1 John 2:15 - 25 (Paraphase by Lee Sommitz)
15 Make sure that none of you drift from our Father in your affections and fall in love with the world and its tantalations. You cannot love both God and the world at the same time. 16 To sum up, allowing the desire for short lived pleasures to overwhelm good judgement, or dwelling on (obsession with) things that catch our eyes, or setting our hearts on things we can boast to others about, are not desires that please God but are from the world’s value system. 17 This world and its rewards will not last. Investing in God’s will, however, pays eternal dividends. 18 Beloved children, I want you to recognize that our time remaining is vanishing rapidly. As you have heard, opposition to God’s Anointed One will continue for now and the fact that we have seen that in many forms is further evidence that little time remains. 19 Some who we thought were part of our fellowship have deserted. Departing in that manner shows that they weren’t ever really part of us.
20 In contrast, you who remain have abiding convictions through the Anointed One’s work in your hearts. 21 It is not because you don’t know the truth that I am writing but because you genuinely embrace pure truth and reject lies. 22 The foundation of lying is a refusal to acknowledge that God appeared in human form as His Son, the Anointed One. A person who denies the Father and the Son like this is an antichrist. 23 Denying the Son keeps people from gaining access to God the Father, but agreeing with God about His Son is the very way we gained our adoption as His children. 24 I implore you to never stop believing the wonderful news you first accepted. If you continue believing as you did to begin with, you will remain in rich communion with the Father and the Son. 25 The promise He makes to each of us is gaining the incomparable prize of the Father’s eternal life!