Beginning

¹ From: The Elder

To: The chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth — and not only I but also all who have come to know the truth — ² because of the Truth which remains united with us and will be with us forever:

³ Grace, mercy and shalom will be with us from God the Father and from Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

⁴ I was very happy when I found some of your children living in truth, just as the Father commanded us. ⁵ And now, dear lady, I am requesting that we love one another — not as if this were a new command I am writing you, for it is the one which we have had from the beginning. ⁶ Moreover, love is this: that we should live according to his commands. This is the command, as you people have heard from the beginning; live by it!

⁷ For many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not acknowledge Yeshua the Messiah’s coming as a human being. Such a person is a deceiver and an anti-Messiah. ⁸ Watch yourselves, so that you won’t lose what you have worked for, but will receive your full reward. ⁹ Everyone who goes ahead and does not remain true to what the Messiah has taught does not have God. Those who remain true to his teaching have both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If someone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, don’t welcome him into your home. Don’t even say, “Shalom!” to him; ¹¹ for the person who says, “Shalom!” to him shares in his evil deeds.

¹² Although I have much to write you people, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come and see you and to talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

¹³ The children of your chosen sister send you their greetings.

¹ From: The Elder

To: Dear Gaius, whom I love in truth:

² Dear friend, I am praying that everything prosper with you and that you be in good health, as I know you are prospering spiritually. ³ For I was so happy when some brothers came and testified how faithful you are to the truth, as you continue living in the truth. ⁴ Nothing gives me greater joy than hearing that my children are living in the truth.

⁵ Dear friend, you are faithful in all the work you are doing for the brothers, even when they are strangers to you. ⁶ They have testified to your love in front of the congregation. You will be doing well if you send them on their way in a manner worthy of God, ⁷ since it was for the sake of HaShem that they went out without accepting anything from the Goyim. ⁸ It is we, therefore, who should support such people; so that we may share in their work for the truth.

⁹ I wrote something to the congregation; but Diotrephes, who likes to be the macher among them, doesn’t recognize our authority. ¹⁰ So if I come, I will bring up everything he is doing, including his spiteful and groundless gossip about us. And as if that weren’t enough for him, he refuses to recognize the brothers’ authority either; moreover, he stops those who want to do so and tries to drive them out of the congregation!

¹¹ Dear friend, don’t imitate the bad, but the good. Those who do what is good are from God; those who do what is bad are not from God.

¹² Everyone speaks well of Demetrius, and so does the truth itself. We vouch for him, and you know that our testimony is true.

¹³ I have much to write you, but I don’t want to write with pen and ink; ¹⁴ however, I am hoping to see you very soon, and we will speak face to face.

Shalom to you. Your friends send you their greetings. Greet each of our friends by name.

¹ From: Y’hudah, a slave of Yeshua the Messiah and a brother of Ya‘akov

To: Those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept for Yeshua the Messiah:

² May mercy, love and shalom be yours in full measure.

³ Dear friends, I was busily at work writing to you about the salvation we share, when I found it necessary to write, urging you to keep contending earnestly for the faith which was once and for all passed on to God’s people. ⁴ For certain individuals, the ones written about long ago as being meant for this condemnation, have wormed their way in — ungodly people who pervert God’s grace into a license for debauchery and disown our only Master and Lord, Yeshua the Messiah.

⁵ Since you already know all this, my purpose is only to remind you that Adonai, who once delivered the people from Egypt, later destroyed those who did not trust. ⁶ And the angels that did not keep within their original authority, but abandoned their proper sphere, he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for the Judgment of the Great Day. ⁷ And S’dom, ‘Amora and the surrounding cities, following a pattern like theirs, committing sexual sins and perversions, lie exposed as a warning of the everlasting fire awaiting those who must undergo punishment.

⁸ Likewise, these people, with their visions, defile their own flesh, despise godly authority and insult angelic beings. ⁹ When Mikha’el, one of the ruling angels, took issue with the Adversary, arguing over the body of Moshe, he did not dare bring against him an insulting charge, but said, “May Adonai rebuke you.” ¹⁰ However, these people insult anything they don’t understand; and what they do understand naturally, without thinking, like animals — by these things they are destroyed!

¹¹ Woe to them, in that they have walked the road of Kayin, they have given themselves over for money to the error of Bil‘am, they have been destroyed in the rebellion of Korach. ¹² These men are filthy spots at your festive gatherings meant to foster love; they share your meals without a qualm, while caring only for themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; trees without fruit even in autumn, and doubly dead because they have been uprooted; ¹³ savage sea-waves heaving forth their shameful deeds like foam; wandering stars for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴ Moreover, Hanokh, in the seventh generation starting with Adam, also prophesied about these men, saying, “Look! Adonai came with his myriads of holy ones ¹⁵ to execute judgment against everyone, that is, to convict all the godless for their godless deeds which they have done in such a godless way, and for all the harsh words these godless sinners have spoken against him.”

¹⁶ These people are grumblers and complainers, they follow their evil passions, their mouths speak grandiosities, and they flatter others to gain advantage.

¹⁷ But you, dear friends, keep in mind the words spoken in advance by the emissaries of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. ¹⁸ They told you, “During the acharit-hayamim there will be scoffers following their own godless passions.” ¹⁹ These are the people who cause divisions. They are controlled by their impulses, because they don’t have the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, and pray in union with the Ruach HaKodesh. ²¹ Thus keep yourselves in God’s love, as you wait for our Lord Yeshua the Messiah to give you the mercy that leads to eternal life.

²² Rebuke some who are disputing; ²³ save others, snatching them out of the fire; and to yet others, show mercy, but with fear, hating even the clothes stained by their vices.

²⁴ Now,