1st John 1: The ‘One’ who existed from the beginning, ‘who’ we heard and saw with our own eyes, and even touched with our hands, we announce to you. ‘He’ is the Word of Life. 2 The Life was made visible and we have seen Him and are witnesses reporting to you the eternal Life that was with the Father, and was revealed to us. 3 Our message that we declare to you is what we have seen and heard, so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Yeshua (Jesus) Messiah. 4 We write these things to you, so that the joy ‘we share’ will be complete.

5 This is the message that we have heard from Him and declare to you, that Yehovah is light, and nothing about Him is dark. 6 If we say that we have a relationship with Him, but we live in darkness, then we are lying and not living in the truth. 7 But if we live in the light, as He is in the light, we have a relationship with each other, and the blood of Yeshua His Son cleanses us from all of our sins.

8 If we say that we have no sins, we deceive ourselves, and we’re not being truthful. 9 But if we confess our sins, He can be relied on to forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all of our unrighteous actions. 10 If we claim that we haven’t sinned, we’re calling Him a liar, and His Word isn’t in us.

1st John 2: My new converts, I’m writing this to you so that you won’t sin. But when anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Yeshua Messiah, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning ze’bak [sacrifice] for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the entire world.

3 In this way we can sense that we know Him, if we obey His Commandments. 4 Anyone who says, “I know Him”, but doesn’t obey His Commandments is a liar—not a person of truth. 5 But those who continually obey [present tense, active] His Word, have truly perfected the love of Yehovah. That’s how we can be sure we’re in harmony with Him. 6 Anyone who claims, “I ‘comply with’ Him”, is obligated to live as He lived.

7 Friends, I haven’t written any new Commandment for you, but an old Commandment that you’ve had from the beginning, and the old Commandment is the Word you’ve already heard. 8 ‘Yet it is seemingly’ a new commandment for you. It’s a truth that exists in Him and in you, because the darkness is fading, and genuine light is already shining.

9 Anyone who says they are in the light, but hates a brother [or countrymen], is still in the dark. 10 Anyone who loves their brother remains in the light, and won’t trip anyone up. 11 But anyone who hates their brother is in darkness, living in darkness, and they don’t know where they are going because darkness has blinded their eyes. 12 New converts, I write to you because your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake. 13 Father’s, I write to you because you’ve known the One who has existed from the beginning. Young men, I write to you because you’ve overcome the wicked one. New converts, I’ve written to you because you’ve come to know the Father. 14 Fathers, I have written to you because you’ve known the One who was from the beginning. Young men, I’ve written to you because you are strong, and the Word of Aloha lives in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

15 Don’t love this world or anything in it, because anyone who loves this world doesn’t have the love of the Father in them. 16 Everything in the world—the carnal cravings, the cravings for things we ‘see’, and prideful materialism isn’t from the Father, but from the world itself. 17 The world is being led away, along with its cravings, but anyone who does the will of Yehovah lives forever!

18 My new converts, it is the end time, and you’ve heard that a false Messiah was to arise, and now there are many false Messiahs. That’s how we know it’s the end time. 19 They left our assembly, but they didn’t really belong with us, because if they’d been with us, they’d have stayed with us. But they left us, and that in itself proves that they didn’t belong with us.

Anti Messiah

20 But you have been anointed by the 'Special' One, and you can distinguish between people [1]. 21 I haven’t written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you know it, and because lies don’t come from the truth. 22 Who is a liar ‘more than’ someone who denies that Yeshua is the Messiah? That person is anti Messiah. Anyone who denies the Father also denies the Son. 23 Whoever rejects the Son doesn’t have the Father either [2]. Whoever acknowledges the Son also acknowledges the Father.

24 Make sure that what you heard from the beginning remains in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains with you, then you’ll stay with the Father and the Son. 25 This is what He promised us—eternal Life.

26 I have written these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 If the anointing that you received from Him remains in you, then you won’t need anyone to teach you [3]. Since the anointing is from Yehovah, it teaches you everything and it is true, with no falsehood ‘mixed’ in. Remain in it as He taught you.

28 Now, my new converts, remain in Him, so that when He appears we won’t cower in His presence, but can confidently face Him at His coming.

29 If you know that He is righteous, then you also know that whoever lives righteously ‘belongs to’ [4] Him.

1st John 3: You see the kind of love that the Father has for us—He has called us His sons, and made us so. The world doesn’t know us [yet], because it has never known Him. 2 Dear Friends, we’re now Yehovah’s children, but it isn’t clearly understood what we’re to be, but we know that when He returns, we will be very similar to Him, and we will see Him just as He is. 3 Everyone who has this expectation in Him purifies themselves, just as He is pure.

Sin is Torahlessness

4 Everyone who practices sin is violating the Torah, because all sin is violating the Torah. 5 You know that He came to take away our sins, and He is totally sinless. 6 No one who stays with Him keeps on sinning, and anyone who sins hasn’t seen Him or known Him.

