1 John 2 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 85-95, near the end of the first Christian century, roughly two generations after Jesus
Location
Written from Ephesus, the leading port city on the western coast of what is now Turkey, and circulated to house churches in the surrounding Roman province of Asia
Audience
Mostly Gentile believers in a cluster of churches connected to the apostle John, people who had recently watched a group of members walk out of the fellowship
Situation
John reassures his readers that their sins are forgiven and their knowledge of God is real, then warns them about people he calls antichrists, teachers who left the community and are now denying that Jesus is the promised Messiah. He tells the church that the departure of these teachers proved they never truly belonged.
Key Background
The teachers who split off appear to have held an early version of what scholars call gnosticism, the belief that spirit is pure and physical matter is corrupt, which led them to deny that God's Son took on a real human body. Because they claimed a superior secret knowledge, ordinary believers were left wondering whether their own plain faith was defective, which is why John keeps insisting that his readers already have everything they need. His phrase about an anointing that teaches them refers to the Holy Spirit given to every believer, a deliberate contrast with a private teaching available only to insiders.
My I'm writing this to you so you won't God. But if anyone does we have someone who to the on — Jesus, The who is completely
He himself is the for our — and not just ours, but for the of the entire
And here's how we can be sure we actually him: if we by what he
If someone says, "I know him," but doesn't live by what he says, that person is a liar, and the isn't in them.
But whoever genuinely lives by what God says — in that person, God's has truly its This is how we know we're to
anyone who claims to be to should the same Jesus lived.
Dear friends, I'm not writing you a new — this is the same one you've had from the very beginning. This original is the message you already heard.
And yet, I am writing you a new command — and its truth is real in him and in you, because the is fading and the is already shining.
Anyone who claims to be in the light but their or is still stuck in the darkness.
The person who their brother or sister lives in the light, and there's nothing in them that could to
But whoever hates their brother or sister is in the darkness, walking around in the darkness, with no idea where they're going — because the darkness has them.
I'm writing to you, because your failures have been on account of his
I'm writing to you, because you know the who has existed from the beginning. I'm writing to you, young people, because you have the
I've written to you, because you know the Father. I've written to you, fathers, because you know the one who has existed from the beginning. I've written to you, young people, because you are strong, and lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
Don't love the or the things in it. If anyone loves the the Father's love isn't in them.
Because everything that's in the world — the for the for what you and the that from — none of that from the Father. It all from the world.
And the world and its cravings are but whoever does what God wants will
Children, this is the You've heard that an is coming, and in fact many anti-Ones have already appeared. This is how we know it's the
They out from us, but they were never really part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. But their leaving made it clear — not all of them were truly part of us.
But you have been by the No Other, and every of you has
I'm not writing to you because you don't know the — I'm writing because you do know it, and because no has anything to do with the
Who is the liar? It's the person who denies that Jesus is The This person is an — they deny both the Father and the Son.
Everyone who denies the Son doesn't have the Father either. But whoever the Son has the Father too.
As for you, make sure that what you heard from the beginning in you. If what you heard from the beginning in you, then you will stay to both the Son and the Father.
And this is exactly what he promised us:
I've written these things to you about the people who are trying to you
But the you received from him stays alive in you, and you don't need anyone else to teach you. Instead, his teaches you about everything — and it's not — so stay connected to him, just as the has taught you.
And now, little children, to so that when he we can be and not from in when he comes.
If you know that he is you know that everyone who has been from