1 John
Book Outhne
Key theme: The tests of reality in the Christian life
Key verse:
I. Introduction ()
II. The Tests of True Fellowship: God Is Light ()
A. Obedience—“saying” vs. “doing” ()
B. Love ()
C. Truth ()
III. The Tests of True Sonship: God Is Love ()
A. Obedience ()
B. Love ()
C. Truth ()
Book Overview
“Once upon a time. . . .” Remember how exciting those words used to be? They were the open door into a thrilling world of make-believe, a dream world that helped you forget all the problems of childhood.
Then—pow! You turned a corner one day, and “Once upon a time” became kid stuff. You discovered that life is a battleground, not a playground, and fairy stories were no longer meaningful. You wanted something real.
The search for something real is not new. It has been going on since the beginning of history. People have looked for reality and satisfaction in wealth, thrills, conquest, power, learning, and even in religion.
Nothing is really wrong with these experiences, except that by themselves they never really satisfy. Wanting something real and finding something real are different. Like a child eating cotton candy at the circus, many people who expect to bite into something real end up with a mouthful of nothing. They waste priceless years on empty substitutes for reality.
This is where the apostle John’s first epistle comes in. Written centuries ago, this letter deals with a theme that is forever up-to-date: the life that is real. John had discovered that satisfying reality is not to be found in things or thrills, but in a person—Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The Christian life—the life that is real—is a beautiful blending of “something old, something new.” The Holy Spirit takes the old things and makes them new things in our experience. When we stop to think about it, the Holy Spirit never grows old! He is always young! And He is the only person on earth today who was here centuries ago when Jesus lived, taught, died, and rose again. He is the only one who can take old truth and make it fresh and new in our daily experience at this present time.
“Be Transformed”
Christians forget that receiving the new nature does not eliminate the old nature they were born with. Transformation is real and complete in Christ but not fully apparent this side of eternity (). The old nature (which has its origin in our physical birth) fights against the new nature, which we receive when we are born again (). No amount of self-discipline, no set of human-made rules and regulations, can control this old nature. Only the Holy Spirit of God can enable us to “put to death” the old nature (, ) and produce the Spirit’s fruit (, ) in us through the new nature. This process continues on a daily basis for every believer throughout life.
Our frequent experience of failure sometimes makes cover-up a tempting option for dealing with ongoing sin. John knows this and eliminates it as a plan right from the start (). But he offers two positive considerations regarding our approach to sins: We can confess our sins (, ) and conquer our sins (, , ). Confession is the immediate first response when God’s Spirit points out sin in us. Repentance must be deep, honest, and genuine. It must involve calling the sin sin and acknowledging (as David did so insightfully in ) that we have done what is offensive to God whom we are claiming to love. Conquering sin means that we don’t think of confession as a circular treadmill in which we get comfortable with repeated sin because we can count on God’s forgiveness. We learn God’s instructions and His alternatives for persistent sins, and we practice them until certain sins fall away. Growth into maturity does take a lifetime, but each day in that lifetime can represent a small step of closer obedience to God.
What Was Heard, Seen, and Touched
2the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—
Fellowship with Him and One Another
5This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
1My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
2And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
The Test of Knowing Him
4He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
6He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
8Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
10He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
Their Spiritual State
Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
13I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write to you, little children,
Because you have known the Father.
14I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
And you have overcome the wicked one.
Do Not Love the World
15Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
17And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Deceptions of the Last Hour
19They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
21I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.
Let Truth Abide in You
24Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
25And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.
26These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.
The Children of God
29If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Sin and the Child of God
5And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
6Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
9Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
The Imperative of Love
10In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
13Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.
15Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
The Outworking of Love
16By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
19And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.
20For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
22And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
23And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error
1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
3and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
4You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
6We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Knowing God Through Love
8He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Seeing God Through Love
13By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
The Consummation of Love
18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
19We love Him because He first loved us.
Obedience by Faith
20If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.
3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
5Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
The Certainty of God’s Witness
6This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
7For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
8And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.
9If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.
10He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.
