I JOHN CHAPTER 1 - 5

I JOHN

There are many indications to suggest that this letter comes from the same source as the Gospel and the other letters bearing the name of John. One of these is the rather unique use of the term Son of God as applied to Jesus. Other sources use the term uniquely in a technical sense synonymous with the term promised Messiah. The Johannine source equates the term Son of God with life-bringer, and this is one of the central themes of these writings. The first epistle concentrates on this theme more than any other. The expansion of the concept son of God to all believers in 1 John 3:1,2 et al. prevents it from being an indication of Trinitarian doctrine. Trinitarian doctrine is quite simply a later development historically speaking and is not found in texts written before its appearance. Even later textual adjustments do not actually intrude the doctrine into the text.

The foremost textual proof for the Trinity in Scripture is 1 John 5:7, which is also the text having the most convincing evidence of having been interpolated by a later hand. The fact that it was added to the Bible strongly suggests that those who invented the doctrine of the Trinity knew very well that the Bible taught no such doctrine. Otherwise, there would be no reason to tamper with the text. And yet even that addition comes nowhere near adequately proving the Trinity. The existence of the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit in heaven and their oneness do not imply that there is one God eternally existing in three co-equal persons. Despite all vain human efforts to corrupt the text of Scripture, the divine message remains intact. If the strongest textual evidence for the Trinity, 1 John 5:7, fails, then all other grasping at straws to buttress this satanic invention on the basis of Scripture is an exercise in futility.

1 JOHN 1

1 That which was from the first, which we
Have heard, which we have seen to be
With sight, that we have looked upon,
Our hands have handled, though he’s gone,
About the Word of life, 2 the life
Was manifested, and we’ve seen,
And we bear witness, without strife,
And we declare to you and mean
That life eternal with the Father
And which was shown to us, we’d rather,
3 That which we have seen and heard we
Declare to you, that you may be
Also in fellowship with us,
And truly ours, and without fuss,
In fellowship not only with
The Father and His son (no myth)
Who is his servant the Messiah.
4 And this is surely no pariah,
These things we write to you that your
Joy may be full and even more.
5 This is the message which we’ve heard
From him declaring you his word,
That God is light, and in Him is
No dark at all in Him and His.
6 If we say we have fellowship
With Him, and walking still we dip
In darkness, we lie and do not
Practice the truth as we’ve been taught.
7 But if we walk in light as He
Is in the light, then surely we
Have fellowship with one another,
And then the blood of Christ our brother,
Jesus His son and servant cleanses
Us from all sin beneath His lenses.

The light You are, Beloved, is justice that
You call me to walk in, while darkness at
My feet is when I fail to practice what
You preach. I think I have not overshot
The definition. If I walk with You
In light, John promises what I misdo
Is cleansed by Jesus’ blood. Conditions met,
However, seem to indicate that yet
There would be no sin there to cleanse. Who walks
Within the practice of the truth and stalks
No fruit prohibited is without sin.
And if he does not walk that way John’s promise
Does not apply. I guess I’m doubting Thomas.
Beloved, I walk with You through thick or thin.

8 If we say that we have no sin,
We do deceive ourselves indeed,
And the truth of God’s not within.
9 If we confess our sins decreed,
He [God] is faithful and just forgiving
Us our sins and cleansing us living
From all unrighteousness. 10 If we
Say that we have not sinned, then we
Make Him a liar, and His word
Is not in us and has not stirred.

Ah, my Beloved, I shall not say that I
Have never sinned, but You know by the by
Better than I what motive guides my action,
My errors of addition and subtraction.
But here the lovely promised thing is clear,
That one who does confess his faults, no fear,
Receives from You his cleansing and his pardon.
That’s all it takes to get back in the garden.
That’s not cheap grace but absolutely free.
You’re faithful and You’re just to pardon me.
You would not be more just to sacrifice
A son or servant for their bloody price.
Condition there may be, but only one,
Confess my errors now and then be done.

