1From Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those
who have been sanctified in God
the father and have been kept
safe for Jesus Christ,
and who are called,
2mercy to you, and peace, and may love be plentiful.
3Beloved, when I was making every effort to write to you about
our shared salvation, I found
it necessary to write to you exhorting
you to strive on behalf of the faith once delivered to the saints.
4For certain men have crept in surreptitiously, who
have long
been consigned to this judgment,
who are ungodly,
who are changing the grace of our God into licentiousness, and
who are denying God the only master and Lord of ours, Jesus Christ.
5And I want to remind you, although you know this, that after the Lord had rescued
the people out of
the land of Egypt
on a first
occasion, on the second
occasion he destroyed those
who did not believe.
6And he has put
the angels who
did not keep their own dominion, but left their own dwelling place, under guard in perpetual chains in underworld gloom
ready for
the judgment of
the great day.
7Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns around them committed fornication in a similar way to these, and they went out after alien flesh,
so they are set before
us as an example, as they undergo
the penalty of age-abiding fire.
8Yet these also, dreaming, likewise defile
the flesh and flout dominion and blaspheme
those in glory.
9And when Michael the archangel was contending with the devil and disputing about the body of Moses, he did not dare bring a charge of blasphemy but said, “May
the Lord rebuke you.”
10But these speak blasphemously about many
things which they do not know about, but on the other hand they instinctively understand
things in the way unreasoning animals
do,
and they are wrecked by these
things.
11Woe to them, because they went the way of Cain and abandoned
themselves in the error of Balaam's remuneration, and they perished by the refractoriness of Korah.
12These are sunken rocks in your love
feasts, who feast with
you, fearlessly attending to themselves,
who are clouds without water, carried off course by
the winds, and
they are autumnal trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted,
13wild waves of
the sea, foaming with their own shameful deeds, wandering stars, for whom the underworld gloom of darkness has been reserved throughout
the age.
14And moreover Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied to these and said, “Look,
the Lord
has come with tens of thousands of his holy ones,
15to execute judgment against all, and to convict all of them who
are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed, and of all the harsh
things which ungodly sinners have said against him.”
16These
individuals are murmurers, dissatisfied with their fate,
who walk according to their desires, while their mouth speaks bombastic
words, showing partiality for the sake of gain.
17But
as for you, beloved, remember the words which
were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18how they told you that in
the latter time there would be scoffers
who would walk according to their own ungodly desires.
19These are the
ones who cause divisions,
who are natural,
who do not have
any spirit.
20But you, beloved, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying by holy spirit,
21keep yourselves in
the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ,
culminating in age-abiding life.
22And have compassion on one group, as
you make a distinction,
23and save another group with fear, snatching
them out of
the fire, while
you show revulsion even at the garment polluted by the flesh.
24Now to him who is able to keep them firm-footed,
And to set them without blemish with joy
In the presence of his glory,
25To the only and wise God our saviour
Be glory and majesty,
Might and authority,
Both now and throughout all the ages.
Amen.
Reference(s) in Chapter 1: v.11 ↔ Numbers 16:1 ● v.14 ↔ Deuteronomy 33:2.