11And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Confidence and Compassion in Prayer
14Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
17All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
Knowing the True—Rejecting the False
19We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
Annotations for 1 John
God has revealed Himself in creation (), but creation alone could never tell us the story of God’s love. God has also revealed Himself much more fully in His Word, the Bible. But God’s final and most complete revelation is in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” ().
This word “fellowship” is important in a Christian’s vocabulary. It simply means “to have in common.” As sinners, human beings have nothing in common with the holy God. But God in His grace sent Christ to have something in common with us. Jesus Christ took on Himself a human body and became fully human. He took a human nature so that by faith we may receive the very nature of God!
John, in this epistle, used the word “joy” only once, but the idea of joy runs through the entire letter. Joy is not something that we manufacture for ourselves; it is a wonderful by-product of our fellowship with God. Basically, sin causes the unhappiness that overwhelms our world today. Sin promises joy, but it always produces sorrow. God’s pleasures last eternally—they are forevermore ().
John and other New Testament authors refer to the Christian life as a “walk.” This walk begins with a step of faith when we trust Christ as our Savior. But salvation is not the end—it’s only the beginning—of spiritual life. “Walking” involves progress, and Christians are supposed to advance in the spiritual life. Just as a child must learn to walk and must overcome many difficulties in doing so, a Christian must learn to live [walk] “in the light.” And the fundamental difficulty involved here is this matter of sin.
Light produces life and growth and beauty, but sin is darkness. Darkness and light cannot exist in the same place. If we are living in the light, the darkness has to go. If we are holding on to sin, then the light goes. There is no middle ground, no vague gray area, where sin is concerned.
To live in the light means to be honest with God, with ourselves, and with others. It means that when the light reveals our sin to us, we immediately confess it to God and claim His forgiveness. And if our sin injures another person, we ask his or her forgiveness too. Living in the light involves honesty, obedience, and love; it also involves following the example of Christ and living as He lived (). Of course, no one ever becomes a Christian by following Christ’s example; after we come into God’s family, however, we are to look to Jesus Christ as the one great example of the kind of life we should live.
Confession is not praying a lovely prayer or making pious excuses or trying to impress God and other Christians. True confession is naming sin—calling it by name what God calls it: envy, hatred, lust, deceit, or whatever it may be. Confession simply means being honest with ourselves and with God; and if others are involved, being honest with them too. It is more than admitting sin; it means judging sin and facing it squarely. True confession is the heart of repentance.
Jesus taught His disciples what belonging to Him means—to live in Him. He explained it in His illustration of the vine and its branches (). Just as the branch gets its life by remaining in contact with the vine, so believers receive their strength by maintaining fellowship with Christ.
God has made provisions for us in these ways to conquer sin. We can never lose or change the sin nature that we were born with (), but we need not obey its desires. As we live in the light and see sin as it actually is, we will hate it and turn from it. And if we sin, we immediately confess it to God and claim His cleansing. By depending on the power of the indwelling Spirit, we abide in Christ and walk as He walked—live as He lived.
As John described the life that is real, he used three words repeatedly: life, love, and light. In fact, he devoted three sections of his letter to the subject of Christian love. He explained that love, life, and light belong together. Read these three sections (; ; ) without the intervening verses, and you will see that love, life, and light must not be separated.
, Love itself, of course, is not new, nor is the commandment new—that people should love God and each other. Jesus Himself combined two Old Testament commandments ( and ), and said () that these two commandments summarize all the law and the prophets. Loving God and loving one’s neighbor were old, familiar responsibilities before Jesus ever came to earth. The commandment to love one another is not new in time, but it is new in character. Because of Jesus Christ, the old commandment to “love one another” has taken on new meaning.
These believers live in the darkness, though they probably think they are living in the light. They think they see, but they are actually blinded by the darkness of hatred. These kinds of people cause trouble in Christian groups. They think they are “spiritual giants,” with great understanding, when actually they are babies with very little spiritual perception. The second tragic result is that such a believer becomes a cause of stumbling (see v. ). When an unloving believer hurts himself (v. )—that’s bad enough. But when the person starts to hurt others the situation is far more serious.
