the Week of Proper 19 / Ordinary 24
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Bible Reading Plan
Daily Bible Reading
December 26 - Straight Thru the Bible
csb
1 John 3:13-5:21
Chapter 3
13 Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates(q) you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.(r) 15 Everyone who hates his brother(s) is a murderer,(t) and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
Love in Action
16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life(u) for us.(v) We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.(w) 17 If anyone has this world's goods(x) and sees his brother in need(y) but closes his eyes(z) to his need—how can God's love reside in him?(aa)
18 Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.(ab) 19 This is how we will know we belong to the truth(ac) and will convince our conscience in His presence, 20 even if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience, and He knows all things.(ad)
21 Dear friends, if our conscience doesn't condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and can receive whatever we ask from Him because we keep His commands(ae) and do what is pleasing in His sight. 23 Now this is His command: that we believe in the name(af) of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us. 24 The one who keeps His commands remains in Him,(ag) and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us(ah) is from the Spirit(ai) He has given us.
Chapter 4
The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits(a) to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has[a] come in the flesh(b) is from God.(c) 3 But every spirit who does not confess Jesus[b] is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist;(d) you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.
4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you(e) is greater than the one who is in the world.(f) 5 They are from the world.(g) Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us;(h) anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.(i)
Knowing God through Love
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God(j) and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God's love was revealed among us in this way:[c] God sent(k) His One and Only Son(l) into the world so that we might live(m) through Him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us(n) and sent His Son to be the[d] propitiation(o) for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.(p) 12 No one has ever seen God.[e](q) If we love one another, God remains in[f] us and His love is perfected in us.
13 This is how we know that we remain in Him(r) and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit.(s) 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son(t) as the world's Savior. 15 Whoever confesses[g](u) that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
17 In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment,(v) for we are as He is in this world.(w) 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear,(x) because fear involves punishment.[h] So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.(y) 19 We love[i] because He first loved us.(z)
Keeping God's Commands
20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother,(aa) he is a liar.(ab) For the person who does not love his brother(ac) he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.[j] 21 And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.
Chapter 5
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born of God,(a) and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him. 2 This is how we know that we love God's children when we love God and obey[a] His commands. 3 For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden,(b) 4 because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. 5 And who is the one who conquers the world(c) but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?(d)
The Certainty of God's Testimony
6 Jesus Christ—He is the One who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water(e) and by blood.(f) And the Spirit is the One who testifies,(g) because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify:[b](h) 8 the Spirit,(i) the water, and the blood(j)—and these three are in agreement. 9 If we accept the testimony of men, God's testimony(k) is greater, because it is God's testimony that He has given about His Son. 10 (The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar,(l) because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about His Son.) 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 The one who has the Son has life.(m) The one who doesn't have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name(n) of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Effective Prayer
14 Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask(o) anything according to His will, He hears us.(p) 15 And if we know that He hears whatever we ask,(q) we know that we have what we have asked Him for.(r)
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not bring death, he should ask, and God[c] will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn't bring death. There is sin[d] that brings death. I am not saying he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that does not bring death.
Conclusion
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the One[e] who is born of God keeps him,[f][g](s) and the evil one does not touch him.
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.
20 And we know that the Son of God has come(t) and has given us understanding so that we may know the true One.[h] We are in the true One—that is, in His Son Jesus Christ.(u) He is the true God and eternal life.
21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
2 John 1
Chapter 1
Greeting
The Elder:[a]
To the elect(a) lady[b] and her children: I love all of you in the truth—and not only I, but also all who have come to know the truth(b)— 2 because of the truth that remains in us(c) and will be with us forever.
