Contend for the faith

¹ Judah, slave of Jesus the Messiah, brother of James, to those who are called, the people whom God loves and whom Jesus the Messiah keeps safe! ² May mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.

³ Beloved, I was doing my best to write to you about the rescue in which we share, but I found it necessary to write to you to urge you to struggle hard for the faith which was given once and for all to God’s people. ⁴ Some people have sneaked in among you, it seems, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation—ungodly people, who are transforming God’s grace into licentiousness, and denying the one and only master, our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

False teachers

⁵ I do want to remind you, even though you know it all well, that when the Lord once and for all delivered his people out of the land of Egypt, he subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ In the same way, when some of the angels did not keep to their rightful place of authority, but abandoned their own home, he kept them under conditions of darkness and in eternal chains to await the judgment of the great day. ⁷ In similar fashion, Sodom, Gomorrah and the cities round about, which had lived in gross immorality and lusted after unnatural flesh, are set before us as a pattern, undergoing the punishment of endless fire.

⁸ However, these people are behaving in the same way! They are dreaming their way into defiling the flesh, rejecting authority and cursing the Glorious Ones. ⁹ Even Michael the archangel, when disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not presume to lay against him a charge of blasphemy, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you.” ¹⁰ These people, however, curse anything they don’t know. They are like dumb animals; there are some things they understand instinctively—but it is these very things that destroy them. ¹¹ A curse on them! They go off in the way of Cain; they give themselves over for money into Balaam’s deceitful ways; they are destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. ¹² These are the ones who pollute your love-feasts; they share your table without fear while simply looking after their own needs. They are waterless clouds blown along by the winds. They are fruitless autumn trees, doubly dead and uprooted. ¹³ They are stormy waves out at sea, splashing up their own shameful ways. They are wandering stars, and the deepest everlasting darkness has been kept for them in particular.

¹⁴ Enoch, the seventh in line from Adam, prophesied about these people. “Look!” he said. “The Lord comes with ten thousand of his holy ones, ¹⁵ to perform judgment against all, and to charge every human being with all the ungodly ways in which they have done ungodly things, and with every harsh word which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁶ These people are always grumbling and complaining, chasing off after their own desires. From their mouths come arrogant words, buttering people up for the sake of gain.

Rescued by God’s power

¹⁷ But you, my beloved ones, remember the words that were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. ¹⁸ “In the last time,” they said to you, “there will be scornful people who follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹ These are the people who cause divisions. They are living on the merely human level; they do not have the spirit. ²⁰ But you, beloved 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 our Lord Jesus the Messiah to show you the mercy which leads to the life of the age to come.

²² With some people who are wavering, you must show mercy. ²³ Some you must rescue, snatching them from the fire. To others you must show mercy, but with fear, hating even the clothes that have been defiled by the flesh.

²⁴ Now to the one who is able to keep you standing upright, and to present you before his glory, undefiled and joyful— ²⁵ to the one and only God, our savior through Jesus the Messiah our Lord, be glory, majesty, power and authority before all the ages, and now, and to all the ages to come. Amen.