Jesus illustrated love by the very life that He lived. He never showed hatred or malice. His righteous soul hated all sin and disobedience, but He never hated the people who committed such sins. Even His righteous announcements of judgment always had an undercurrent of love. Perhaps the greatest feature of Jesus’ love was the way it touched even the lives of His enemies.
A conflict exists in this world between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. Satan is the Prince of Darkness, and he extends his evil kingdom by means of lies and hatred. Christ is the “Sun of Righteousness” (), and He extends His kingdom by means of truth and love. The kingdoms of Christ and of Satan are in conflict today. The darkness is passing away little by little, and the True Light is shining brighter and brighter in our hearts.
“The world,” in the Bible, is Satan’s system for opposing the work of Christ on earth. It is the very opposite of what is godly and holy and spiritual (v. ). The world is not a natural habitat for a believer. The believer’s citizenship is in heaven (), and all his effective resources for living on earth come from his Father in heaven.
No Christian becomes worldly all of a sudden. Worldliness creeps up on a believer gradually. First comes the friendship with the world (). By nature, the world and the Christian are enemies. A Christian who is a friend of the world is an enemy of God.
This passage explains that two forces are at work in today’s world: Truth is working through the church by the Holy Spirit, and evil is working by the energy of Satan. The Holy Spirit, in Christians, is holding back lawlessness, but when the church is removed at the rapture (), Satan will be able to complete his temporary victory and take over the world.
God has warned the church family about the conflict between light and darkness () and between love and hatred (). Now He warns them about a third conflict: the conflict between truth and error. For a believer to walk in the light and to walk in love is not enough; he or she must also walk in truth. The issue is truth—or consequences!
To deny the Son means to deny the Father also. We cannot separate the Father and the Son, since both are one God. Jesus said, “The Father and I are one” (). He also made it clear that true believers honor both the Father and the Son.
We are warned against letting any human be our teacher, for God has given us the Spirit to teach us His truth. This does not deny the office of human teachers in the church (), but it means that under the guidance of the Spirit we must test the teaching as we search the Bible for ourselves (see ).
, A person who professes to be a Christian but who does not live in obedience, love, and truth is either deceived or a deceiver. A child bears the nature of his or her father, and a people who are “God’s children” will reveal the characteristics of the heavenly Father.
Because the Father loved us and sent His Son to die for us, we are children of God. Because God loves us, He wants us to live with Him one day. Salvation, from start to finish, is an expression of the love of God. We are saved by the grace of God (; ), but the provision for our salvation was originated in the love of God. And since we have experienced the love of the Father, we have no desire to live in sin.
Even though there may be conformity on the outside, there may still be rebellion on the inside, and this attitude is the essence of sin. Sin is basically a matter of the will. For us to assert our will against God’s will is rebellion, and rebellion is the root of sin. It is not simply that sin reveals itself in lawless behavior, but that the very essence of sin is breaking God’s law. No matter what his outward action may be, a sinner’s inward attitude is one of rebellion.
Every great personality mentioned in the Bible sinned at one time or another. Abraham lied about his wife (). Moses lost his temper and disobeyed God (). Peter denied the Lord three times (). But sin was not the settled practice of these men. It was an incident in their lives, totally contrary to their normal habits. And when they sinned, they admitted it and asked God to forgive them. Those who have been “born into God’s family” through faith in Christ know God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And because they know Him, they live lives of obedience—they do not practice sin.
Unconfessed sin is the first step in forming what the Bible calls “backsliding” ()—gradually moving away from a close walk with Christ into a life filled with the alien world in which we live. First sin invades us. Instead of fighting it, we yield to it (see ), and infection sets in. A gradual decline follows. We lose our appetite for spiritual things, we become listless and even irritable, and finally we collapse.
John’s letter has been compared to a spiral staircase because he kept returning to the same three topics: love, obedience, and truth. Although these themes recur, they are not merely repetitious. Each time we return to a topic, we look at it from a different point of view and are taken more deeply into it.