1 JOHN 2

1 My little children, these things I
Write to you, so you may not fly
To sin. And if anyone sins,
We have a comforter who wins
With the Father, Jesus Christ, just.
2 And he himself’s the one who must
Come to appease for our sins, and
Not just ours but the whole world’s strand.

I thank You, my Beloved, that You have here
Beside You one to comfort You. The fear
That veils create upon the faces of
Illusion also cloud and hide Your love.
I thank You, my Beloved, that You have sent
Appeasement for the sins of incident
That I act on my blindness to Your face.
Your image made in flesh for time and space
Appeases for the fact that You’re not seen
And light enlightens empty where You’ve been.
Appease the logical agnostic thought,
Appease the desperate in atheist.
I thank You most of all as pietist
To read this means I sin no more nor ought.

3 And by this we know that we know
Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 He who says, “I know Him,” below
And does not keep His commandments,
Is lying, and the truth is not
In him. 5 But whoever keeps His
Word, truly the love of God is
Perfected in him. By this we
Know that we are in Him. 6 But he
Who says he abides in Him ought
Himself walk as he [Jesus] walked and taught.

Can any man know You, Beloved, who are
Without form, vision, limit, way or star?
To know You is the goal of every search,
The hope of fame, the strength of wealth, the perch
Of power. All that men do has that one goal.
There is no other thirst of human soul.
To know You, infinite in grace and power,
Is not the product of a single hour.
Yet know You fully, truly does the one
Who keeps the ten commandments once begun
On Sinai. That is the criterion
That can be always truly counted on.
To know is to obey and so I know
Obeying is to know in dark and glow.

7 Brothers, no new command I write
To you, but an old law in sight
From the start. That ancient command
Is the word that you hear first hand.
8 Again, a new commandment I
Write to you, which thing is true by
Him and by you, because the dark
Passes away, and the true spark
Of light already shines. 9 He who
Says he is in the light, and who
Hates his brother, is in the dark
Until now. 10 He who in remark
Loves his brother abides in light,
There’s no stumbling-block in his sight.
11 But he who hates his brother is
In darkness and he walks in his
Darkness, and does not know where he
Goes, since in the dark he can’t see.

The old commandment stands, the one was heard
On Sinai, one that in beginning stirred
The heart of Adam, guided Noah in
His walk with You, his walking without sin.
No new commandment is there nor can be
Since perfect law reigns on eternally.
The new commandment is one from beginning,
Without which keeping law was just more sinning.
Moses himself said love as self the neighbour,
And leave no one unloved for wealth or labour.
But new it is with every new awareness
That strikes it bright on inner chamber’s bareness.
I love You, my Beloved, the Self alone
Who is one Self in all selves flesh and bone.

12 I write to you, children, because
You are set free of sins by means
Of His [God’s] name and before all laws.
13 I write to you, fathers of teens,
Since you’ve known Him [God] from the beginning,
And knowing Him keeps you from sinning.
I write to you, young ones, since you
Have overcome what wicked do.
I write to you, children, because
You’ve known the Father [God] and His laws.
14 I write to you, fathers, since you
Have known Him from the start who’s true.
I write to you, young men, since you
Are strong, God’s word abides in you,
You’ve overcome what wicked do.
15 Do not love the world or the things
In the world. If one loves the things
Of the world, the Father’s love’s not
In him. 16 For all in the world taught,
The lust of the flesh, lust of eyes,
And pride of life, which is not wise,
Is not of the Father but of
The world and comes not from above.
17 And the world is passing away,
And with it its lust and its way,
But he who does God’s will abides
Forever and does not take sides.

The world of falsity, illusion is
Made up of one great trinity, a whiz
At fine seductions: lust of flesh and lust
Of eyes, and pride of life that truly must
Be last but far from least. The human eye
Fails to distinguish lust of flesh or try.
The false religion binds men from right doing,
And blames the duty and the pleasure, ruing
The right and viewing it as lust. So guard
Me, my Beloved, from false asceticism,
As well as from eyeful aestheticism.
The only thing the eye finds not so hard
Is pride of life. Let me take pride unmarred
In You alone and all else disregard.

