Study Desk

And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God's righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood.

Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people.

But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him.

They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.

looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.

And remember, our Lord's patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

If someone claims, "I know God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.

Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

Everyone who sins is breaking God's law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.

But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.

Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning, because they are children of God.

So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.

Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.

Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.

Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.