Greeting
To those who are the called,1 Rm 1:7; 1Co 1:24 loved1 Other mss read sanctified1 1Th 1:4; 2Th 2:13 by God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.1 Jn 17:11,15; 1Th 5:23; 1Pt 1:5
Jude’s Purpose in Writing
3Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share,3 Ti 1:4 I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith3 1Tm 6:12; 2Tm 4:7 that was delivered3 2Pt 2:21 to the saints once for all.
4For some people, who were designated for this judgment long ago,4 Or whose judgment was written about long ago4 1Pt 2:8 have come in by stealth;4 Gl 2:4; 2Tm 3:6 they are ungodly,4 Mk 7:22; Rm 5:6 turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying4 Ti 1:16; 2Pt 2:1; 1Jn 2:22 Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.
Apostates: Past and Present
5Now I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus5 Other mss read the Lord, or God saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;5 1Co 10:1–11
8In the same way these people — relying on their dreams — defile their flesh, reject authority, and slander glorious ones.8 2Pt 2:10
9Yet when Michael9 Dn 10:13,21; 12:1; Rv 12:7 the archangel9 Lk 1:19; 1Th 4:16 was disputing with the devil9 Mt 4:1,10; Ac 13:10 in an argument about Moses’s9 Ps 77:20; Mt 8:4; Heb 3:2 body, he did not dare utter a slanderous condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
10But these people blaspheme anything they do not understand. And what they do understand by instinct — like irrational animals — by these things they are destroyed.
The Apostates’ Doom
12These people are dangerous reefs12 Or are like blemishes at your love feasts12 1Co 11:17–22; 2Pt 2:13 as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds;12 Pr 25:14 trees in late autumn — fruitless, twice dead and uprooted.
14It was about these that Enoch,14 Gn 5:18 in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied: “Look! The Lord comes with tens of thousands of his holy ones14 Dt 33:2; Dn 7:10; Mk 8:38; 1Th 3:13; 2Th 1:7; Heb 12:22
17But you, dear friends, remember what was predicted by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Exhortation and Benediction
20But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,20 Rm 8:15–16,26–27; Eph 6:18
21keep yourselves in the love of God,21 Jn 15:9–10; 1Jn 4:16 waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
22Have mercy on those who waver;
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