Jude
Chapter 1
Overview
Jude writes to a community whose shared faith is being quietly undermined from within. Certain people have twisted God’s kindness into permission for reckless behavior while rejecting Jesus’ authority. Jude answers with sharp warnings drawn from ancient Jewish history and vivid pictures from nature: empty clouds, uprooted trees, restless waves, wandering stars. Yet the letter is not merely a thunderstorm of judgment. Jude turns toward practical courage, urging his readers to strengthen one another, pray, remain in God’s love, show careful mercy, and trust God to bring them safely into his presence.
1From Jude, a servant of Jesus the Messiah and a brother of James. To those whom God the Father loves, whom he has called and is keeping safe for Jesus the Messiah.
2May mercy, peace, and love fill your lives more and more.
3Dear friends, I was eager to write to you about the salvation we share. But I found it necessary instead to urge you to fight for the faith—the message once for all entrusted to God’s people.
4Some people have secretly slipped in among you. Their condemnation was written about long ago. They have no respect for God, and they use our God’s undeserved kindness as an excuse for shameless behavior. They also reject our only Master and Lord, Jesus the Messiah.
5Although you learned all this once for all, I want to remind you that Jesus rescued a people from Egypt, but afterward he destroyed those who did not trust him.
6Remember also the angels who did not remain within their own position of authority but abandoned the place where they belonged. God has kept them in darkness, bound with eternal chains, until the judgment of the great day.
7In the same way, Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities gave themselves to sexual immorality and pursued sexual relations with beings different from themselves. They lie before us as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
8Yet these people act in the same way, following their dreams. They pollute their bodies, reject authority, and insult glorious heavenly beings.
9But when Michael, the chief angel, argued with the devil about Moses’ body, even Michael did not dare to condemn the devil with an insulting accusation. Instead, he said, “May the Lord rebuke you!”
10These people insult whatever they do not understand. What they do understand by instinct, like animals without reason, becomes the very thing that destroys them.
11How terrible it will be for them! They have followed Cain’s violent path. For money, they have rushed into Balaam’s error, and they have destroyed themselves through rebellion like Korah’s.
12These people are dangerous reefs at your community meals, which are meant to express your love for one another. They eat with you without fear and care only for themselves. They are clouds without rain, driven along by winds. They are autumn trees without fruit, dead twice over—fruitless and uprooted.
13They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame. They are wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.
14Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, also spoke this prophecy about them: “Look! The Lord has come with tens of thousands of his holy ones
15to judge everyone. He will prove that all those who have no respect for God are guilty because of every godless act they have committed and every harsh thing these godless sinners have spoken against him.”
16These people are grumblers who complain about their lives. They follow their own desires, boast loudly, and flatter people whenever they hope to gain something.
17But you, dear friends, remember what was foretold by the messengers sent by our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
18They told you, “In the final period of history, there will be people who mock God and follow their own godless desires.”
19These are the people who create divisions. They live only by their natural impulses and do not have God’s Spirit.
20But you, dear friends, strengthen yourselves on the foundation of your most holy faith, and pray under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit.
21Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, which leads to eternal life.
22Show mercy to those who are wavering.
23Save others by snatching them out of the fire. Show mercy to still others, but do so with fear. Hate even the clothing stained by their corrupt way of life.
24God is able to keep you from falling and to bring you, without fault and with great joy, into his glorious presence.
25He alone is God, our Savior, through Jesus the Messiah our Lord. Glory, majesty, power, and authority belong to him before all time, now, and throughout every age. Amen.