Jude
2 His tender compassion toward you, and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, when I was compelled to write to you concerning the salvation in which we share, it became absolutely necessary for me to write, and urge you that you should diligently contend for (and declare) the faith which was once and for all time delivered to the saints in Jesus Christ.
4 Because certain men have come in stealthily, who are walking in the way that God has judged from the beginning only brings corruption and death, ungodly men who exchange the judgment of God in Christ to give us blessing and life as a gift into an unbridled lust for life through the strength contained in their flesh and rejecting the life of the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
5 I will remind you, though you once knew this, how the Lord, who saved His people out of the bondage of Egypt, by His strength alone, which people afterward forsook the judgment and promise of God for their own way, utterly perished in the wilderness in their unbelief in His promise to give them the land as a gift.
6 And the angels which kept not their original design but forsook their habitation for darkness are now bound in everlasting chains under the judgment of darkness of that great day.
7 Just as Sodom and Gomorrah also exchanged the life of their design and
went a whoring after other gods, and were given over to their desire for
vile sexual activity with different flesh, serve as an example to us,
heaping unto themselves suffering, having gone out of the way that leads to
life, but continued in the way God judged from the beginning could only
bring them grief and sorrow, destruction, and death.
8 Likewise those who have crept in are beguiled in their imaginations of the life they can bring forth in their own strength, which way defiles their flesh; having rejected and set aside divine judgment, they are not afraid to speak against God or man.
9 Yet not even Michael the archangel when he disputed with the accuser, over whether the body of Moses belonged to the Lord, dared not bring an accusation of his own but simply said, the Lord’s judgment is against you.
10 But these men speak their own private judgments (and interpretations) of those things which they have no intimate knowledge: but rather having become intimately acquainted with their own fleshly desires they have become like wild beasts, not human (void of all rational thought and judgment) who bring corruption upon themselves.
11 Woe to them! For they have gone the same way as Cain (whose work to establish his own life by the fruit he could gather to himself, God judged as unjust and that which leads to backbiting, jealousy, and murder), and like Balaam they have rushed unrestrained in their lust for life for the reward which they can serve themselves, and perish the same way as Korah, by standing opposed to the judgment of God unto life.
12 These are the ones who secretly sit with you in your feasts of love, and when you take the Lord’s supper, but all the while they are feeding their bellies with their flesh, having no reverence to the way of the Lord unto life, not eating from the table prepared by the Lord. They are empty vessels, tossed around by the wind, trees whose fruit withers and is scorched by the heat, bearing no fruit, and are twice dead, (having been delivered from Adam's death, they are now dead in their own iniquity), and plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves tossed by the sea that find no rest, but continually spue out their own shame; stars void of light that wander aimlessly, who heap to themselves despair and the certainty of the blackness of darkness forever.
14 And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied of these, saying, Behold, when the Lord Jesus comes with tens of thousands of His saints,
15 To bring the justice (of His life) to all His beloved, and (the brightness of His countenance) lays bare the secrets in the heart of those who have given no reverence to the way that (God has judged) leads to life that stand among them, it will reveal that it is their own works they have worked that bring shame and condemnation to their hearts (not God who condemns them), and proving that their hard words (have only brought labors and annoyances) which words they have spoken contrary to Him who gives His blessing and life as a gift.
16 These are grumblers (and complainers) who blame others for their discontentment, and live by their unquenchable appetite (to do, to get and to have) life through the strength contained in their flesh (never finding satisfaction); and their mouth speaks greatly exaggerated and flattering words that advance their own agenda with rich and educated men who they hold in high regard in order to gain money, influence and power.
17 But I call to your remembrance beloved, the words which were spoken before by the apostles (Paul and Peter) of our Lord Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there would be false teachers in the last days (of death in the earth) who will depart from the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and (instead) will walk after their own lust (to do, to get and to have life) by the strength contained in their flesh.
19 These are those who cause division, who teach and are mindful of the principles contained in the world (of touch not, taste not, handle not and the practice of will worship, having not the Spirit of God.
20 But you who have the Spirit (who is always pointing to the faith contained in Jesus Christ) are built up in the inner man, being persuaded (that being dead to death you are alive to God) that you are set apart unto His same life, always speaking in and listening to the Holy Ghost (as He comforts you of the certainty of that life),
21 Whereby (He keeps you) abiding in the love of God, and (there is no occasion of stumbling) where you continually (fellowship with Him) looking for the comfort only He can bring (from the corruption in the world) through the mercy and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life (and bodily immortality).
22 And some will teach the loving compassion of our Lord Jesus, (by declaring the faith of Him) making a difference:
23 Who will be (like a brand plucked) from the fire; and hating (the perishible life in the world), and the spotted garment of their corruptible flesh (will He clothe upon them with His incorruption).
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling (so that you will not cower away in fear), but present you faultless (undefiled and without blame, in His life and immortality) before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
25 To the God of all wisdom our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion, and power, both right now and forever. Amen.
