Knights of Columbus Beaver Valley Chapter Electronic Books

The New Jerusalem Bible with Apocrypha
The First Letter of John

---

Chapter 1

The Incarnate Word and sharing with the Father and the Son

^1:1Something which has existed since the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have watched and touched with our own hands, the Word of life-this is our theme. ²That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony, declaring to you the eternal life, which was present to the Father and has been revealed to us. ³We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard, so that you too may share our life. Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴We are writing this to you so that our joy may be complete.

TO WALK IN THE LIGHT

⁵This is what we have heard from him and are declaring to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. ⁶If we say that we share in God's life while we are living in darkness, we are lying, because we are not living the truth. ⁷But if we live in light, as he is in light, we have a share in another's life, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

First condition: to break with sin

⁸If we say, 'We have no sin,' we are deceiving ourselves, and truth has no place in us; ⁹if we acknowledge our sins, he is trustworthy and upright, so that he will forgive our sins and will cleanse us from all evil. ¹⁰If we say, 'We have never sinned,' we make him a liar, and his word has no place in us.

---

Chapter 2

^2:1My children, I am writing this to prevent you from sinning; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the upright. ²He is the sacrifice to expiate our sins, and not only ours, but also those of the whole world.

Second condition: to keep the commandments, especially that of love

³In this way we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴Whoever says, 'I know him' without keeping his commandments, is a liar, and truth has no place in him. ⁵But anyone who does keep his word, in such a one God's love truly reaches its perfection. This is the proof that we are in God. ⁶Whoever claims to remain in him must act as he acted. ⁷My dear friends, this is not a new commandment I am writing for you, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the message you have heard. ⁸Yet in another way, I am writing a new commandment for you-and this is true for you, just as much as for him-for darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. ⁹Whoever claims to be in light but hates his brother is still in darkness. ¹⁰Anyone who loves his brother remains in light and there is in him nothing to make him fall away. ¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in darkness and is walking about in darkness not knowing where he is going, because darkness has blinded him.

Third condition: detachment from the world

¹²I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven through his name. ¹³I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who has existed since the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the Evil One. ¹⁴I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, parents, because you have come to know the One who has existed since the beginning. I have written to you, young people, because you are strong, and God's word remains in you, and you have overcome the Evil One. ¹⁵Do not love the world or what is in the world. If anyone does love the world, the love of the Father finds no place in him, ¹⁶because everything there is in the world-disordered bodily desires, disordered desires of the eyes, pride in possession-is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷And the world, with all its disordered desires, is passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains for ever.

Fourth condition: to be on guard against Antichrists

¹⁸Children, this is the final hour; you have heard that the Antichrist ^{*[cf. 2 Th 2:3-4.]} is coming, and now many Antichrists have already come; from this we know that it is the final hour. ¹⁹They have gone from among us, but they never really belonged to us; if they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us. But this was to prove that not one of them belonged to us. ²⁰But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and have all received knowledge. ²¹I have written to you not because you are ignorant of the truth, but because you are well aware of it, and because no lie can come from the truth. ²²Who is the liar, if not one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the Antichrist, who denies both the Father and the Son. ²³Whoever denies the Son cannot have the Father either; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father too. ²⁴Let what you heard in the beginning remain in you; as long as what you heard in the beginning remains in you, you will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵And the promise he made you himself is eternal life. ²⁶So much have I written to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. ²⁷But as for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; since the anointing he gave you teaches you everything, and since it is true, not false, remain in him just as he has taught you. ²⁸Therefore remain in him now, children, so that when he appears we may be fearless, and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

TO LIVE AS GOD'S CHILDREN

²⁹If you know that he is upright you must recognise that everyone whose life is upright is a child of his.

---

Chapter 3

^3:1You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children-which is what we are! The reason why the world does not acknowledge us is that it did not acknowledge him. ²My dear friends, we are already God's children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. We are well aware that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is.

First condition: to break with sin

³Whoever treasures this hope of him purifies himself, to be as pure as he is. ⁴Whoever sins, acts wickedly, because all sin is wickedness. ⁵Now you are well aware that he has appeared in order to take sins away, and that in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who remains in him sins, and whoever sins has neither seen him nor recognised him. ⁷Children, do not let anyone lead you astray. Whoever acts uprightly is upright, just as he is upright. ⁸Whoever lives sinfully belongs to the devil, since the devil has been a sinner from the beginning. This was the purpose of the appearing of the Son of God, to undo the work of the devil. ⁹No one who is a child of God sins because God's seed remains in him. Nor can he sin, because he is a child of God. ¹⁰This is what distinguishes the children of God from the children of the devil: whoever does not live uprightly and does not love his brother is not from God.

