Study Desk

For no prophetic message ever came just from the human will, but people were under the control of the Holy Spirit as they spoke the message that came from God.

God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell, where they are kept chained in darkness, waiting for the Day of Judgment.

God did not spare the ancient world, but brought the flood on the world of godless people; the only ones he saved were Noah, who preached righteousness, and seven other people.

God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying them with fire, and made them an example of what will happen to the godless.

These people are like dried-up springs, like clouds blown along by a storm; God has reserved a place for them in the deepest darkness.

They purposely ignore the fact that long ago God gave a command, and the heavens and earth were created. The earth was formed out of water and by water,

But the heavens and the earth that now exist are being preserved by the same command of God, in order to be destroyed by fire. They are being kept for the day when godless people will be judged and destroyed.

Since all these things will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people should you be? Your lives should be holy and dedicated to God,

as you wait for the Day of God and do your best to make it come soon—the Day when the heavens will burn up and be destroyed, and the heavenly bodies will be melted by the heat.

But we wait for what God has promised: new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will be at home.

Look on our Lord's patience as the opportunity he is giving you to be saved, just as our dear friend Paul wrote to you, using the wisdom that God gave him.

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.

But if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make a liar out of God, and his word is not in us.

But if we obey his word, we are the ones whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:

if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as Jesus Christ did.

I write to you, my children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong; the word of God lives in you, and you have defeated the Evil One.

The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but those who do the will of God live forever.

See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children—and so, in fact, we are. This is why the world does not know us: it has not known God.

Whoever continues to sin belongs to the Devil, because the Devil has sinned from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for this very reason, to destroy what the Devil had done.