1Jn UDB from Forest Deal

63-1JN.usfm

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 \v 3 I will tell you how we can be sure that we know God. If we obey what he commands us to do, that shows us that we are joined together with him.
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-\v 4 Those who say, "We know God," and do not obey what God commands us to do, are liars. They are not conducting their lives according to God's true message.
-\v 5 But those who obey what God commands them to do are the people who love God in every way. This is how we can be sure that we are joined with God.
+\v 4 Those who say "We know God" and do not obey what God commands us to do, are liars. They are not conducting their lives according to God's true message.
+\v 5 But those who obey what God commands, they experience all the love that God has for them to experience. This is how we can be sure that we are joined with God.
 \v 6 If we say that we are in union with God, we should conduct our lives as Christ did.
 
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 \v 12 I am writing this to you whom I love as though you were my own children. God has forgiven your sins because of what Christ has done for you.
-\v 13 I am writing to you believers who are older than the others. You have known Christ, who has always lived. I am also writing to you young men; you have defeated Satan, the evil one. And I am writing to you little children, because you know God the Father.
-\v 14 I will say it again: I am writing this to you older men because you have come to know Christ, the one who has always existed. And I am writing to you young men, because you are strong and you continue to obey what God commands, and because you have defeated Satan, the evil one.
+\v 13 I am writing to you believers who are older than the others. You have known Christ, who has always lived. I am also writing to you young men; you have defeated Satan, the evil one. And I am writing to you, little children, because you know God the Father.
+\v 14 I will say it again: I am writing this to you older men because you have come to know Christ who has existed from the beginning. And I am writing to you young men because you are strong and you are living by the commands of the word of God, and because you have defeated the evil one, whose name is Satan.
 
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 \v 15 Do not behave like the people in the world who do not honor God. Do not desire the things they want to have. If anyone lives like they live, they are proving they do not love God our Father.
 
-\v 16 I am writing this, because all the wrong things that people do, all the things that people see and try to obtain for themselves, and all the things that they boast about—all these things have nothing to do with our Father in heaven. They belong to the world.
+\v 16 I am writing this because all the wrong things that people do, all the things that people see and try to obtain for themselves, and all the things that they boast about—all these things have nothing to do with our Father in heaven. They belong to the world.
 \v 17 The people in the world who do not honor God, along with everything that they desire, will disappear. But those who do what God wants them to do will live forever!
 
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 \v 23 Those who refuse to acknowledge that Jesus is God's Son are in no way joined with the Father, but those who acknowledge that Christ is the Son of God are also joined with Father.
 
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-\v 24 So, as for you, you must continue to believe the truth about Jesus Christ that you first heard, and to live according to it. If you do that, you will stay joined to the Son and the Father.
+\v 24 So, as for you, you must continue to believe the truth about Jesus Christ that you first heard and to live according to it. If you do that, you will stay joined to the Son and the Father.
 \v 25 And what God told us is that he will cause us to live forever!
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 \v 26 I have written this to you to warn you about those who want to deceive you concerning the truth about Christ.
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 \v 4 But everyone who continues to sin is refusing to obey God's laws, because that is what sin is, refusing to obey God's laws.
 \v 5 You know that Christ came in order to completely remove the guilt of our sins. You know also that he never sinned.
-\v 6 Those who continue doing what Christ wants them to do, do not continue sinning repeatedly. But those who repeatedly sin have not understood who Christ is, nor have they truly joined with him.
+\v 6 Those who stay close to Christ cannot continue to sin over and over again. But those who repeatedly sin have not come to see all that Christ does for those he loves, and they do not know him as their Savior. 
 
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 \v 7 So I urge you who are very dear to me, do not let anyone deceive you by telling you that it is all right to sin. If you continue doing what is right, you are righteous, just like Christ is righteous.
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 \v 13 You should not be amazed when unbelievers hate you.
 \v 14 Because we love our fellow believers, we know that God has made us to live forever with him. But God regards anyone who does not love their fellow believer as a person who is not living in life but is living under the power of death.
-\v 15 God treats anyone who hates their fellow believers as though they had done something just as bad as committing murder. Anyone who does not love his brother is living for death, not life.
+\v 15 God treats those who hates their fellow believers as though they had done something just as bad as committing murder. Anyone who does not love his brother is living his life under the power of death.
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 \v 16 The way that we now know how to truly love our fellow believers is by remembering that Christ died for us of his own free will. So in the same way, we should do anything for our fellow believers, even die for them.
 \v 17 Many of us have the things that are necessary for us to live in this world. If we become aware that any of our fellow believers do not have what they need and if we refuse to provide for them, it is clear that we do not love God as we claim to do.
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 \v 19 If we truly love our fellow believers, we can be sure that we are living according to the true message about Christ. As a result, we will not feel guilty in the presence of God.
-\v 20 We can pray confidently, because although we might feel guilty because we have done wrong, God deserves for us to trust him. He knows everything about us.
+\v 20 We can pray confidently because, although we might feel guilty because we have done wrong, God deserves for us to trust him. He knows everything about us.
 \v 21 Dear friends, if our minds do not accuse us of having sinned, then we can pray confidently to God.
 \v 22 When we confidently pray to him and request something from him, we receive it because we do what he commands us to do, and because we do what pleases him.
 
