Jude

Chapter 1

¹ Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are the called, to the beloved in God the Father and Jesus, to those who have been kept in Christ: ² May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

³ Beloved, making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I had a compulsion to write to you, exhorting you to struggle earnestly for the faith that was delivered once for all to the saints. ⁴ For certain men have entered secretly, who long ago have been designated beforehand for this condemnation, ungodly, changing the grace of our God into sensuality, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵ And I desire to remind you—though once you fully knew—that Jesus, ^[1] having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And angels who did not keep their own domain, but having left their own dwelling place—he has kept in everlasting chains, under thick darkness, for the judgment of the great day; ⁷ as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having committed sexual immorality in the same manner as these, and having followed after strange flesh, they are being displayed as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. ⁸ Yet in the same way, these dreamers also defiling the flesh, and rejecting authority, and blaspheming the glorious ones. ⁹ But Michael the archangel, when disputing with the devil and arguing with him about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous judgment against him. Instead, he said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰ But these people are slandering what they do not understand, and what they do understand by instinct, as unreasoning animals, by these things they are being destroyed. ¹¹ Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain and have abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam for wages, and in the rebellion of Korah they have perished. ¹² These are the ones feasting with you shamelessly in your love feasts—hidden reefs, shepherding themselves, clouds without rain, carried along by winds, autumn trees without fruit—twice dead, having been torn up by the roots, ¹³ violent waves of the sea, foaming out their own shameful deeds, wandering stars, for whom the gloom of thick darkness has been reserved forever. ¹⁴ But even Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them, saying, “Behold! The Lord came with myriads of his holy ones, ¹⁵ to execute judgment on everyone and to rebuke every soul concerning all their ungodly works which they did in an ungodly way, and concerning all of the harsh things that ungodly sinners spoke against him.” ¹⁶ These are grumblers, complainers, following according to their lusts, and their mouth speaks boastful things, flattering faces for the sake of advantage.

¹⁷ But you, beloved, remember the words that have been spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁸ that they said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers going according to their own ungodly lusts.” ¹⁹ These are the ones who are causing divisions, natural-minded, not having the Spirit. ²⁰ But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. ²² And have mercy on those who are doubting, ²³ But save others, snatching them out of the fire, and have mercy on others with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

²⁴ And to the one who is able to keep you without stumbling and to cause you to stand before his glory without blemish, with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, before all the age, both now and for all the ages. Amen!