1 1 {\zaln-s |x-strong="G42450" x-lemma="πρεσβύτερος" x-morph="Gr,NS,,,,NMSC" x-occurrence="1" x-occurrences="1" x-content="πρεσβύτερος"\*From the elder. {I am writing this letter} to you, the congregation {of people} that God has chosen {to belong to him}. I sincerely love all of you believers. Not only do I myself love you, but all those who know and accept the true message {that Jesus taught} also love you. 2 {We love you} because we have all accepted God’s true message. This true message has become a part of us and will be with us forever. 3 God the Father and Jesus the Messiah, the Father’s Son, will {continue to} act kindly and mercifully toward us and will make us peaceful. {They will do this because} they are truthful and they love {us}.
4 I have learned that some of the believers from your congregation are living according to the true message {that God has taught us}. That made me very happy. This is just what our Father commanded us to do.
5 And now, dear congregation, I ask you {to do what God commanded:} that we should love each other. I am not writing this to you as a new thing that God has commanded {us to do}. Instead, we have known this command to love each other from when we first believed in the Messiah. 6 This is what it means to love {God and each other}. We should obey what God commands us to do. This is what God commands you, {to love each other,} so you need to do it. You have heard this from when you first believed in the Messiah.
7 I say this because there are many people in this world who travel around, deceiving people. These deceptive people refuse to say that Jesus the Messiah came to the earth and was a man. This {teaching} comes from the {original} deceiver, the one who opposes the Messiah. 8 Be careful so that you do not {let those teachers deceive you! If you let them deceive you, you will} lose the reward that we have worked for. So be careful to make sure that you receive the complete reward! 9 Those who do not continue to believe and teach the things that the Messiah taught, but instead believe and teach other things, do not have {a true relationship with} God. But those who continue to believe and teach what the Messiah taught do have {a true relationship} both {with God,} our Father{,} and {with Jesus,} his Son. 10 So when anyone comes to you who teaches something different from what the Messiah taught, do not welcome him into your homes! Do not even greet him {or wish him well in any way, so that you do not encourage him}. 11 If you greet these people respectfully, you are helping them to do the evil things that they do.
12 I have much more that I want to say to you. But I have decided not to write them to you in a letter. Instead, I hope to be with you soon and to talk with you personally. Then we will be completely joyful together. 13 Your fellow believers in the congregation here, whom God has also chosen, greet you.