Jude 1 (NMV)
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, to the called - loved by God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
3 Dearly loved ones, although I was making every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt a pressing need to write and encourage you to struggle earnestly for the faith that was once for all handed down to those set apart for God.
4 For certain individuals have secretly slipped in - those who were long ago marked out for this condemnation - ungodly people who distort the grace of our God into sexual indulgence and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus the Anointed One.
5 Now I want to remind you - though you already know this - that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And the angels who did not keep their own appointed domain but abandoned their proper dwelling - He has kept them in everlasting chains within the blackness of utter gloom until the judgment of the great day.
7 In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them gave themselves over to sexual immorality and pursued sexually deviant unions that violated God's created order - especially those crossing gender, species, or spiritual boundaries. They serve as a warning, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
8 Yet these people also, relying on their dreams, defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander heavenly beings.
9 But even Michael the archangel, when he argued with the devil over the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a blasphemous judgment against him, but said, "May the Lord rebuke you!"
10 But these people blaspheme whatever they do not understand, and what they do understand instinctively - like unreasoning animals - they corrupt themselves through it, gradually deteriorating into moral and spiritual decay.
11 Woe to them! For they have walked in the way of Cain [embracing jealousy, rebellion, and godless worship]. They have poured themselves out in Balaam's deception for pay [exchanging truth for money and encouraging sexual sin]. And they have perished in Korah's rebellion [rising up against God's appointed authority and being destroyed for it].
12 These people are hidden reefs at your love feasts [meals of sacred fellowship among believers], feasting with you without reverence. They are shepherds who care only for themselves. They are waterless clouds, driven by the wind; trees in late autumn without fruit, twice dead and plucked up by the root.
13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own indecencies and moral filth. They are wandering stars, for whom the thick black gloom of judgment has been reserved forever.
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about them, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with uncountable multitudes of His holy ones,
15 to execute judgment on all and to convict every ungodly person of all their ungodly deeds committed in ungodly ways, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."
16 These are grumblers and faultfinders. They follow their own desires, their mouths pour out arrogant words, and they flatter others to gain advantage.
17 But you, dearly loved ones, remember the words that were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
18 They told you, "In the last time, there will be scoffers who follow their own ungodly desires."
19 These are the ones who cause divisions. They are unspiritual people, operating only from the natural self, and they do not have the Spirit.
20 But you, dearly loved ones, build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit.
21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
22 Have mercy on those who are uncertain and struggling to believe.
23 Save others by snatching them out of the fire; and to others, show mercy with fear, hating even the undergarment defiled by flesh-driven sin.
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before His glorious presence with great joy,
25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time, now, and forever. Amen.