Occasion of the Letter

³ Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once and for all handed on to the saints.^(A)

¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”^{(A) 18} For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.^(B)

The Authority of the Son

¹⁹ Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father^[a] does, the Son does likewise.^{(C) 20} The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.^{(D) 21} Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes.^{(E) 22} The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son,^{(F) 23} so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.^{(G) 24} Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.^(H)

²⁵ “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.^{(I) 26} For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, ²⁷ and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.^{(J) 28} Do not be astonished at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and will come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.^(K)

Witnesses to Jesus

³⁰ “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.^(L)