Genesis to Revelation Bible
Reading Plan
December 24
2 John, 3 John, Jude
The Second Letter of
JOHN
Walk According to His Commandments
1 The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth;
and not only I, but also all who know the truth,
2 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever:
3 Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus
Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we
have received commandment to do from the Father.
5 Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment,
but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.
6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the
commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk
in it.
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge
Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that
you may receive a full reward.
9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ,
does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father
and the Son.
10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive
him into your house, and do not give him a greeting;
11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.
12 Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper
and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy
may be made full.
13 The children of your chosen sister greet you.
The Third Letter of
JOHN
You Walk in the Truth
1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good
health, just as your soul prospers.
3 For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that
is, how you are walking in truth.
4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in
the truth.
5 Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren,
and especially when they are strangers;
6 and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well
to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.
7 For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the
Gentiles.
8 Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers
with the truth.
9 I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first
among them, does not accept what we say.
10 For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he
does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this,
he himself does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those
who desire
to do so and puts them out of the church.
11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who
does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth
itself; and we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.
13 I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them
to you with pen and ink;
14 but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face.
15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.
The
Letter of
JUDE
The Warnings of History to the Ungodly
1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus
Christ:
2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common
salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand
marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace
of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus
Christ.
5 Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all,
that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently
destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper
abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the
great day,
7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in
the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange
flesh,
are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and
reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.
9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued
about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment,
but
said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the
things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things
they are destroyed.
11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have
rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion
of Korah.
12 These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they
feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water,
carried
along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;
13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering
stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
14 It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from
Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His
holy ones,
15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their
ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh
things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
16 These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts;
they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.
Keep Yourselves in the Love of God
17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand
by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers,
following after their own ungodly lusts.”
19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of
the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting;
23 save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with
fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand
in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory,
majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
"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)