Jude 1

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to the called ones, loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:

may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

Beloved, while being very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you urging you to contend earnestly for the faith that was delivered to the holy ones once for all time.

For certain people have crept in unnoticed, those who were written about long ago for this condemnation; they are ungodly, perverting the grace of our God into immoral indulgence and are denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Now I want to remind you, though you have known all these things, that the Lord, who at one time saved a people out of the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe.

And likewise, the angels who did not keep within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having indulged in sexual immorality in a similar way as these angels and gone after unnatural flesh, are set forward as an example, suffering the punishment of the fire of the age to come.

Also, in a similar way, these people—because of their dreams—defile the flesh, reject authority, and defame the glorious ones.

But when Michael, a ruling angel, was disputing with the Devil and arguing about the body of Moses, he did not dare pronounce against him a charge of defamation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

But these people defame whatever things they do not understand; and whatever things they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, they are destroyed by following these things.

How terrible it will be for them! Because they walked in the way of Cain; and for the sake of profit, they have committed themselves to the error of Balaam; and they were destroyed in the rebellion of Korah.

These people are hidden reefs at your love-feasts, feasting together with you without fear, shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water carried along by the wind; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted;

wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shameful deeds like foam; wandering stars—for whom the deep gloom of darkness has been reserved until the age to come.

And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about these people, saying, “Look! The Lord will come with many thousands of his holy ones

to execute judgment upon all and to convict every soul concerning all of their ungodly works that they have committed in an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

These people are grumblers and complainers, walking after their own ungodly desires, and their mouth speaks grandiose things, flattering people for their own advantage.

But you, beloved, remember the message that was foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly desires.”

These people cause divisions and are worldly-minded, not having the spirit.

But you, beloved, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and by praying in the holy spirit,

keep yourselves in the love of God while you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that results in life in the age to come.

And have mercy on those who are doubting,

and save others by snatching them out of the fire, and on others have mercy with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

Now to him who is able to guard you from stumbling and cause you to stand in the presence of his glory without blemish and with great joy,

to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all the ages, and now, and for all the ages to come. Amen.