1 John 2:18-3:12

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Warning against Antichrists

¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour.^{(A) 19} They went out from us, but they did not belong to us, for if they had belonged to us they would have remained^[a] with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us.^{(B) 20} But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.^{[b](C) 21} I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?^[c] This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also.^{(D) 24} Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father.^{(E) 25} And this is what he has promised us,^[d] eternal life.^(F)

²⁶ I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you. ²⁷ As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him.^[e](G)

²⁸ And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.^(H)

Children of God

²⁹ If you perceive that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who does right has been born of him.^(I) 3 ¹ See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he^[f] is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.^{(J) 3} And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.^{(K) 5} You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.^{(L) 6} No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. ⁷ Little children,^[g] let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ Everyone who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil.^{(M) 9} Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them;^[h] they cannot sin because they have been born of God.^{(N) 10} The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love a brother or sister.^(O)

Love One Another

¹¹ For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.^{(P) 12} We must not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.