7 New converts, don’t let anyone deceive you. Anyone who lives righteously [1] is righteous, just as the Messiah is righteous. 8 Anyone who practices sin belongs to Satan, because Satan was a sinner from the beginning. Because of this, Yehovah’s Son came so that He could destroy everything Satan has done. 9 Anyone who has been begotten of Yehovah can’t practice sin, since His germ [of eternal life] is in him. He can’t practice sin because he has been begotten [2] from Yehovah. 10 This is how the children of Yehovah are plainly distinguished from the children of Satan. Anyone who doesn’t live righteously and doesn’t love their ‘fellow believers’ doesn’t belong to Yehovah.

11 This is the Commandment that you have heard from the beginning, that you should love each other. 12 Not like Cain who belonged to the Wicked One, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own works were wicked and his brother’s actions were righteous! 13 Friends, don’t be surprised that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to Life because we love ‘one another’. Anyone who doesn’t love their ‘fellow believer’ is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates their ‘fellow believer’ is a murderer, and you know that no murderer can have eternal Life remaining in them.

16 This is how we understand His love for us, because He gave up His life for us, and we should also give up our lives for our ‘fellow believers’. 17 If someone has this worlds resources, and sees ‘another believer’ in need, but shows no compassion—how could the love [3] of Yehovah remain in them? 18 My new converts, let’s not love each other in words and in speech only, but in works and in truth. 19 This is how we can be assured that we’re on the side of truth, and reassure ourselves of it before He comes [4]. 20 But if our conscience condemns us, how much greater is Yehovah than our conscience? He knows everything!

Because We Obey His Commandments...

21 Dear Friends, if our conscience doesn’t condemn us, we can ‘have confidence’ in the presence of to Yehovah. 22 We receive from Him whatever we ask because we obey His Commandments and do what pleases Him. 23 This is His Commandment: that we believe in the name of His Son Yeshua Messiah [5] and love each other as He has commanded us [6]. 24 Anyone who obeys His Commandments remains in Him. We know by this that He remains in us, by the spirit that He has given us.

1st John 4: Dear Friends, don’t believe every spirit [1], but scrutinize the spirits as to whether they are from Yehovah, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how the spirit of Yehovah can be recognized: every spirit that admits that Yeshua Messiah has come in the flesh is from Yehovah. 3 Any spirit that doesn’t admit that Yeshua Messiah has come in the flesh isn’t from Yehovah, but he is of the spirit of the false [Gr. “anti”] Messiah who you have heard is coming, and is already in the world.

4 But you, new converts, belong to Yehovah, and you have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than those who are in the world. 5 They are worldly, so they talk like the world and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to Yehovah, and anyone who knows Yehovah will listen to us, and anyone who doesn’t belong to Yehovah won’t listen to us. This is how we discern the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

7 Dear Friends, we must love each other because love is from Yehovah, and whoever loves is engendered by Yehovah and knows Yehovah, 8 because Yehovah is love, and whoever doesn’t love doesn’t know Yehovah. 9 This is how Yehovah’s love was revealed to us: Yehovah sent His unique Son into the world, so that we could live because of Him. 10 This is love, it was not that we loved Yehovah, but that Yehovah loved us and sent His Son as the atoning ze’bak [sacrifice] for our sins. 11 Dear Friends, since Yehovah loved us so much, we should also love each other. 12 No one has ever seen Yehovah, but if we love each other, Yehovah remains in us, and His love is being perfected in us.

13 This is how we know that we remain in Him, and that He remains in us—He has given His spirit to us. 14 We have seen and proclaim that the Father has sent His Son as the Life Giver of the world. 15 Whoever openly declares that Yeshua is Yehovah’s Son—Yehovah remains in him and he remains in Yehovah. 16 We have come to know and trust the love that Yehovah has for us, because Yehovah is love, and whoever remains in love remains in Yehovah. 17 This is how His love is perfected in us, so that we can ‘be confident’ on Judgment Day, because we are like He was in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, because perfect love dispels fear. There is a penalty for fear, and anyone who is fearful isn’t completely perfected in love.

19 So then we love Yehovah because He loved us first. 20 Anyone who says, “I love Yehovah”, when they hate a fellow believer is a liar. If someone doesn’t love their Friends who are visible, how can they love Yehovah who is invisible? 21 We have received this Commandment from Him—whoever loves Yehovah must also love their fellow believer.

1st John 5: Anyone who believes that Yeshua is the Messiah is a ‘child’ [born] from Yehovah, and anyone who loves the ‘Father’ also loves the One who is the ‘Father’s Child’. 2 This is how we know that we love Yehovah’s children: when we love Yehovah and obey His Commandments. 3 This ‘demonstrates’ the love of Yehovah, that we obey His Commandments, and His Commandments aren’t burdensome. 4 Whoever is begotten of Yehovah overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world—our faith. 5 Who can be victorious over the world other than those who believe that Yeshua is Yehovah’s Son?

