christ the righteous) to testify on our behalf regarding the promise of His life and immortality has been raised up, immortal, we know that everyone who trusts Him and His promise of eternal life is born of Him unto the same life.