Jude

Greeting to the Called

¹Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and ^abrother of James,

To those who are ^bcalled, ¹sanctified by God the Father, and ^cpreserved in Jesus Christ:

²Mercy, ^dpeace, and love be multiplied to you.

Contend for the Faith

³Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you ^econcerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting ^fyou to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord ²God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Old and New Apostates

⁵But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that ^gthe Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And the angels who did not keep their ³proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; ⁷as ^hSodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the ⁴vengeance of eternal fire.

⁸ⁱLikewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and ^jspeak evil of ⁵dignitaries. ⁹Yet Michael the archangel, in ⁶contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, ^k“The Lord rebuke you!” ^10lBut these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. ¹¹Woe to them! For they have gone in the way ^mof Cain, ⁿhave run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished ^oin the rebellion of Korah.

Apostates Depraved and Doomed

¹²These are ⁷spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried ⁸about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; ^13praging waves of the sea, ^qfoaming up their own shame; wandering stars ^rfor whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

¹⁴Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, ¹⁵to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the ^sharsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

Apostates Predicted

¹⁶These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they ^tmouth great swelling words, ^uflattering people to gain advantage. ^17vBut you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: ¹⁸how they told you that ^wthere would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. ¹⁹These are ⁹sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

Maintain Your Life with God

²⁰But you, beloved, ^xbuilding yourselves up on your most holy faith, ^ypraying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹keep yourselves in the love of God, ^zlooking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

²²And on some have compassion, ¹making a distinction; ²³but ^aothers save ²with fear, ^bpulling them out of the ³fire, hating even ^cthe garment defiled by the flesh.

Glory to God

^24dNow to Him who is able to keep ⁴you from stumbling,

And ^eto present you faultless

Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,

²⁵To ⁵God our Savior,

⁶Who alone is wise,

Be glory and majesty,

Dominion and ⁷power,

Both now and forever.

Amen.