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-\v 1 Dear friends, many people who have a false message are teaching it to people. But you must think carefully about what you hear them teach, so that you may know whether they are teaching the truth that comes from God or not.
+\v 1 Dear friends, many people who have a false message are teaching it to people. But you must think carefully about what you hear them teach so that you may know whether they are teaching the truth that comes from God or not.
 \v 2 I will tell you how to know whether someone is teaching truth that comes from the Spirit of God. Those who affirm that Jesus Christ came from God to become a human like us are teaching a message that is from God.
 \v 3 But those who do not affirm that truth about Jesus are not teaching a message from God. They are teachers who oppose Christ. You have heard that people like that are coming among us. Even now they are already here.
 
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-\v 4 As for you who are very dear to me, you belong to God, and you have refused to believe what those people teach, because God, who enables you to do what he wants, is greater.
+\v 4 As for you who are very dear to me, you belong to God, and you have refused to believe what those people teach because God, who enables you to do what he wants, is greater.
 \v 5 As for those who are teaching what is false, they belong with all the people in the world who refuse to honor God. That is why what they say comes from those same people, and those same people listen to them.
 \v 6 As for us, we belong to God. Whoever knows God listens to what we teach, but whoever does not belong to God does not listen to what we teach. This is how we can distinguish between people who teach truth about God, and those who deceive others.
 
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-\v 7 Dear friends, we must love each other, because God enables us to love each other, and because those who love their fellow believers have become God's children and know him.
+\v 7 Dear friends, we must love each other because God enables us to love each other and because those who love their fellow believers have become God's children and know him.
 \v 8 God shows his love to people. So those who do not love their fellow believers do not know God.
 
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-\v 9 I will tell you how God has shown us that he loves us: He sent his only Son to live on the earth to enable us to live eternally because of him.
-\v 10 And God has shown us what it means to truly love another person: It does not mean that we loved God, but that God loved us. So he sent his Son to sacrifice himself, in order that he—God—may forgive us when we sin.
+\v 9 God has showed us his love and made it clear for everyone to see; that God sent his only Son into the world so he could give us life.
+\v 10 And God shows us what love is: God loves us so much that he sent his Son to cover our sin and he died on the cross for all of them. He died for our sin so we could be at peace with God, even though we were sinners. We now, Christ promises, that we are now forgiven by God and we are now loved by God. 
 
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 \v 11 Dear friends, since God loves us like that, we certainly ought to love each other!
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 \v 6 Think about Jesus Christ. He is the one who came to earth from God. God showed that he had truly sent Jesus when John baptized Jesus in water, but also when Jesus' blood flowed from his body when he died. And God's Spirit declares truthfully that Jesus Christ came from God.
 \v 7 These three are like three witnesses who give testimony:
-\v 8 God's Spirit, the water and the blood. These three all tell us the same thing.
+\v 8 the Spirit of God, the water, and the blood. These three all tell us the same thing.
 
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 \v 9 We usually believe what other people tell us. But we can certainly trust much more in what God says. And he has certainly testified about his Son.
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-\v 13 I have written this letter to you who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, in order that you may know that you will live forever.
+\v 13 I have written this letter to you who believe that Jesus is the Son of God in order that you may know that you will live forever.
 \v 14 Because we are joined with him, we are very confident that he hears us when we ask him to do anything he approves of.
 \v 15 Also, if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—then we can be sure that we will receive whatever we asked from him.
 
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-\v 16 Suppose you see one of our fellow believers sinning in a way that would not separate them from God,and when you see sinning, you should ask God and pray that God will give that person life—that is, to that person who is not commiting a sin that would separate him from God. But there are some people who sin in a way that causes them to be separated from God forever. I am not saying you should ask God to help people who sin in that way.
+\v 16 Suppose you see one of our fellow believers committing a sin, but that sin would not separate him from God forever, then that person should ask God and pray that God will give him life—that is, to that person who is not committing a sin that would separate him from God forever. But there is a sin that can separate a person from God forever. I am not saying you should ask God to help a person who sins in that way.
 \v 17 Everything that is wrong is a sin against God, but not every bad thing we do can separate us from God forever.
 
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