Jude

Jude

¹From Jude, servant of God and of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who love God the Father, who are named and called in Jesus Christ. ²Peace to you. May love and mercy grow abundant among you. ³Brothers and sisters, I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we all share. Now I must write to you urgently, and I urge you to fight for the faith that was given to the saints. ⁴For certain wicked people, who were written down long ago for this judgment, have slipped in among you. They twist the grace of God into an excuse for immorality, and they deny the one who alone is King, our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵You already know that Jesus once saved his people out of the land of Egypt, and that afterward he destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And the angels who did not keep their proper nature and abandoned their order, he has placed under judgment. They are held in chains for the great day, because they brought it on themselves. ⁷In the same way Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them committed immorality as they did and chased after lustful desire. He has set them under eternal judgment, and they have been handed over to their punishment. ⁸In the same way these people defile their bodies in their dreams. They reject their Lord and slander his glory. ⁹Even Michael the archangel, when he was arguing with Satan over the body of Moses, did not dare to speak an insulting word, but said, "May God rebuke you." ¹⁰But these people slander and sin in matters they do not understand. What they do understand, the instincts of the flesh, they know like animals, and by these they are destroyed. ¹¹Woe to them! They have walked in the way of Cain. They have rushed after Balaam's error for pay, and they have perished in the rebellion of Korah and those with him. ¹²These are the ones who pretended love toward you in order to lead you astray, bold in their sins. They follow the cravings of their hearts and look after themselves without fear. They are like clouds without rain, driven by the wind, and like dry trees without fruit, twice dead and uprooted. ¹³They are like wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, and like dark stars, for whom judgment waits at the end of their darkness forever and ever. ¹⁴Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: "Look, God is coming with his countless holy angels to carry out judgment. ¹⁵He will repay everyone according to his deeds. He will convict all the sinners for all the sinful deeds they have committed, and for all the wrong words that wicked and godless sinners have spoken against him." ¹⁶These people are grumblers, whose hope is cut off. They follow the cravings of their hearts. Their mouths speak arrogant words, they puff themselves up, and they flatter people, all for their own gain. ¹⁷But you, brothers and sisters, remember the words spoken to you in advance by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸They told you that in the last days deceivers would come who teach by the cravings of their hearts and lead people astray by their sins. ¹⁹These are the ones who drag others along in their error. They lead people astray by their own natural desires and do not have the Holy Spirit. ²⁰But you, brothers and sisters, build yourselves up in the holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. ²¹Keep yourselves in the love of God, and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which brings life forever and ever. ²²For there are some you must correct for their sin, and some you must show mercy. ²³There are some you must save by snatching them out of the fire. Some are saved through fear and repentance. And some, hating their former wrongdoing, have thrown off the garment stained by their immorality. ²⁴God our Savior is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you pure and full of joy before his glory, ²⁵through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him belong glory, majesty, strength and authority, from before the creation of the world, now and always, and for all the ages to come. Amen.