Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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The Letter from JUDE
The Letter from Jude was written to warn against false teachers who
claimed to be believers. In this brief letter, which is similar in content to
2 Peter, the writer encourages his readers “to fight on for the faith which
once and for all God has given to his people.”
Introduction 1–2
Character, teaching, and doom of the false teachers 3–16
Admonition to keep the faith 17–23
Benediction 24–25
1 From Jude, servant of Jesus
Christ, and brother of James—
1 To those who have been called by
God, who live in the love of God the
Father and the protection of Jesus
Christ: note
2 May mercy, peace, and love be
yours in full measure.
False Teachers
3 My dear friends, I was doing my
best to write to you about the salvation
we share in common, when I
felt the need of writing at once to encourage
you to fight on for the faith
which once and for all God has given
to his people.
4 For some godless
people have slipped in unnoticed
among us, persons who distort the
message about the grace of our God
in order to excuse their immoral
ways, and who reject Jesus Christ,
our only Master and Lord. Long ago
the Scriptures predicted the condemnation
they have received.
5 For even though you know all
this, I want to remind you of how the
Lord note once rescued the people of Israel
from Egypt, but afterward destroyed
those who did not believe. note
6 Remember the angels who did not
stay within the limits of their proper
authority, but abandoned their own
dwelling place: they are bound with
eternal chains in the darkness below,
where God is keeping them for
that great Day on which they will be
condemned.
7 Remember Sodom and
Gomorrah, and the nearby towns,
whose people acted as those angels
did and indulged in sexual immorality
and perversion: they suffer the
punishment of eternal fire as a plain
warning to all. note
8 In the same way also, these people
have visions which make them
sin against their own bodies; they
despise God's authority and insult
the glorious beings above.
9 Not even
the chief angel Michael did this. In
his quarrel with the Devil, when
they argued about who would have
the body of Moses, Michael did not
dare condemn the Devil with insulting
words, but said, “The Lord rebuke
you!” note
10 But these people attack
with insults anything they do not understand;
and those things that they
know by instinct, like wild animals,
are the very things that destroy
them.
11 How terrible for them! They
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have followed the way that Cain
took. For the sake of money they
have given themselves over to the
error that Balaam committed. They
have rebelled as Korah rebelled, and
like him they are destroyed. note
12 With
their shameless carousing they are
like dirty spots in your fellowship
meals. They take care only of themselves.
They are like clouds carried
along by the wind, but bringing no
rain. They are like trees that bear no
fruit, even in autumn, trees that
have been pulled up by the roots and
are completely dead.
13 They are like
wild waves of the sea, with their
shameful deeds showing up like
foam. They are like wandering stars,
for whom God has reserved a place
forever in the deepest darkness.
14 It was Enoch, the sixth direct descendant
from Adam, who long ago
prophesied this about them: “The
Lord will come with many thousands
of his holy angels note
15 to bring
judgment on all, to condemn them
all for the godless deeds they have
performed and for all the terrible
words that godless sinners have spoken
against him!”
16 These people are always grumbling
and blaming others; they follow
their own evil desires; they brag
about themselves and flatter others
in order to get their own way.
Warnings and Instructions
17 But remember, my friends, what
you were told in the past by the
apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
18 They said to you, “When the last
days come, people will appear who
will make fun of you, people who
follow their own godless desires.” note
19 These are the people who cause divisions,
who are controlled by their
natural desires, who do not have the
Spirit.
20 But you, my friends, keep
on building yourselves up on your
most sacred faith. Pray in the power
of the Holy Spirit,
21 and keep yourselves
in the love of God, as you wait
for our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy
to give you eternal life.
22 Show mercy toward those who
have doubts;
23 save others by
snatching them out of the fire; and to
others show mercy mixed with fear,
but hate their very clothes, stained
by their sinful lusts.
Prayer of Praise
24 To him who is able to keep you
from falling and to bring you faultless
and joyful before his glorious
presence—
25 to the only God our
Savior, through Jesus Christ our
Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and
authority, from all ages past, and
now, and forever and ever! Amen.
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Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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