Greeting

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, who are loved^[a] in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

² Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Ungodly Teachers Who Slipped In Secretly

³ Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you concerning the salvation we share, I felt it was necessary for me to write, to urge you to continue to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once and for all. ⁴ For certain individuals slipped in secretly, about whom it was written some time ago that they are condemned. They are ungodly people who turn the grace of our God into a license for sin and deny our only Master^[b] and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵ I want to remind you, though you already know all these things, that after the Lord^[c] rescued his people out of the land of Egypt, he later destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels who did not keep their position of authority but left their own dwelling place behind—God has kept them in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. ⁷ Like Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who in a similar way indulged in extreme sexual immorality and pursued homosexual perversion,^[d] they serve as an example of those who are going to suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸ Yet, in the very same way, these dreamers are defiling the flesh, despising authority, and blaspheming glorious ones. ⁹ But when the archangel Michael was disputing with the Devil and arguing about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a blasphemous condemnation against him. Instead he said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

¹⁰ But these people do not understand what they are blaspheming. They are being destroyed by the very things that they know by instinct (like unreasoning animals). ¹¹ Woe to them! They have gone the way of Cain. They have abandoned themselves for hire to the error of Balaam. They perished in Korah’s rebellion.

¹² These people are filthy stains on^[e] your love feasts when they eat with you without fear, shepherding themselves. They are clouds without rain, being driven along by the winds. They are autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea piling up the foam of their own shame. They are wandering stars for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved for eternity.

¹⁴ Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about these people, saying, “Look, the Lord is going to come with tens of thousands of his holy ones, ¹⁵ to execute judgment against all of them and to convict every soul concerning all their ungodly deeds, which they did in an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh words that ungodly sinners spoke against him.” ¹⁶ These are discontented grumblers, who walk according to their lusts, and their mouths speak boastful things as they flatter others to take advantage of them.

Keep Yourselves in God’s Love

¹⁷ But you, dear friends, remember the words that were spoken earlier by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers who follow their own ungodly lusts.”^{[f] 19} These are the people who cause divisions. They are worldly because they do not have the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, dear friends, continue to build yourselves up in your most holy faith as you keep praying in the Holy Spirit. ²¹ Keep yourselves in God’s love as you continue to wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which results in eternal life. ²² Show mercy to those who are wavering.^{[g] 23} Save others by snatching them out of the fire. Show mercy to still others with fear,^[h] hating even the clothing that is stained by the flesh.

²⁴ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless in the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to the only^[i] God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all time, now, and to all eternity. Amen.