18 Little children, it’s the last hour,
As you’ve heard Antichrist in power
Is coming, even now many
Antichrists have come, by which we
Know that it is the last hour. 19 They
Went out from us, indeed, but they
Were not of us, for if they’d been
Of us, they would have, without sin,
Continued with us, but that they
Might be made manifest, that none
Of them were of us, when all’s done.
20 But you have an anointing from
The Holy One, you know the sum.
21 I have not written you because
You do not know the truth and laws,
But because you know it, and that
No lie is of the truth out flat.
22 Who is a liar but who denies
That Jesus is the Christ? Despise
Antichrist who denies the Father
And the Son. 23 Whoever might bother
To deny the Son does not know
The Father either, but he who
Has Son has the Father also,
Who has the Father has Son too.

Truly, among the Jews of John’s day those
Who followed the Messiah also chose
The God Almighty of Creation and
The mighty Strengthener of Abram’s hand.
Truly, the promised one sent down to guide
All Israel to the right path and right side
Was gauge of truth that You are one, no doubt.
But since that day the heathen had it out,
And so I say who has the trinity
Has neither Son nor Father but degree
Of heathen, pagan faith of Canaanite.
If he’s a liar who will deny the right
Of Jesus as Messiah Christ, then he
Is also liar who says he’s one of three.

24 You then what you heard from the start
In you let stay, if by your part
It stays what from the start you heard,
You also in the Son preferred
And in the Father you’ll abide
Forever by the Father’s side.
25 And this is the promise that He
Has promised us eternally:
Life. 26 These things I have written you
Concerning those who’d deceive you.
27 And you anointing have received
From Him in you to stay, reprieved,
And you have no need that someone
Teach you, but as the same anointing
Teaches you about all things done,
And it is true, not disappointing
And not a lie, and as taught you,
You will abide in Him who’s true.

What is that great anointing that was heard
From the beginning of the sacred word
That must protect believers and frail saints?
What is that inner life that never faints
Nor needs a teacher nor a guide beyond
The ever present spirit to respond?
It is the one great sermon preached by You,
Beloved, one day on Sinai, what is true.
When that abides from day to day and night
To night, no false thing can emerge in sight.
Ah, my Belovèd, let me contemplate
That purifying law with love and hate,
Love to You only and hate for all else,
In such love and such hate my hard heart melts.

28 And now, children, abide in him,
That when He appears at the rim,
We may have confidence and not
Be ashamed before Him we’ve sought
At His appearing. 29 If you know
That He is righteous, then you know
That all who do things righteously
Are born of Him eternally.

Ah, my Beloved, I see now how it is
That You beget a son or daughter whiz.
When any one of Your created ones
Does righteously, he’s numbered in Your sons.
By living, acting by the law You gave
On Sinai once, a man becomes Your slave,
Your servant, and Your son: so You beget
Good works in all those faithful folks who let
Your will shine in the gloom of desert night,
Of city life, in hiding or plain sight.
Beget me too this day and I shall be
Your son and servant, and also be free.
To be Your child is freedom at its best,
Obeying Your commands is freedom’s vest.

1 JOHN 3

1 See what love has given us the Father,
That children of God we be called
And that’s why the world does not bother
To know us, for it being stalled
Does not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we
Are children of God, what we’ll be
Has not yet been revealed, but we
Know that when He’s revealed, we’ll be
Like Him, for we shall surely see
Him as He is. 3 Who has this hope
In Him of all can surely cope,
Purify self as pure as He.

Beloved, what love comes from You free and fast!
That love is all that there is hope to last.
A child of God is one whom You, Beloved,
Love despite that the darkened hurt and shoved
In their unknowing. Yet I do not know
The depths of love remaining still to show,
But have the confidence that in my row
Of firm obedience one day I’ll see
The thing prepared in love that time to be.
What is a child but loved, obedient?
I purify my ways in what You sent,
Ignore the claims and clamours that deny
That You, Beloved, without gain of the sky,
Are near me now to love and by and by.

