We write to you about the Word of life, which has existed from the very beginning. We have heard it, and we have seen it with our eyes; yes, we have seen it, and our hands have touched it.

For we cannot stop speaking of what we ourselves have seen and heard."

Now the message that we have heard from his Son and announce is this: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in him.

"I will announce," says the king, "what the LORD has declared. He said to me: 'You are my son; today I have become your father.

I will tell my people what you have done; I will praise you in their assembly:

and will know that I am the one who punishes them. "But I will spare some of them and send them to the nations and the distant lands that have not heard of my fame or seen my greatness and power: to Spain, Libya, and Lydia, with its skilled archers, and to Tubal and Greece. Among these nations they will proclaim my greatness.

Righteous Father! The world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you sent me.

And we are here to bring the Good News to you: what God promised our ancestors he would do, he has now done for us, who are their descendants, by raising Jesus to life. As it is written in the second Psalm, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.'

'Look, you scoffers! Be astonished and die! For what I am doing today is something that you will not believe, even when someone explains it to you!' "

For I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God.

And now I want to remind you, my friends, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm.

He says to God, "I will tell my people what you have done; I will praise you in their meeting."

They spent their time in learning from the apostles, taking part in the fellowship, and sharing in the fellowship meals and the prayers.

That decision was their own; but, as a matter of fact, they have an obligation to help them. Since the Jews shared their spiritual blessings with the Gentiles, the Gentiles ought to use their material blessings to help the Jews.

The secret is that by means of the gospel the Gentiles have a part with the Jews in God's blessings; they are members of the same body and share in the promise that God made through Christ Jesus.

You are always in my heart! And so it is only right for me to feel as I do about you. For you have all shared with me in this privilege that God has given me, both now that I am in prison and also while I was free to defend the gospel and establish it firmly.

Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another.

Slaves belonging to Christian masters must not despise them, for they are believers too. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their work are believers whom they love. You must teach and preach these things.

My Christian friends, who also have been called by God! Think of Jesus, whom God sent to be the High Priest of the faith we profess.

I, who am an elder myself, appeal to the church elders among you. I am a witness of Christ's sufferings, and I will share in the glory that will be revealed. I appeal to you

But if we live in the light---just as he is in the light---then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin.

For those who reject the Son reject also the Father; those who accept the Son have the Father also.

Be sure, then, to keep in your hearts the message you heard from the beginning. If you keep that message, then you will always live in union with the Son and the Father.

When that day comes, you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me, just as I am in you.

Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "Lord, how can it be that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?"

And eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

And now I am coming to you; I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world. Holy Father! Keep them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one just as you and I are one.

I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me.

God is to be trusted, the God who called you to have fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God's holy people and are set free.

(13:13) The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Your life in Christ makes you strong, and his love comforts you. You have fellowship with the Spirit, and you have kindness and compassion for one another.

All I want is to know Christ and to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death,

For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning.

So those who believe in the Son of God have this testimony in their own heart; but those who do not believe God, have made a liar of him, because they have not believed what God has said about his Son.

The testimony is this: God has given us eternal life, and this life has its source in his Son.

He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us safe into the kingdom of his dear Son,

and to wait for his Son to come from heaven---his Son Jesus, whom he raised from death and who rescues us from God's anger that is coming.