Jude 1
Always Believe and Obey Only God’s True Message
1. Jude, bondman of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to the called ones beloved in God [the] Father and preserved in Jesus Christ:
2. Mercy to you, and peace, and love be multiplied.
3. Beloved, using all diligence to write to you of our common salvation, I have been obliged to write to you exhorting [you] to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
4. For certain men have got in unnoticed, they who of old were marked out beforehand to this sentence, ungodly [persons] , turning the grace of our God into dissoluteness, and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Examples from the Old Testament to show that God punishes bad people
5. But I would put you in remembrance, you who once knew all things, that the Lord, having saved a people out of [the] land of Egypt, in the second place destroyed those who had not believed.
6. And angels who had not kept their own original state, but had abandoned their own dwelling, he keeps in eternal chains under gloomy darkness, to [the] judgment of [the] great day;
7. as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities around them, committing greedily fornication, in like manner with them, and going after other flesh, lie there as an example, undergoing the judgment of eternal fire.
8. Yet in like manner these dreamers also defile [the] flesh, and despise lordship, and speak railingly against dignities.
9. But Michael the archangel, when disputing with the devil he reasoned about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a railing judgment against [him] , but said, [The] Lord rebuke thee.
10. But these, whatever things they know not, they speak railingly against; but what even, as the irrational animals, they understand by mere nature, in these things they corrupt themselves.
Three more examples from the Old Testament
11. Woe to them! because they have gone in the way of Cain, and given themselves up to the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
The false teachers are very dangerous
12. These are spots in your love-feasts, feasting together [with you] without fear, pasturing themselves; clouds without water, carried along by [the] winds; autumnal trees, without fruit, twice dead, rooted up;
13. raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shames; wandering stars, to whom has been reserved the gloom of darkness for eternity.
14. And Enoch, [the] seventh from Adam, prophesied also as to these, saying, Behold, [the] Lord has come amidst his holy myriads,
15. to execute judgment against all; and to convict all the ungodly of them of all their works of ungodliness, which they have wrought ungodlily, and of all the hard [things] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their lusts; and their mouth speaks swelling words, admiring persons for the sake of profit.
Jude tells the Christians what they must do
17. But *ye*, beloved, remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18. that they said to you, that at [the] end of the time there should be mockers, walking after their own lusts of ungodlinesses.
19. These are they who set [themselves] apart, natural [men] , not having [the] Spirit.
20. But *ye*, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
21. keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22. And of some have compassion, making a difference,
23. but others save with fear, snatching [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Jude says how great and powerful God is
24. But to him that is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set [you] with exultation blameless before his glory,
25. to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, might, and authority, from before the whole age, and now, and to all the ages. Amen.