4 Who commits sin also commits
Lawlessness, which is where sin sits.
5 And you know that he was made seen
To take away our sins’ demesne,
And in him there’s no sin at all.
6 Whoever abides in his thrall
Does not sin. But whoever sins
Has neither seen him nor begins
To know him. 7 Little children, let
No one deceive you that you’ve met.
He who does righteousness is right,
Just as he is righteous, polite.
8 He who sins is the devil’s own,
For the devil has sinned and grown
From the beginning. That is why
The Son of God, Messiah nigh,
Was manifested, that he might
Destroy the devil’s works outright.

Beloved, You sent Your “Son” that is the one
Who wholly obeys You like father won
And was promised to show Your will to all
Who should answer divinely proffered call.
As he obeys You as his Father so
I too make You my Father as I go
Out to obey Your sweet commands, what You
Proclaimed on Sinai what all men should do.
And so abiding in Messiah’s way,
And in Your heart from dawn of every day,
I too like Your Messiah cannot sin,
Because in his guidance all men must win.
Beloved, I cling to Your Word once revealed,
And in Your Christ I find I’m sinless sealed.

9 Whoever has been born of God
Does not sin, for his seed on sod
Remains in him, he cannot sin,
And that is because he has been
Born of God. 10 In this difference
Children of God of heaven are known
Distinct from devil’s children shown.
Who does not practice righteousness
Is not of God, nor to assess
Is he who does not love his brother,
Or honour father and his mother.

To be born of You, my Beloved, is not
To come from sperm and ovum You’ve begot,
But to practice the righteousness revealed
In Your Word’s statutes and never to yield
To the devil, who cunningly comes in
To whisper disobedience is not sin.
Messiah is Your son, and I am too,
When we conform to think and speak and do
According to commandment righteously.
From bastardhood Your law has set me free
As well as Jesus, once accused to be
Son of Mary’s supposed adultery.
I rush to do Your will’s express command
And thus find sonship and Your freedom’s land.

11 For this is the message that you
Heard from the beginning to do,
That we should all love one another,
12 Not as Cain of the wicked one
Who murdered his own father’s son.
And just why did he murder him?
Because his works were bad and dim,
And his brother’s were righteous acts.
13 Don’t marvel, my brothers, if facts
Shows that the world hates you and him.

Who claim to be Your own, Beloved, hate me
Because I cling to Your commandment’s word
As read, obeying Your law I am free.
I’m free from serving the opinion of
The neighbour and his ruler and the turd
Of state that would deny the divine love
That spoke on Sinai. For that I am hated.
Of twenty thousand churched all are fated
To deny the clear meaning of statute
Stated in Decalogue, Sabbath to boot.
I’m hated that I proclaim You are one
By the first commandment that’s there to stun.
I’m hated for the Sabbath that I keep
To find You where most others fail to weep.

14 We know that we have passed from death
To life, who love not Ashtoreth
But the brothers. He who does not
Love his brother stays in the plot
Of death. 15 Whoever hates his brother
Is murderer of every other,
And you know that eternal life
Is found in no murderer’s strife.
16 By this we know love, just because
He laid down his own life for us.
And we also ought to lay down
Our lives for brothers in the town.
17 But whoever has this world’s goods,
And sees his brother in the woods,
In need, shuts up his heart from him,
How does the love of God grow dim
And fail to stay, abide in him?
18 My little children, let us not
Love in word or in tongue, but taught
In deed and in truth. 19 And by this
We know that we are of truth’s bliss,
Assure our hearts before His kiss.

It is not certain, my Beloved, that he
Who is murdered is the one in the right.
Who murders has in truth done wickedly,
But the victim may also in Your sight
Be sinner and lost in an evil plight.
What’s certain is that killers are in wrong
Despite their singing patriotic song.
Just as rejection of Your unity
And breaking Your Sabbath show faithfully
How many are lost in illusion’s dark,
So killing in or outside Eden’s park
Shows just as faithfully the straying path.
Outside of Your commandment’s only wrath.
Love finds in Your law ways to see and be.

20 For if our heart condemns us, God
Is greater than our heart by prod,
And knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our
Heart does not condemn us an hour,
We have confidence toward God’s power.
22 And whatever we ask we get
From Him, because we don’t forget
To keep His commandments and do
All those things pleasing in His view.

