The New Testament & Psalms Bible Reading Plan
August 24
Jude
The Warnings of History to the
Ungodly
1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation,
I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for
the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand
marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God
into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5 Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the
Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed
those who did not believe.
6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode,
He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same
way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited
as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject
authority, and revile angelic majesties.
9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about
the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but
said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things
which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are
destroyed.
11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed
headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
12 These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast
with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along
by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;
13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars,
for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
14 It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam,
prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy
ones,
15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their
ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things
which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
16 These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they
speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.
Keep Yourselves in the Love of God
17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand
by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers,
following after their own ungodly lusts.”
19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying
in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting;
23 save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear,
hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in
the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty,
dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)