Book of Common Prayer

Jesus Is Our Advocate With God. We Know That We Know Him If We Keep His Commands

2 My little-children, I am writing these things to you in order that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate^[a] with the Father: Jesus Christ the Righteous. ² And He Himself is the satisfaction^[b] for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world’s. ³ And by this we know that we have come-to-know Him: if we are keeping His commandments. ⁴ The one claiming that “I have come-to-know Him” and not keeping His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this one. ⁵ But whoever is keeping His word, truly the love of God has been perfected^[c] in this one. By this we know that we are in Him: ⁶ the one claiming to be abiding in Him ought just as that One walked also himself thus to be walking.

If We Are Loving One Another, We Are Abiding In The Light

⁷ Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old^[d] commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard. ⁸ Yet-again I am writing a new^[e] commandment to you, which^[f] is true^[g] in Him and in you, because^[h] the darkness is passing-away and the true Light^[i] is already shining. ⁹ The one claiming to be in the light and hating his brother is in the darkness until now. ¹⁰ The one loving his brother is abiding in the light, and there is no cause-of-falling in him. ¹¹ But the one hating his brother is in the darkness, and is walking in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness blinded his eyes.

¹² When I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given to Me. And I guarded them, and none of them perished— except the son of ^[a] destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I am coming to You. And I am speaking these things in the world so that they may have My joy made-full in themselves.

I Have Given Them Your Word. Set Them Apart In The Truth, Which Is Your Word

¹⁴ “I have given them Your word, and the world hated them— because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I am not praying that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the^[b] evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world— ¹⁷ set them apart^[c] in^[d] the truth. Your word is truth. ¹⁸ Just as You sent Me forth into the world, I also sent them forth into the world. ¹⁹ And I am setting apart Myself for them, in order that they may also be set apart in truth.