Who in illusion’s veils wander desert
Rely on human heart to know and spurt.
The human heart does not condemn the crime
Of loving one with feelings and in time
Hating another for the difference
Of being, word or even colour skin.
To follow heart is to follow nonsense,
For You, Beloved, are greater than heart’s sin.
I flee to You, Beloved, from what I think
Is true and right and what I eat and drink.
I flee to You, Beloved, from clarity
Of faith and judgement of the heart set free.
I flee to You, Beloved, from all that finds
A place beneath the sun, behind the blinds.

23 And this is His commandment too:
That we should believe on the name
Of His Son Jesus Christ who came
And love one another, as he
Gave us commandment. 24 And now he
Who keeps His commandments abides
In Him, and He in him besides.
And by this we know He abides
In us, by spirit that resides
In us whom He has given us
To show us truth in all the fuss.

I know that Jesus is the one You sent
Because he in his coming would prevent
The heart departing from Your revealed word
Set down on sapphire table, heart be stirred.
So I lay my belief and trust in him
Who handed out Your law and was not dim
In its upholding despite temple crowd
That wanted to define what was allowed.
By loving one another I find that
Each I-ness is a place where You have sat,
A treasure to be found, but pitied when
Each I recedes behind the veils of men.
The spirit, my Beloved, states what is true:
There is no I existing here but You.

1 JOHN 4

1 Beloved, do not believe each thing
That comes to you to preach and sing,
But test the spirits, whether they
Are of God, because in the way
Many false prophets have gone out
Into the world to pray and shout.
2 By this you know God’s spirit: each
Spirit that has come here to preach
That Jesus Christ has come in flesh
Is of God, 3 and each spirit fresh
That does not Jesus Christ confess
As come in flesh, don’t stay to guess,
Such one is not of God. And this
Is spirit of the Antichrist,
Which you have heard was coming, and
Now’s already on earth to stand.

The great criterion of keeping law
You have established already with awe.
The second litmus test to validate
A claim to prophethood or head of state
Is bowing to authority of Christ
Come in the flesh, and these two things sufficed
To proof the witness to be come from You
If he believe and do these things as true.
Christ in the flesh refers they say to one
Docetic doctrine affirmed under sun.
Our heresies today are subtler built
And laid up with the centuries of silt.
And yet it is still proof of right and main
Who both commandment and Your Christ maintain.

To declare and believe the Christ has come
In human flesh is merely to succumb
To the commandment first proclaimed as right:
That there is no god but You in Your might,
And that You are no man, and so Christ too
Is no God since he is a man in view.
To declare and believe Christ’s flesh and bone
Redeem for sins in sacrifice atone
Is to deny the mercy and the grace
That You have in abundance in this place,
To which nothing can add and none subtract,
Your grace is infinite and still intact.
Beloved, indeed, Jesus is in the flesh
And as a man no God comes out afresh.

4 Little children, you are of God,
And have overcome them with rod,
Because He who is in you is
Greater far than the one who is
In the world. 5 They are of the world.
Therefore they speak as of the world,
And the world hears them. 6 We’re of God.
He who knows God too hears our prod,
He who is not of God does not
Hear us. By this we know the spirit
Of truth and spirit of error near it.

You are, Beloved, in every humble child,
In every adult too, both ripe and wild,
In consciousness of I-ness in creation
Which is reflection of Your divine station.
That I-ness turns the soul back to Your own,
Or else lets illusion come break the stone,
But all are alike brought before Your throne
With either dread of judgement or elation.
The world, Beloved, does not hear of my voice
Because I make You, You alone my choice,
But proof is not in hearing or to stop
To spin again the whirling, whirling top.
Proof is that children still come to remember
The heavenly grace of which they are a member.

