The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (280 page)

Warning against the Antichrist

18
 Children, it is
the last hour
;
 
*
and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour.
¹⁹
They went out
from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us.
²⁰
But you have been
anointed
by the Holy One, and you all know.
^d
21
I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and know that no lie is of the truth.
²²
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
²³
Any one who denies the Son does not have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.
²⁴
Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father.
²⁵
And this is what he has promised us,
^e
eternal life.

26
 I write this to you about those who would deceive you;
²⁷
but the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Children of God

28
 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have
confidence
and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
²⁹
If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that every one who does right is born of him.

3
  
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called
children of God
; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
²
Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is
.
³
And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

4
 Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
⁵
You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him
there is no sin
.
⁶
Any one who abides in him
does not sin
;
 
*
any one who sins has not seen him, nor has he known him.
⁷
Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right is
righteous
, as he is righteous.
⁸
He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
⁹
Any one born of God does not commit sin; for God's
^f
seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is
^g
born of God.
¹⁰
By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother.

Love One Another

11
 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
¹²
and not be
like Cain
who was of 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 wonder, brethren, that the world hates you.
¹⁴
We know that we have passed out of
death into life
, because we love the brethren. He who does not love remains in death.
¹⁵
Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
¹⁶
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to
lay down our lives
for the brethren.
¹⁷
But if any one has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?
¹⁸
Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.

19
 
By this we shall know
that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him
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 confidence before God;
²²
and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
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.
²⁴
All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.

Testing the Spirits

4
  
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but
test the spirits
 
*
to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
²
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh
is of God,
³
and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the
spirit of antichrist
, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.
⁴
Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for
he who is in you
is greater than he who is in the world.
⁵
They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them.
⁶
We are of God. Whoever knows God
listens to us
, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

God Is Love

7
 Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God.
⁸
He who does not love does not know God; for
God is love
.
⁹
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent
his only-begotten Son
into the world, so that we might live through him.
¹⁰
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
expiation
for our sins.
¹¹
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
¹²
No man
has ever seen God
; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

13
 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit.
¹⁴
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.
¹⁵
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
¹⁶
So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
¹⁷
In this is love perfected with us, that we may have
confidence
for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world.
¹⁸
There is no fear in love, but perfect
love casts out fear
. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.
¹⁹
We love,
because he first loved us
.
²⁰
If any one says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot
^h
love God whom he has not seen.
²¹
And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.

Faith Conquers the World

5
  
Every one who believes that
Jesus is the Christ
has been born of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the one begotten by him.
²
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
³
For this is
the love of God
, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
⁴
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world,
our faith
.
⁵
Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Testimony concerning the Son of God

6
 This is he who came by
water and blood
, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood.
⁷
And
the Spirit
is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth.
⁸
There are
three witnesses
, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree.
 
*
⁹
If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has borne witness to his Son.
¹⁰
He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne to his Son.
¹¹
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
¹²
He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.

Epilogue

13
 I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that
you have eternal life
.
¹⁴
And this is the confidence which we have in him, that
if we ask anything
according to his will he hears us.
¹⁵
And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.
¹⁶
If any one sees his brother committing what is not
a deadly sin
, he will ask, and God
ⁱ
will give him life for those whose sin is not deadly. There is sin which is deadly; I do not say that one is to pray for that.
¹⁷
All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not deadly.

18
 
We know
that any one born of God
does not sin
, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the Evil One does not touch him.

19
 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the Evil One.

20
 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is
the true God
and eternal life.
²¹
Little children, keep yourselves from
idols
.

Commentary on The First Letter of Saint John

1:1-4
The prologue gives witness to the mystery of the Incarnation. John speaks for all the apostles ("we") when he testifies that Jesus is the
life
and
Son
of God who manifested himself in a visible, audible, and tangible way when he came in the flesh as a man (4:2). • John describes the Incarnation in terms also applicable to the sacraments of the Church. Through these liturgical signs and actions, Christ continues to give his life to the world in ways perceptible by our senses (CCC 1145-52). This is particularly true of the Eucharist, which gives us the human "flesh" (1 Jn 4:2) and "blood" (5:6) of Jesus in its risen and glorified state. 
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