3 Grace, mercy, and peace(d) will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son(e) of the Father, in truth and love.(f)
Truth and Deception
4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in the truth,(g) in keeping with a command we have received from the Father. 5 So now I urge you, dear lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.(h) 6 And this is love:(i) that we walk according to His commands.(j) This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love.[c]
7 Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.[d](k) This is the deceiver and the antichrist.(l) 8 Watch yourselves so you don't lose what we[e] have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward.(m) 9 Anyone who does not remain in Christ's teaching(n) but goes beyond it, does not have God.(o) The one who remains(p) in that teaching, this one has both the Father(q) and the Son.(r) 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive(s) him into your home, and don't say, "Welcome," to him; 11 for the one who says, "Welcome," to him shares(t) in his evil works.(u)
Farewell
12 Though I have many things to write to you,(v) I don't want to do so with paper and ink. Instead, I hope to be with you and talk face to face[f] so that our joy(w) may be complete.
13 The children of your elect sister send you greetings.
3 John 1
Chapter 1
Greeting
The Elder:(a)
To my dear friend[a] Gaius: I love you in the truth.(b)
2 Dear friend,[b] I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically(c) just as you are spiritually.[c] 3 For I was very glad when some brothers came and testified(d) to your faithfulness to the truth—how you are walking in the truth.(e) 4 I have no greater joy(f) than this: to hear that my children(g) are walking in the truth.
Gaius Commended
5 Dear friend,[d] you are showing faithfulness[e] by whatever you do for the brothers, especially when they are strangers. 6 They have testified to your love in front of the church.(h) You will do well to send them on their journey(i) in a manner worthy of God,(j) 7 since they set out for the sake of the Name,(k) accepting nothing from pagans.(l) 8 Therefore, we ought to support such men so that we can be coworkers with[f] the truth.
Diotrephes and Demetrius
9 I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them,(m) does not receive us.(n) 10 This is why, if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering(o) us with malicious words. And he is not satisfied with that! He not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.
11 Dear friend,[g] do not imitate what is evil,(p) but what is good. The one who does good is of God;(q) the one who does evil has not seen God.(r) 12 Demetrius has a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. And we also testify for him, and you know(s) that our testimony is true.(t)
Farewell
13 I have many things to write you, but I don't want to write to you with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.[h]
Peace be with you. The friends send you greetings. Greet the friends by name.
Jude 1:1-16
Chapter 1
Greeting
Jude,(a) a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James:
To those who are the called,(b) loved[a](c) by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.(d)
2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.(e)
Jude's Purpose in Writing
3 Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share,(f) I found it necessary to write and exhort you to contend for the faith(g) that was delivered(h) to the saints once for all. 4 For some men, who were designated for this judgment long ago,(i) have come in by stealth;(j) they are ungodly,(k) turning the grace of our God into promiscuity and denying(l) Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.
Apostates: Past and Present
5 Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: The Lord[b] first[c] saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;(m) 6 and He has kept, with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, the angels(n) who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling. 7 In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah(o) and the cities around them committed sexual immorality and practiced perversions,[d] just as angels did, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.(p)
8 Nevertheless, these dreamers likewise defile their flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme glorious ones.(q) 9 Yet Michael(r) the archangel,(s) when he was disputing with the Devil(t) in a debate about Moses'(u) body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10 But these people blaspheme anything they don't understand. What they know by instinct like unreasoning animals—they destroy themselves with these things. 11 Woe to them! For they have traveled in the way of Cain,(v) have abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam(w) for profit, and have perished in Korah's rebellion.(x)
The Apostates' Doom
12 These are the ones who are like dangerous reefs[e] at your love feasts.(y) They feast with you, nurturing only themselves without fear. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds;(z) trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead, pulled out by the roots; 13 wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars(aa) for whom the blackness of darkness(ab) is reserved forever!(ac)
14 And Enoch,(ad) in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied about them:
Look! The Lord comes[f]
with thousands of His holy ones(ae)
15 to execute judgment on all
and to convict them[g]
of all their ungodly(af) acts
that they have done in an ungodly way,
and of all the harsh things ungodly sinners
have said against Him.
16 These people are discontented grumblers, walking according to their desires;(ag) their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering(ah) people for their own advantage.
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