6 Yeshua Messiah is the One who came by the water and the blood, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The spirit testifies because the spirit is always objective. 7 [1] 8 So there are three witnesses that testify, the spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are in agreement. 9 If we accept what people say, how much greater is what Yehovah says? And this is what Yehovah has spoken of—He has spoken of His Son. 10 Whoever believes in Yehovah’s Son has internalized His message. And whoever doesn’t believe Yehovah has declared Him to be a liar by not believing what Yehovah revealed about His Son. 11 And the message is that Yehovah has given us eternal Life, and this Life is found in His Son. 12 Anyone who has the Son has Life, and anyone who doesn’t have the Son doesn’t have Life.

Knowing That You Have Eternal Life

13 I’ve written this to those who believe in the name of Yehovah’s Son, so that you’ll know that you have eternal Life. 14 This is the assured confidence that we have toward Him: Whenever we ask for anything in accord with His will, He listens to us. 15 And since we know that He hears our requests, we can be sure that we have what we ask Him for.

16 If anyone sees their Friend ‘commit’ a sin that doesn’t result in death, they should ask Aloha, and Life will be given to them, so long as their sin isn’t deadly. There is a deadly sin, and I’m not saying that we should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness [violation of the Torah] is sin, yet there are sins that aren’t fatal.

18 We know that no one who is born from Yehovah goes on sinning, because those who are born from Yehovah guard themselves, and the Wicked one can’t touch them. 19 We know that we belong to Yehovah, while the whole world is asleep under the sway of the Wicked one. 20 And we know that Yehovah’s Son has come and has given us understanding so that we can know the True One, and so that we can belong to the True One, and be in union with His Son Yeshua Messiah. He is the true Aloha and eternal Life. 21 My new converts, refrain from serving images [idols].

 

2nd John 1: From the Elder, to Kuria and her children who I love in the truth, and not just me, but everyone who knows the truth, 2 because of the truth that lives in us and will be with us forever:

3 May compassion be with you, and good will and peace, from Yehovah the Father, and from our Master Yeshua Messiah, the Father’s Son, in truth and love.

4 I was very glad to have found some of your children living in the truth, just as the Father has commanded us. 5 Now I implore you, Kuria, not as tho I’m writing a new commandment to you, but only what we have had from the very beginning, that we should love each other. 6 This is love, that we live by the Commandments. This command has been heard from the beginning, and we should live by it.

Avoid Deceivers

7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world who don’t confess that Yeshua Messiah came in the flesh. ‘Such a person’ is a deceiver and antichrist. [1] 8 Be careful that you don’t lose what you have earned, so that you can be fully compensated. 9 Anyone who abandons the faith and doesn’t stay with the doctrine of the Messiah doesn’t have Yehovah in Him. But those who remain in His doctrine have the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you, and doesn’t bring this doctrine, don’t welcome them into your house or even greet them, 11 because anyone who greets [encourages] them shares in their evil work.

12 There are many things I could write to you about, but I prefer not to use paper and ink because I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy can be complete.

13 The new converts of your chosen sister greet you. Compassion be with you. Aw-main.

 

3rd John 1: From the Elder, to my dear Friend Gaius who I love in the truth.

2 Dear Friend, I pray that in every way you’ll prosper and be in good health, just as your consciousness [psyche, Gr: psuche] is prospering. 3 I was very glad when our Friends came and told me about your integrity, and how you live by the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my new converts live in the truth.

5 Dear Friend, you’re faithful in whatever you do for our Friends, and especially when they are strangers. 6 They have spoken of your love before the whole assembly. You are good to them in a manner pleasing to Yehovah [1]. 7 They went out for the sake of His name, taking nothing from the pagans. 8 We should welcome these people so that we can work together for the truth.

A False Leader “Loves to be in Charge”

9 I wrote to the assembly, but Diotrephes, who loves to be in charge, won’t accept us. 10 So when I come, I’ll call attention to what he is doing and the evil accusations he’s making about us. And as if that were not enough, he doesn’t welcome the Friends we send, and he stops those who want to welcome them and banishes them from the assembly.

11 Dear Friend, don’t go along with this evil behavior, but do what is good. Anyone who does good for the benefit of others is of Yehovah, but anyone who does evil has no perception of Yehovah. 12 Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, ‘particularly’ the assembly, and the truth ‘is self-evident’. We also attest to this, and you know that we tell the truth.

13 I have many things I could write to you about, but I’d rather not write them to you with ink and pen. 14 But I hope to see you soon and talk face to face [2]. Peace be with you. Friends I wish you well. Greet each of my Friends by name.

Creative Commons 3.0: “One Right Reserved”

 

 

The Testimony of Yeshua was tweaked January 6, 2012