For if after they have escaped the filthy things ¹  of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ²  they ³  again get entangled in them and succumb to them, ⁴  their last state has become worse for them than their first.

speaking of these things in all his letters. ¹  Some things in these letters ²  are hard to understand, things ³  the ignorant and unstable twist ⁴  to their own destruction, as they also do to the rest of the scriptures. ⁵ 

Now ¹  this is the gospel ²  message ³  we have heard from him ⁴  and announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. ⁵ 

Who is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ ¹ ? This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son.

(See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that ¹  we should be called God’s children – and indeed ²  we are! ³  For this reason ⁴  the world does not know us: because it did not know him. ⁵ 

The one who practices sin is of the devil, ¹  because the devil has been sinning ²  from the beginning. For this purpose ³  the Son of God was revealed: to destroy ⁴  the works of the devil.

By this ¹  the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed: Everyone who does not practice righteousness – the one who does not love his fellow Christian ²  – is not of God.

But whoever has the world’s possessions ¹  and sees his fellow Christian ²  in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God ³  reside ⁴  in such a person? ⁵ 

Now ¹  this is his commandment: ²  that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave ³  us the commandment.

And the person who keeps his commandments resides ¹  in God, ²  and God ³  in him. Now by this ⁴  we know that God ⁵  resides in us: by the Spirit he has given us.

but ¹  every spirit that does not confess ²  Jesus ³  is not from God, and this is the spirit ⁴  of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now is already in the world.

By this ¹  the love of God ²  is revealed in us: ³  that God has sent his one and only ⁴  Son into the world so that we may live through him.

In this ¹  is love: not that ²  we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice ³  for our sins.

because ¹  everyone ²  who has been fathered by God ³  conquers ⁴  the world. ⁵ This ⁶  is the conquering power ⁷  that has conquered ⁸  the world: our faith.

If we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, because ¹  this ²  is the testimony of God that ³  he has testified concerning his Son.

If ¹  anyone sees his fellow Christian ²  committing a sin not resulting in death, ³  he should ask, and God ⁴  will grant ⁵  life to the person who commits a sin not resulting in death. ⁶  There is a sin resulting in death. ⁷  I do not say that he should ask about that.

Everyone ¹  who goes on ahead and does not remain ²  in the teaching of Christ ³  does not have God. ⁴  The one who remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son.

For certain men ¹  have secretly slipped in among you ²  – men who long ago ³  were marked out ⁴  for the condemnation I am about to describe ⁵  – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil ⁶  and who deny our only Master ⁷  and Lord, ⁸  Jesus Christ.

So also ¹  Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, ²  since they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire ³  in a way similar to ⁴  these angels, ⁵  are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

These men are ¹  dangerous reefs ²  at your love feasts, ³  feasting without reverence, ⁴  feeding only themselves. ⁵  They are ⁶  waterless ⁷  clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit ⁸  – twice dead, ⁹  uprooted;