7 Beloved, let us love one another,
For love is of God, and the brother,
And everyone who loves is born
Of God and knows God, not for scorn.
8 He who does not love does not know
God, for God is love, not for show.
9 In this the love of God appeared
To us, that God has sent unfeared
His only generated son
Into the world, so we have won
Life through him. 10 And in this is love,
Not that we loved God from above,
But that He loved us, sent His son
Propitiation for sins done.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we
Also should love each other, see.
12 No one has seen God any time.
If we love each other in time,
God dwells in us, and His love is
Been perfected in us, just His.
13 By this we know we stay in Him,
And He in us, because undim
He’s given us of his Spirit,
That witnesses Him where we sit.

The bright Christian says Jesus is Almighty
God since he’s called Your son. Such talk is flighty.
The Muslim rejects the Bible because,
Despite the confirmation of the laws
Of the Qur’an, it calls Jesus Your son.
And knowing You beget not nor when done
Are You begotten, they eschew the word.
What Bible calls son Qur’an undeterred
Calls servant. Truly, either metaphor
Can be trained on truth or on straying door.
He calls all men to love You and receive
Obedience to Your will and reprieve,
Instead of arguing the weight of words
Along with other filth and other turds.

14 And we have seen and testify
That the Father has sent foreby
The son as saviour of the world.
15 Whoever confesses unfurled
That Jesus is the son of God,
Which means Messiah on the sod,
God dwells in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and have believed
The love that God’s for us conceived.
God is love, and he who abides
In love abides in God, besides
And God in him, so we’ve believed.

Abide in me, Beloved, and so You do
Since I cannot escape the cockatoo
Within me that calls me “I” every day
I wake up to awareness of the way.
I confess that Jesus is Your son meant
Born without divine penises and sent
As Your servant into the world, Messiah
To save us from ourselves and each pariah
Of false religion that men seek to make
To escape duty and for fleeing’s sake
From Your face where are all men called to keep
The vigil of wonder that in all sleep
The image of divine Creator’s love.
That must be the thing that You’re talking of.

17 Love has been perfected among
Us in this thing as we have sung:
That we may have boldness in that
Day of judgement, where He has sat,
Because as He is, so are we
In this world, and shall always be.
18 There is no fear in love at all,
But perfect love casts out fear’s thrall,
Because fear involves torment, but
He who fears has not been made what
Is perfect in love. 19 We love Him
Because He first loved us not dim.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and
Hates his brother, he out of hand
Is a liar, for he who does
Not love his brother whom he was
Seeing, how can he love God whom
He has not seen till day of doom?
21 And this command we have from him:
That he who loves God must love him
Who’s also in his brother’s room.

Ah, my Beloved, here You give great command
To carry out the contemplation grand
Of human face, and in that loving find
The love to love You even though I’m blind.
Ah, my Beloved, I seek divinity
In every passing human that I see,
And in faith look beyond the sordid act
And word and find the one created fact
That there is I in every form I meet
In wood and desert, on the crowded street,
And that I is but One in all things cast,
The I of You from all things first to last.
Ah, my Beloved, I bless Your written word
And revel in its sounds as I have heard.

1 JOHN 5

1 Who believes Jesus is the Christ
Originates in God sufficed,
And everyone who loves Him who
Produced also must love him who
Was produced by Him. 2 By this we
Know that we love the children free
Or followers of God, when we
Love God and keep His commandments.
3 For this is the love of God’s sense,
That we keep all His commandments.
And his commandments are not hard.
4 Whatever’s produced without guard
From God overcomes the world’s sway.
This is the victory each day
That has overcome the world’s sway
Even our faith. 5 Who is he who
Overcomes the world, but he who
Believes that Jesus is God’s son,
That is, Messiah, when all’s done?

John meets the heresy on early times,
The one called docetism in most rhymes,
By making an appeal to three great words:
That Jesus is the Christ and all his herds
Must love You and keep Your commandments well.
That triad ought to hold the fort a spell.
In fact, it still holds true: criterion
Of keeping the commandments under sun
When added to belief that You sent one,
And that we ought to love You for the gift
Is full and free enough, no need to shift.
Beloved, I lay hold on Your Christ anew,
And in his grace keep Your commandments too,
While both of these lead me to love of You.

