The 1st letter that John wrote
(The book in the Holy Bible called 1 John)
About this letter
John wrote this letter about 2,000 years ago. That was about 60 years after Jesus went back to heaven. This letter is now in the Holy Bible.
John was one of Jesus’s 12 special workers. He went everywhere with Jesus, and he knew Jesus well.
At the time when John wrote this letter, he was an old man. He was a church leader, and lots of people respected him. He lived in a place called Ephesus, in the country that we now call Turkey. There were churches in lots of the towns near there, and John wrote this letter to those churches.
At that time, there were some bad teachers that went around telling lies in the churches. Some of them said that Jesus was not the special man that God promised to send. And some of them said it doesn’t matter if Christians do bad things. So John wrote this letter to tell the Christians not to listen to those bad teachers. He told the Christians that they have to keep on believing God’s true message and stay joined up with Jesus. And he told them that they have to keep on loving each other, just like God loves them. John wanted those Christians to be really sure that they belonged to God, and that they will live for ever with God.
This letter is still very important for us today. There are lots of people in the world today that don’t believe God’s true message and don’t live God’s way. Sometimes those people make trouble for Christians, and sometimes they try to get Christians to go wrong. This letter helps us Christians remember that we are joined up with Jesus, so we can stay strong and keep living God’s way. And it helps us remember to always love each other, just like God loves us.
1
John called Jesus the word of life
1-2 You know the one that was always with God right from the start, the one that was with God our father before God made anything. God sent him to the earth as a man, and God showed him to us mob. We saw him with our own eyes, and we heard him talk, and we touched him with our own hands. We are telling you, he is the one that gives new life, so that people can live with God for ever. So he is called the word of life.* 3 We saw him, and we heard him, and now we are telling you mob about him. You see, we want to make sure that you know him too. Then you will be joined up with us, like we are in the same family. And all of us will be joined up with God our father, and with his son Jesus Christ. 4 That’s the reason why we are writing this letter to you mob. Yes, we want to make sure that you properly know God. That will make us really happy.
God can make us properly clean inside
5 Now we are going to tell you mob a special message. Jesus Christ told us that message, and now we are telling it to you. It is about God. He is properly good, and he never does anything bad. He is like a light that’s always really bright and never goes dark at all.
6 So think about this. If somebody says that they are joined up with God, but they keep on doing bad things all the time, that person is lying. They don’t know God, and they don’t live his way. It’s like they are walking in the dark.
7 But if we always try to do what is right, just like God always does what is right, it’s like we are walking in the light. If we live like that, it shows that we are in God’s family, and we are joined up with all the other people in God’s family. And we know that God’s son Jesus died for us, and he takes away all the bad things we do. It’s like his blood washes us and makes us properly clean inside.
8 You know, we all do bad things. If we reckon that we never do anything bad, we are just tricking ourselves. If we talk like that, it shows that we don’t know God’s true message. 9 But if we pray to God and talk straight about the bad things we do, and if we tell him that we are sorry, then he will let go of those bad things, and he will never do payback to us. And he will make us properly clean inside. God promised that he will do that, and he always keeps his promises, he always does what is right.
10 Think about this too. God tells us in his book that everybody does bad things. So if you reckon that you never did anything bad, you are saying that God is a liar, and you are not listening to his true message at all.
* 1:1-2 John 1:1, 14