But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, by being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him,

We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.

You are from God, little children, and have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him and he in God.

And the commandment we have from him is this: that the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian too.

By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments.

For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down,

For there are three that testify,

(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 testified concerning his Son.)

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, people who do not confess Jesus as Christ coming in the flesh. This person is the deceiver and the antichrist!

and has appointed us as a kingdom, as priests serving his God and Father – to him be the glory and the power for ever and ever! Amen.

The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

“To the angel of the church in Smyrna write the following: “This is the solemn pronouncement of the one who is the first and the last, the one who was dead, but came to life:

And to the one who conquers and who continues in my deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations –

But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it.

and the stars in the sky fell to the earth like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when shaken by a fierce wind.

Then one of the elders asked me, “These dressed in long white robes – who are they and where have they come from?”