Hello
1From: Jude, a worker for Jesus Christ and a brother of James.To: Everyone who accepted God’s invitation is loved by God the Father and is being kept safe for Jesus Christ’s return. [1]
2I hope you experience God’s mercy, peace, and love. More and more every day.
Sex-Crazy People at Church
3Dear friends, you and I are saved. So, I was planning to write you about that. Instead, I need to urge you to keep working hard for the faith and for the message that was delivered to all God’s people–once and for all.4Some people snuck into your church. These are bad people, condemned long before their time. They take God’s kindness and misrepresent it. They treat it as a license to behave immorally and to reject our only true leader and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5I want to remind you of something you already know, to reinforce it. After the Lord saved his people by freeing them from slavery in Egypt, he killed people who rejected him. 6He punished angels too. I’m talking about the angels who didn’t stay where they were put. [2] Now they’re locked in darkness with chains that won’t break. They’re waiting for Judgment Day.
7God made an example of the neighboring towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. They did what the angels had done: indulge in sexual immorality. But they added unnatural sex too. For that, they got a taste of the coming eternal fire.
8People who have slipped into your group say they take their orders from dreams they have. They reject those in authority. They behave in filthy ways. They even bad-mouth celestial beings.
9Don’t forget the story of Michael the archangel and the devil getting into an argument over who was going to take the body of Moses. [3] Michael didn’t bad-mouth the devil and accuse him of saying disrespectful things about God. Instead, he simply said, “I’ll let the Lord punish you for that.”
10These people in your church trash-talk any idea too sophisticated for them to understand. What they do understand are animal instincts. No reasoning skills necessary. What they do with those instincts will destroy them.
11There’s tragedy ahead for those people. They follow Cain’s [4] example. They make the same mistake Balaam [5] did because of his greed. Like Korah, [6] they rebel against God and will suffer deadly consequences.
12These human wrecks sit among you when it’s time to eat. There’s nothing reverent about them. They are entirely selfish. Getting something helpful from them would be like getting water from an empty cloud as it blows away in the wind. These people are like fruitless fruit trees in autumn. Worse, they’re dead and uprooted.
13They’re wild waves in an angry sea. They spew their shame like foam. They wander in the darkness like a star in the night. An eternity of darkness waits for them.
14Enoch spoke out against these people. He lived during the seventh generation of humans. Adam was his great-times-four grandfather. Enoch said, “Look, people. Here comes the Lord with more angels than you can count. 15It’s Judgment Day for everyone. Godless souls who behaved in godless ways are going to get a taste of God’s judgment—for this and for speaking out against him.” [7]
16These people who are slipping into your church are constant complainers and finger-pointing blamers. They go wherever lust takes them. They’ll brag themselves up. But they’ll brag up others if it pays.
Get Spiritually Stronger
17You’ve got to remember, dear friends, what the apostles of our leader, Jesus Christ, said. 18Remember they said, “When we reach the last age, our critics will become obsessed by their worst desires.” 19They were talking about the people causing divisions among you—people who are thoroughly secular. There’s nothing spiritual about them.20Dear friends, strengthen yourselves in your devotion to God and pray through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 21Stay in love with God as you wait for our leader, Jesus Christ, to show you the mercy he promised: eternal life.
22Some among you are getting shaky in the faith. Show them what mercy looks like. 23As for others already walking on the path to destruction, pull them out of there. Save them from the fire. Show them what mercy looks like. But be careful. Hate their sins like you’d hate filthy clothes taken from a stinking, filthy body.