Cain is an example of a life of hatred; we find the record in . Note that Cain and Abel, being brothers, had the same parents, and they both brought sacrifices to God. Cain is not presented as an atheist; he is presented as a worshiper. And this is the point: Children of the devil masquerade as true believers. They attend religious gatherings, as Cain did. They may even bring offerings. But these actions in themselves are not valid proof that a person is born of God. The real test is that person’s love for the brothers and sisters—and here Cain failed.
, These verses, like those that deal with habitual sin in a believer (), concern a settled habit of life: Believers are in the practice of loving the “brethren,” even though on occasion they may be angry with someone (). Occasional incidents of anger do not nullify the principle. If anything, they prove it true because believers out of fellowship with their fellow Christians are miserable! Their feelings make clear to them that something is wrong.
John’s prohibition here rejects insincere love. To love truly means to love a person genuinely in our actions and not just in our words. People are attracted by genuine love but repelled by the artificial variety. One reason why sinners were attracted to Jesus (, ) was because they were sure He loved them sincerely.
The Holy Spirit is also the attesting and confirming Spirit, giving witness to those who are truly God’s children. When believers are abiding in Christ, the Spirit guides them and warns them of false spirits that would lead them astray.
Here we discover why love is so important in the life that is real. Love is a valid test of our fellowship and our relationship with God because “God is love.” Love is part of the very being and nature of God. If we are united to God through faith in Christ, we share His nature. And since His nature is love, love is the test of the vigor of our spiritual life.
, The nature of God is love. And a person who knows God and has been born of God will respond to God’s nature. As a compass naturally points north, a believer will naturally practice love because love is the nature of God. This love will not be a forced response; it will be a natural response. A believer’s love for the brothers and sisters will be proof of that person’s relationship (as God’s child) and fellowship with God.
The fact that Christians love one another is evidence of their fellowship with God and their adoption by God. It is also evidence that they know God. Their experience with God is not simply a once-for-all crisis; it is a daily experience of getting to know Him better and better. True theology (the study of God) is not a dry, impractical course in doctrine—it is an exciting day-by-day experience that makes us Christhke!
God is invisible (), and no human being can see Him in His essence. Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (). By taking on Himself a human body, Jesus was able to reveal God to us. But Jesus is no longer here on earth. How, then, does God reveal Himself to the world? He reveals Himself through the lives of His children. People cannot see God, but they can see us. If we abide in Christ, we will love one another, and our love for one another will reveal God’s love to a needy world. God’s love will be experienced in us and then will be expressed through us.
God is love. This truth is revealed to us in the Word, but it was also revealed on the cross, where Christ died for us. “God is love” is not simply a doctrine in the Bible; it is an eternal fact clearly demonstrated at Calvary (). God has said something to us, and God has done something for us.
The Old Testament Israelite would look with wonder at the tabernacle or temple because the presence of God was in that building. No person, besides the high priest once a year, would dare to enter the Holy of Holies, where God was enthroned in glory. But we have God’s Spirit living in us! We abide in this love, and we experience the abiding of God in us.
If people are afraid, it is because of something in the past that haunts them, or something in the present that upsets them, or something in the future that they feel threatens them. Or it may be a combination of all three. A believer in Jesus Christ does not have to fear the past, present, or future, for that person has experienced the love of God, and this love is being perfected in him or her day by day. We are so closely identified with Christ as members of His body that our position in this world is like His exalted position in heaven.
Disobedience to God’s will is a tragedy—but so is reluctant, grudging obedience. God does not want us to disobey Him, but neither does He want us to obey out of fear. The secret of joyful obedience is to recognize that obedience is a family matter. We are serving a loving Father and helping our brothers and sisters in Christ. We have been born of God, we love God, and we love God’s children. And we demonstrate this love by keeping God’s commandments.
, Our victory is a result of faith, and we grow in faith as we grow in love. The more we love someone, the easier it is to trust that person. The more our love for Christ is perfected, the more our faith in Christ is perfected too, because faith and love mature together.
