Jude 1

¹ From Jude, servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James; to those who are cal ed, to those who aredear to God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ,

² mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

³ My dear friends, at a time when I was eagerly looking forward to writing to you about the salvation thatwe all share, I felt that I must write to you encouraging you to fight hard for the faith which has been once and foral entrusted to God's holy people.

⁴ Certain people have infiltrated among you, who were long ago marked down for condemnation on thisaccount; without any reverence they pervert the grace of our God to debauchery and deny al religion, rejectingour only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵ I should like to remind you -- though you have already learnt it once and for al -- that the Lord rescuedthe nation from Egypt, but afterwards he stil destroyed the people who refused to believe him;

⁶ and the angels who did not keep to the authority they had, but left their appointed sphere, he has kept indarkness in eternal bonds until the judgement of the great Day.

⁷ Sodom and Gomorrah, too, and the neighbouring towns, who with the same sexual immorality pursuedunnatural lusts, are put before us as an example since they are paying the penalty of eternal fire.

⁸ Nevertheless, these people are doing the same: in their delusions they not only defile their bodies anddisregard Authority, but abuse the Glories as wel .

⁹ Not even the archangel Michael, when he was engaged in argument with the devil about the corpse ofMoses, dared to denounce him in the language of abuse; all he said was, 'May the Lord rebuke you.'

¹⁰ But these people abuse anything they do not understand; and the only things they do understand --merely by nature like unreasoning animals -- wil turn out to be fatal to them.

¹¹ Alas for them, because they have fol owed Cain; they have thrown themselves into the same delusionas Balaam for a reward; they have been ruined by the same rebel ion as Korah -and share the same fate.

¹² They are a dangerous hazard at your community meals, coming for the food and quite shamelesslyonly looking after themselves. They are like the clouds blown about by the winds and bringing no rain, or likeautumn trees, barren and uprooted and so twice dead;

¹³ like wild sea waves with their own shame for foam; or like wandering stars for whom the gloom ofdarkness is stored up for ever.

¹⁴ It was with them in mind that Enoch, the seventh patriarch from Adam, made his prophecy when hesaid, 'I tel you, the Lord wil come with his holy ones in their tens of thousands,

¹⁵ to pronounce judgement on al humanity and to sentence the godless for al the godless things theyhave done, and for al the defiant things said against him by godless sinners.'

¹⁶ They are mischief-makers, grumblers governed only by their own desires, with mouths ful of boastfultalk, ready to flatter others for gain.

¹⁷ But remember, my dear friends, what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.

¹⁸ 'At the final point of time', they told you, 'there wil be mockers who fol ow nothing but their own godlessdesires.'

¹⁹ It is they who cause division, who live according to nature and do not possess the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, my dear friends, must build yourselves up on the foundation of your most holy faith, praying inthe Holy Spirit;

²¹ keep yourselves within the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to give youeternal life.

²² To some you must be compassionate because they are wavering;

²³ others you must save by snatching them from the fire; to others again you must be compassionate butwary, hating even the tunic stained by their bodies.

²⁴ To him who can keep you from fal ing and bring you safe to his glorious presence, innocent and joyful,

²⁵ to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, authority and power, before al ages, now and for ever. Amen.