Book of Common Prayer

¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour. You have heard that “Antimessiah” is coming—and now many Antimessiahs have appeared! That’s how we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from among us, but they were not really of our number. If they had been of our number, you see, they would have remained with us. This happened so that it would be made crystal clear that none of them belonged to us. ²⁰ You, however, have the anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. ²¹ I am not writing to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and you know that no liar is of the truth.

²² Who is the liar? Is it not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? Such a one is the Antimessiah—who denies the father and the son. ²³ Nobody who denies the son has the father. One who acknowledges the son has the father too. ²⁴ As for you: let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you too will abide in the son and in the father. ²⁵ And this is the promise which he himself promised us: the life of the age to come.

²⁶ I am writing to you about the people who are deceiving you. ²⁷ You have received the anointing from him; it abides in you, and you do not need to have anyone teach you. That anointing from him teaches you about everything; it is true, it isn’t a lie. So, just as he taught you, abide in him.

²⁸ And now, children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have boldness and may not be put to shame before him at his royal appearing. ²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been fathered by him.

The preaching of John the Baptist

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee; his brother Philip was tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene. ² Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests.

At that time, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. ³ He went through all the region of the Jordan, announcing a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴ This is what is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

⁷ “You brood of vipers,” John used to say to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him. “Who told you to escape from the coming anger? ⁸ You’d better prove your repentance by bearing the proper fruit! Don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; let me tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ⁹ The axe is already standing by the roots of the tree—so every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

John the Baptist confronts the crowds

¹⁰ “What shall we do?” asked the crowds.

¹¹ “Anyone who has two cloaks,” replied John, “should give one to someone who hasn’t got one. The same applies to anyone who has plenty of food.”

¹² Some toll-collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they said, “what should we do?”

¹³ “Don’t collect more than what is laid down,” he replied.

¹⁴ Some soldiers, too, asked John, “What about us? What should we do?”

“No extortion,” replied John, “and no blackmail. Be content with your wages.”