Catalyst
John’s epistle refutes the popular false teaching of the time (occasionally revived throughout history) that Jesus was just a man. It presents three infallible witnesses to prove that Jesus was and is God:
First witness—the water. Jesus came “by water and blood.” The water refers to His baptism in Jordan, when the Father spoke from heaven and said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (). At the same time the Spirit descended like a dove and rested on Him. This was the Father’s attestation of His Son at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
Second witness—the blood. But the Father gave further witness as the time drew near for Jesus to die. He spoke audibly to Jesus from heaven, and said, “I have both glorified it [My name] and will glorify it again” (). Furthermore, the Father gave witness in miracle power when Jesus was on the cross: the supernatural darkness, the earthquake, and the tearing of the temple veil (, ). No wonder the officer cried out, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (). Jesus did not receive “the Christ” at His baptism and lose it at the cross. On both occasions, the Father witnessed to the deity of His Son.
Third witness—the Spirit. The Spirit was given to bear witness to Christ (; ). We can trust the Spirit’s witness, because He is “the Spirit of truth.” We were not present at the baptism of Christ or at His death, but the Holy Spirit was present. The Holy Spirit is the only person active on earth today who was present when Christ was ministering here. The witness of the Father is past history, but the witness of the Spirit is present experience. The first is external, the second is internal—and both agree.
Go to the
, somewhat parallels this passage. James described a believer who was sick, possibly because of his or her sin. This person sent for the elders, who came and prayed for him or her. The prayer of faith healed the person, and his or her sins were forgiven. The “prayer of faith” is prayer in the will of God, as described in . It is praying “in the Holy Spirit” ().
A believer today has a far greater responsibility to obey God than did the Old Testament saints. We have a complete Bible, we have the full revelation of God’s grace, and we have the Holy Spirit living within us to help us obey God. But in the New Testament we find cases of believers who lost their lives because they disobeyed God.
If a believer does not judge, confess, and forsake sin, God must chasten him or her. This process is described in , which suggests that those who do not subject themselves to the Father will not really live (). In other words, first God “spanks” His rebellious children, and if they do not yield to His will, He may remove them from His blessings of fullness of life () lest their disobedience lead others astray and bring further disgrace to His name.
Christians live in an atmosphere of reality. Most unsaved people live in an atmosphere of pretense and sham. Christians have been given spiritual discernment to know the true from the false, but the unsaved do not have this understanding. Christians do not simply choose between good and bad; they choose between true and false. An idol represents that which is false and empty, and a person who lives for idols become false and empty.
To a person of the world, the Christian life is unreal and the worldly life is real. This is because a person of the world lives by what he or she sees and feels and not by what God says in His Word. An idol is temporal; Jesus Christ is eternal God. “For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” ().
1 John 1
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3:23 M-Text omits us.
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3:24 ;
3:24 , ,
1 John 4
4:1
4:1
4:2
4:3 NU-Text omits that and Christ has come in the flesh.
4:4 ;
4:5
4:5 ;
4:6 []
4:7 , ,
4:7
4:9
4:9
4:10
4:10
4:11
4:12
4:13
4:14
4:14 ;
4:15 []
4:16 []
4:16 []
4:17
4:19
4:19 NU-Text omits Him.
4:20 []
4:20
4:20 NU-Text reads he cannot.
4:21 [, ; ]
1 John 5
5:1 ; ,
5:1
5:2
5:3
5:3 ;
5:4
5:4 ;
5:4 M-Text reads your.
5:5
5:6
5:6 []
5:7 []
5:7
5:8
5:8 NU-Text and M-Text omit the words from in heaven (verse ) through on earth (verse ). Only four or five very late manuscripts contain these words in Greek.
5:9 , ; ,
5:9 [, ]
5:9 NU-Text reads God, that.
5:10 []
5:10 ,
5:12 [, ; ; , ]
5:13 NU-Text omits the rest of this verse.
5:14 [; , ]
5:16
5:16 []
5:16 ;
5:17
5:18 []
5:18
5:18 NU-Text reads him.
5:19
5:20
5:20
5:20
5:20
5:20 ,