6 This is who came by water and
By blood, Jesus Christ, not to stand
Only by water, but also
By water and blood, whom will show
The spirit witness, since it is
The truth. 7 For there are three that bear
Witness in heaven: the Father there,
The word, and holy spirit, and
These three are one, in witness stand.
8 And there are three that bear witness
On earth: the spirit, water, and
The blood, and these three bear witness
As one. 9 If we receive of men
Their witness, God’s witness is then
The greater, for this is witness
Of God which He has testified
Of His son who was glorified.

If there’s beside You in Your heaven a word,
And yet a spirit when the word’s interred,
That makes a triple in reflection of
The witness of Your Christ You hold in love.
All men on earth are made of water and
Of blood and spirit, foot and head and hand.
The consciousness of I-ness bears witness
That You descend in word and spirit bless,
But even greater than the witness found
Within the human soul upon the ground
Is that divine revealing from above
That fills the air of Sinai with Your love
And there proclaims for all to see and hear
The word and glory and the things men fear.

10 He who believes in son of God,
Messiah, has witness to prod
In himself, who does not believe
God has made him one to deceive,
Because he’s not believed what God
Gave testimony of His son.
11 And this is the witness of God:
That God has given us, all things done,
Eternal life, life in His son,
That is, the Christ, or the Messiah.
12 Who has the son has life and nigh her,
Who has not God’s son or Messiah
Does not have life. 13 These things I’ve written
To you who believe and are smitten
With the name of God’s son, Messiah,
That you may know you have that life
Eternal, and may without strife
Believe still further in the name
Of God’s son, Christ, and without shame.

Who has the witness of the three: belief
That You have sent Your Christ for our relief,
And love to You informs the things we do
According to Your brief commandments, few;
That one has life eternal and to spare.
I look around the ice-paved street beware
And see that spring is rising everywhere.
I see return of spring, eternal spring,
But that is just reflection of the thing.
I turn to You, Beloved, and find such life
Original and uncreated rife.
The veils that catch Your glories in my sight
Grow older, weaker with the coming night,
And yet with that I’m closer to the right.

14 Now this is the confidence that
We have in Him, that where we’ve sat,
If we ask a thing in His will,
He hears us. 15 And if we know still
That He hears us, what thing we ask,
We know that we have every task
That we have asked of him. 16 If any
Sees his brother sinning for penny,
A sin which does not lead to death,
He’ll ask, and He will give him breath
For those who commit sin not leading
To death. There is sin that’s conceding
To death. I do not say he should
Pray on behalf of that or would.
17 All unrighteousness is sin, and
There’s sin not to death, understand.

A simple question rises from the word
That some sins are to death for every bird,
While others are not to death on the road.
How shall I know the which is which bestowed?
The answer’s just as simple: watch the load.
What’s mentioned in the Decalogue is such
When unobserved leads to death for as much.
What’s mentioned not in the commandments ten
Is found in mouth of prophet and such men
To support the divine law set up true.
To fail in those is not to drink the rue,
But opens one to failures in the blue.
Beloved, I flee from sins that lead to death,
And take the others as from breath to breath.

18 We know that who is born of God
Does not sin at all on the sod,
But he who has been born of God
Keeps himself, and the wicked one
Does not touch him with hand or gun.
19 We know that we are of God, and
The whole world lies in wicked hand.
20 And we know that the son of God,
Christ and Messiah’s come with rod
And given us an understanding,
That we may know Him who’s true standing,
And we are in Him who is true,
In His son Jesus Christ, as crew.
Here is the true God, life eternal.
21 Little children, keep from infernal
Idols that have led astray men
And women from the truth. Amen.

Who’s born of God (who does not wield male tool)
Is one kept by Him from playing the fool
And sinning with sinners on the bar stool.
Who’s born of God is not thereby divine
In twosome or in threesome on the vine.
True God is one, and Jesus is another,
Not God himself, but Christ and human brother.
In this is life eternal, though I die
Beneath the firs and pines, beneath the sky,
Above the frozen sods and apple trees
Just waiting for the passing of last freeze.
Let me awake, Beloved, today and then
To bear a witness as to earthly men
That You are One and living as You please.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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