Montgomery - Jude - 1

1:1  Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James. To those who are in God, the Father beloved, kept for Jesus Christ, and called.

1:2  May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

1:3  Beloved, although I was making all haste to write to you in regard to our common salvation, I am compelled to write you an appeal to defend the faith once for all committed to the saints.

1:4  For certain men have crept in stealthily - men predestined in ancient prophecies for this condemnation - impious ones! They pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness, and deny Jesus Christ, our sole Master and Lord.

1:5  I wish to remind you of what you already know right well, that although the Lord once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, he afterward destroyed those who did not believe;

1:6  while the angels who did not keep their first domain but left their proper abode, are held by him in blank darkness, in everlasting chains, in preparation for the judgment of the Great Day.

1:7  So also Sodom and Gomorrah and the near-by cities which in like manner glutted themselves in sensuality and unnatural vice, are exhibited as a warning of the eternal fire, in the punishment they undergo.

1:8  Yet in just the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, while they set at naught dominion and scoff at dignities.

1:9  But Michael, the Archangel, when in contending with the devil, he was disputing about the body of Moses, did not dare to pronounce sentence for blasphemy, but said, "The Lord rebuke you."

1:10  Yet these men blaspheme about matters of which they know nothing, while they use such things as they do understand by instinct (like the animals who have no reason) for their own destruction.

1:11  Alas for them! They have walked in the path of Cain; for the sake of gain they have rushed headlong into Balaam’s error, and have perished in Korah’s rebellion.

1:12  These are they who are stains upon your love-feasts; when they feast sumptuously without scruple, looking after none but themselves. They are clouds without water, driven along by the winds; trees of autumn, fruitless, doubly dead, torn up by the roots,

1:13  wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

1:14  It was to these, too, that Enoch, the "seventh in descent from Adam," prophesied, saying, "Lo! the Lord is come with myriads of his saints,

1:15  to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly deeds which in their ungodliness they have committed; and of all the hard things which they have spoken against Him, ungodly sinners that they are!"

1:16  For these are murmurers, always complaining. They always go where their passions lead, and their mouth speaks great swelling words, while they pay court to men for the sake of the advantage they can get.

1:17  But as for you, dearly beloved, remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,

1:18  how they used to say to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will be led only by their godless passions."

1:19  These are the men, sensual and unspiritual, who cause divisions.

1:20  But you, beloved, continually building yourselves up on your most holy faith, and ever praying in the Holy Spirit,

1:21  must keep yourselves in the love of God, while waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ends in life eternal.

1:22  Pity some who are wavering, and save by dragging them out of the fire;

1:23  others pity, but with caution, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

1:24  Now unto Him who has power to guard you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, faultless and exultant,

1:25  to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be ascribed glory, majesty, might, and authority, as it was before time began, is now, and ever shall be to all the ages. Amen.