Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of
James, to them that are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for
Jesus Christ: Mercy unto you and peace and love
be multiplied. Beloved, while I was giving all
diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to
write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was
once for all delivered unto the saints. For there
are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old written
of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of
our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus
Christ. Now I desire to put you in remembrance,
though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a
people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed
not. And angels that kept not their own
principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in
everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about
them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to
fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example,
suffering the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in
like manner these also in their dreamings defile the flesh, and set at
nought dominion, and rail at dignities. But
Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about
the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing judgment, but
said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these rail at
whatsoever things they know not: and what they understand naturally, like
the creatures without reason, in these things are they destroyed.
Woe unto them! For they went in the way of Cain,
and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in the
gainsaying of Korah. These are they who are
hidden rocks in your love-feasts when they feast with you, shepherds that
without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by
winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own
shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been
reserved forever. And to these also Enoch, the
seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten
thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment
upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness
which they have ungodly wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly
sinners have spoken against him. These are
murmurers, complainers, walking after their lusts (and their mouth
speaketh great swelling words), showing respect of persons for the
sake of advantage. But ye, beloved, remember ye
the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ; That they said to you, In the last time
there shall be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.
These are they who make separations, sensual,
having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building
up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
And on some have mercy, who are in doubt;
and some save, snatching them out of the fire;
and on some have mercy with fear; hating even the garment spotted by the
flesh. Now unto him that is able to guard you
from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without
blemish in exceeding joy, to the only God our
Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion
and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen.
HTML generated 21 September 2002.
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