Second condition: to keep the commandments, especially that of love

¹¹This is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we must love one another, ¹²not to be like Cain, who was from the Evil One and murdered his brother. And why did he murder his brother? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's upright. ¹³Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you. ¹⁴We are well aware that we have passed over from death to life because we love our brothers. Whoever does not love, remains in death. ¹⁵Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you are well aware that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. ¹⁶This is the proof of love, that he laid down his life for us, and we too ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷If anyone is well-off in worldly possessions and sees his brother in need but closes his heart to him, how can the love of God be remaining in him? ¹⁸Children, our love must be not just words or mere talk, but something active and genuine. ¹⁹This will be the proof that we belong to the truth, and it will convince us in his presence, ²⁰even if our own feelings condemn us, that God is greater than our feelings and knows all things. ²¹My dear friends, if our own feelings do not condemn us, we can be fearless before God, ²²and whatever we ask we shall receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what is acceptable to him. ²³His commandment is this, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we should love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴Whoever keeps his commandments remains in God, and God in him. And this is the proof that he remains in us: the Spirit that he has given us.

---

Chapter 4

Third condition: to be on guard against Antichrists and against the world

^4:1My dear friends, not every spirit is to be trusted, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets are at large in the world. ²This is the proof of the spirit of God: any spirit which acknowledges Jesus Christ, come in human nature, is from God, ³and no spirit which fails to acknowledge Jesus is from God; it is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you have heard of; he is already at large in the world. ⁴Children, you are from God and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ⁵They are from the world, and therefore the world inspires what they say, and listens to them. ⁶We are from God; whoever recognises God listens to us; anyone who is not from God refuses to listen to us. This is how we can distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.

THE SOURCE OF LOVE AND FAITH
The source of love

⁷My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him. ¹⁰Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins. ¹¹My dear friends, if God loved us so much, we too should love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God, but as long as we love one another God remains in us and his love comes to its perfection in us. ¹³This is the proof that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us a share in his Spirit. ¹⁴We ourselves have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as Saviour of the world. ¹⁵Anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. ¹⁶We have recognised for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. ¹⁷Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is. ¹⁸In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love. ¹⁹Let us love, then, because he first loved us. ²⁰Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.

---

Chapter 5

^5:1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and whoever loves the father loves the son. ²In this way we know that we love God's children, when we love God and keep his commandments. ³This is what the love of God is: keeping his commandments. Nor are his commandments burdensome, ⁴because every child of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith.

The source of faith

⁵Who can overcome the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? ⁶He it is who came by water and blood, ^{*[cf. Jn 19:34.]} Jesus Christ, not with water alone but with water and blood, and it is the Spirit that bears witness, for the Spirit is Truth. ⁷So there are three witnesses, ⁸the Spirit, water and blood; and the three of them coincide. ⁹If we accept the testimony of human witnesses, God's testimony is greater, for this is God's testimony which he gave about his Son. ¹⁰Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him, and whoever does not believe is making God a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. ¹¹This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²Whoever has the Son has life, and whoever has not the Son of God has not life. ¹³I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

---

Chapter Supplements

Prayer for sinners

¹⁴Our fearlessness towards him consists in this, that if we ask anything in accordance with his will he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he listens to whatever we ask him, we know that we already possess whatever we have asked of him. ¹⁶If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that is not a deadly sin, he has only to pray, and God will give life to this brother-provided that it is not a deadly sin. There is sin that leads to death and I am not saying you must pray about that. ¹⁷Every kind of wickedness is sin, but not all sin leads to death.

Summary of the letter

¹⁸We are well aware that no one who is a child of God sins, because he who was born from God protects him, and the Evil One has no hold over him. ¹⁹We are well aware that we are from God, and the whole world is in the power of the Evil One. ²⁰We are well aware also that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know the One who is true. We are in the One who is true as we are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and this is eternal life. Children, be on your guard against false gods.

The Beaver Valley Chapter of the Knights of Columbus graciously thanks Duquesne University and Father Sean Hogan, C.S.Sp. for sponsoring our Knights of Columbus Beaver Valley Chapter web page.