Reverence, Humility, and Contentment

5 ^[a]Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice offered by fools, for they do not know how to keep from doing evil.^{[b](A) 2 [c]}Never be rash with your mouth nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few.^(B)

³ For dreams come with many cares, and a fool’s voice with many words.

⁴ When you make a vow to God, do not delay fulfilling it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you vow.^{(C) 5} It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not fulfill it.^{(D) 6} Do not let your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake; why should God be angry at your words and destroy the work of your hands?

⁷ With many dreams come vanities and a multitude of words,^[d] but fear God.^(E)

⁸ If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and right, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.^{(F) 9} But all things considered, this is an advantage for a land: a king for a plowed field.^[e]

¹⁰ The lover of money will not be satisfied with money, nor the lover of wealth with gain. This also is vanity.^(G)

¹¹ When goods increase, those who eat them increase, and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes?

¹² Sweet is the sleep of laborers, whether they eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not let them sleep.^(H)

¹³ There is a grievous ill that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owners to their hurt,^{(I) 14} and those riches were lost in a bad venture; though they are parents of children, they have nothing in their hands. ¹⁵ As they came from their mother’s womb, so they shall go again, naked as they came; they shall take nothing for their toil that they may carry away with their hands.^{(J) 16} This also is a grievous ill: just as they came, so shall they go, and what gain do they have from toiling for the wind?^{(K) 17} Besides, all their days they eat in darkness, in much anger and sickness and resentment.^(L)

¹⁸ This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us, for this is our lot.^{(M) 19} Likewise, all to whom God gives wealth and possessions and whom he enables to enjoy them and to accept their lot and find enjoyment in their toil—this is the gift of God.^{(N) 20} For they will scarcely brood over the days of their lives because God keeps them occupied with the joy of their hearts.

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^[a] is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.^{(A) 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.^{(B) 5} You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.^{(C) 6} No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. ⁷ Little children,^[b] 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.^{(D) 9} Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them;^[c] they cannot sin because they have been born of God.^{(E) 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.^(F)

Love One Another

¹¹ For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.^{(G) 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. ¹³ Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you.^{(H) 14} We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love abides in death.^{(I) 15} All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them.^{(J) 16} We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters.^{(K) 17} How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?^(L)

¹⁸ Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.^(M)

The Frustration of Desires

6 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind:^{(A) 2} those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous ill.^{(B) 3} A man may father a hundred children and live many years, but however many are the days of his years, if he does not enjoy life’s good things or has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.^{(C) 4} For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered; ⁵ moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. ⁶ Even though he should live a thousand years twice over yet enjoy no good—do not all go to one place?

⁷ All human toil is for the mouth, yet the appetite is not satisfied.^{(D) 8} For what advantage have the wise over fools? And what do the poor have who know how to conduct themselves before the living?^{(E) 9} Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire; this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.^(F)

¹⁰ Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what humans are and that they are not able to dispute with those who are stronger.^{(G) 11} The more words, the more vanity, so how is one the better? ¹² For who knows what is good for mortals while they live the few days of their vain life, which they pass like a shadow? For who can tell them what will be after them under the sun?^(H)

A Disillusioned View of Life

¹⁴ In the day of prosperity, be joyful, and in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that comes after them.^(R)

¹⁹ And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him^{(A) 20} whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, ²² and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.^(B)

²³ And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.^{(C) 24} All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.^(D)

Testing the Spirits

4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.^{(E) 2} By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus^[a] is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.^{(F) 4} Little children, you are from God and have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.^(G)