Introduction

1 Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are having been sanctified by God the Father, and having been preserved for Jesus Christ, called:
2 Mercy to you, and peace, and love be multiplied.

Exhortation to Contend for the Faith

3 Beloved, though I was very eager to write to you concerning our common salvation, it was necessary for me to write to you, and to exhort you to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
4 For certain men have slipped in secretly, who of old were written for this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into debauchery, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Examples of Judgment

5 Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once having been fully known, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who believed not.
6 And the angels, having not kept their original domain, but having left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
7 Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, having in like manner to these indulged in sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
8 And in the same way these dreamers defile the flesh, and reject authority, and slander dignities.
9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a railing judgment, but said: “The Lord rebuke you.”
10 But these speak evil of whatever things they do not know; and whatever things they know naturally, like unreasoning animals by these things they are destroyed.
11 Woe to them! For they travelled in the way of Cain, and for reward they rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
12 These are hidden reefs for you, waterless clouds, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted;
13 wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
14 And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these, saying: “Behold, the Lord came with many tens of thousands of his holy ones,
15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; their mouth speaks great swelling things, flattering people for the sake of gain.

Call to Build Themselves Up

17 But you, beloved, remember the words previously spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18 that they told you: “In the last time there will be mockers walking according to their own ungodly lusts.”
19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit;
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting;
23 and save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on others have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Doxology

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before his glorious presence, with exceeding joy,
25 to the only wise God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, before all time, now and forevermore. Amen.