1 John 2:18-3:6

Contemporary English Version

The Enemy of Christ

¹⁸Children, this is the last hour. You heard that the enemy of Christ would appear at this time, and many of Christ's enemies have already appeared. So we know the last hour is here. ¹⁹These people came from our own group, yet they were not really part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. But they left, which proves they did not belong to our group.

²⁰Christ, the Holy One,^[a] has blessed^[b] you, and now all of you understand.^[c] ²¹I did not need to write you about the truth, since you already know it. You also know that liars do not belong to the truth. ²²And a liar is anyone who says Jesus isn't truly Christ. Anyone who says this is an enemy of Christ and rejects both the Father and the Son. ²³If we reject the Son, we reject the Father. But if we say we accept the Son, we have the Father. ²⁴Keep thinking about the message you first heard, and you will always be one in your heart with the Son and with the Father. ²⁵The Son^[d] has promised us^[e] eternal life.

²⁶I am writing to warn you about those people who are misleading you. ²⁷But Christ has blessed you with the Holy Spirit.^[f] Now the Spirit stays in you, and you don't need any teachers. The Spirit is truthful and teaches you everything. So stay one in your heart with Christ, just as the Spirit has taught you to do.

Children of God

²⁸Children, stay one in your hearts with Christ. Then when he returns, we will have confidence and won't have to hide in shame. ²⁹You know Christ always does right and everyone who does right is a child of God.

3 ^(A) Think how much the Father loves us. He loves us so much that he lets us be called his children, as we truly are. But since the people of this world did not know who Christ^[g] is, they don't know who we are. ²My dear friends, we are already God's children, though what we will be hasn't yet been seen. But we do know when Christ returns, we will be like him, because we will see him as he truly is. ³This hope makes us keep ourselves holy, just as Christ^[h] is holy.

⁴Everyone who sins breaks God's law, because sin is the same as breaking God's law. ⁵^(B) You know Christ came to take away our sins. He isn't sinful, ⁶and people who stay one in their hearts with him won't keep on sinning. If they do keep on sinning, they don't know Christ, and they have never seen him.

Footnotes

2.20 Christ, the Holy One: The Greek text has “the Holy One” which may refer either to Christ or to God the Father.
2.20 blessed: This translates a word which means “to pour olive oil on (someone's head).” In Old Testament times it was the custom to pour olive oil on a person's head when that person was chosen to be a priest or a king. Here the meaning is not clear. It may refer to the ceremony of pouring olive oil on the followers of the Lord right before they were baptized or it may refer to the gift of the Holy Spirit which they were given at baptism (see verse 27).
2.20 now all of you understand: Some manuscripts have “you understand all things.”
2.25 The Son: The Greek text has “he” and may refer to God the Father.
2.25 us: Some manuscripts have “you.”
2.27 Christ has blessed you with the Holy Spirit: The Greek text has “You received a pouring on of olive oil from him” (see verse 20). The “pouring on of olive oil” is here taken to refer to the gift of the Holy Spirit, and “he” may refer either to Christ or to the Father.
3.1 Christ: The Greek text has “he” and may refer to God.
3.3 Christ: The Greek text has “that one” and may refer to God.