Book of Common Prayer

2 My children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone does sin, we have one who pleads our cause before the father—namely, the Righteous One, Jesus the Messiah! ² He is the sacrifice which atones for our sins—and not ours only, either, but those of the whole world.

God’s new commandment

³ This is how we are sure that we have known him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ Anyone who says, “I know him,” but doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar. People like that have no truth in them. ⁵ But if anyone keeps his word, God’s love is truly made complete in such a person. This is how we are sure that we are in him: ⁶ anyone who says, “I abide in him,” ought to behave in the same way that he behaved.

⁷ My beloved ones, I am not writing a new command to you, but an old command which you have had from the very beginning. The old command is the word which you heard. ⁸ Again, however, I am writing a new command to you: it is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. ⁹ Anyone who says, “I am in the light,” while hating another family member, is still in darkness up to this very moment. ¹⁰ Anyone who loves another family member abides in the light, and there is no cause of offense in such a person. ¹¹ Anyone who hates another family member is in the darkness, and walks about in the darkness. Such people have no idea where they are going, because the darkness has blinded their eyes.

¹² “When I was with them, I kept them in your name, the name you’ve given me. I guarded them, and none of them has been destroyed (except the son of destruction; that’s what the Bible said would happen). ¹³ But now I’m coming to you. I’m speaking these things in the world, so that they can have my joy fulfilled in them.

¹⁴ “I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not from the world, just as I am not from the world. ¹⁵ I’m not asking that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They didn’t come from the world, just as I didn’t come from the world. ¹⁷ Set them apart for yourself in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And on their account I set myself apart for you, so that they, too, may be set apart for you in the truth.”