False Prophets and Teachers

2 But ^(A)false prophets also arose among the people, ^(B)just as there will be false teachers among you, who will ^(C)secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master ^(D)who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth ^(E)will be blasphemed. ³ And ^(F)in their greed they will exploit you ^(G)with false words. ^(H)Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴ For if God did not spare ^(I)angels when they sinned, but ^(J)cast them into hell^[a] and committed them to chains^[b] of gloomy darkness ^(K)to be kept until the judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world, but ^(L)preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought ^(M)a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ if by ^(N)turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, ^(O)making them an example of ^(P)what is going to happen to the ungodly;^{[c] 7} and ^(Q)if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸ (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, ^(R)he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹ then ^(S)the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,^[d] and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

Greeting

¹ Jude, a servant^[a] of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

^(A)To those who are called, ^(B)beloved in God the Father and ^(C)kept for^[b] Jesus Christ:

² May ^(D)mercy, ^(E)peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Judgment on False Teachers

³ Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our ^(F)common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you ^(G)to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴ For ^(H)certain people ^(I)have crept in unnoticed ^(J)who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert ^(K)the grace of our God into sensuality and ^(L)deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵ Now I want ^(M)to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that ^(N)Jesus, who saved^[c] a people out of the land of Egypt, ^(O)afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And ^(P)the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—