Genesis to Revelation Bible
Reading Plan
December 23
1 John 3-5
Chapter 3
Children of God Love One Another
1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called
children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us,
because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what
we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we
will see Him just as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He
is pure.
4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there
is no sin.
6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows
Him.
7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices
righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from
the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the
works of the devil.
9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him;
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious:
anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does
not love his brother.
11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that
we should love one another;
12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what
reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s
were righteous.
13 Do not be surprised, brethren, if 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 abides in death.
15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer
has eternal life abiding in him.
16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and
closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and
truth.
19 We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart
before Him
20 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and
knows all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before
God;
22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments
and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus
Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We
know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Chapter
4
Testing the Spirits
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether
they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the
spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and
now it is already in the world.
4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater
is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the
world listens to them.
6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from
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 from God; and everyone
who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has 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 propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time; 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 Spirit.
14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the
Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him,
and he in God.
16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for
us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God
abides
in him.
17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in
the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear
involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
19 We love, because He first loved us.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is
a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot
love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should
love his brother also.
Chapter 5
Overcoming the World
1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and
whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and
observe 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 has overcome the world—our faith.
5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus
is the Son of God?
6 This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the
water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who
testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
7 For there are three that testify:
8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for
the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son.
10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the
one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed
in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son.
11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this
life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does
not have the life.
This Is Written That You May Know
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son
of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
14 This is the confidence which we have before 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
the requests which we have asked from Him.
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he
shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading
to death.
There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request
for this.
17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.
18 We know that no one who is born of God sins; 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 that the whole world lies in the power
of the evil one.
20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding
so that we may 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, guard yourselves from idols.
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)