The Message Bible MSG
New American Standard Bible NAS
1 I, Jude, am a slave to Jesus Christ and brother to James, writing to those loved by God the Father, called and kept safe by Jesus Christ.
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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 Relax, everything's going to be all right; rest, everything's coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way!
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May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Dear friends, I've dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting - begging! - that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.
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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 What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks (our Scriptures warned us this would happen), who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license - which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master.
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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 I'm laying this out as clearly as I can, even though you once knew all this well enough and shouldn't need reminding. Here it is in brief: The Master saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Later he destroyed those who defected.
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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 you know the story of the angels who didn't stick to their post, abandoning it for other, darker missions. But they are now chained and jailed in a black hole until the great Judgment Day.
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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 Sodom and Gomorrah, which went to sexual rack and ruin along with the surrounding cities that acted just like them, are another example. Burning and burning and never burning up, they serve still as a stock warning.
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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 This is exactly the same program of these latest infiltrators: dirty sex, rule and rulers thrown out, glory dragged in the mud.
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Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.
9 The Archangel Michael, who went to the mat with the Devil as they fought over the body of Moses, wouldn't have dared level him with a blasphemous curse, but said simply, "No you don't. God will take care of you!"
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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 people sneer at anything they can't understand, and by doing whatever they feel like doing - living by animal instinct only - they participate in their own destruction.
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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 I'm fed up with them! They've gone down Cain's road; they've been sucked into Balaam's error by greed; they're canceled out in Korah's rebellion.
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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 people are warts on your love feasts as you worship and eat together. They're giving you a black eye - carousing shamelessly, grabbing anything that isn't nailed down. They're - Puffs of smoke pushed by gusts of wind; late autumn trees stripped clean of leaf and fruit, Doubly dead, pulled up by the roots;
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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 ocean waves leaving nothing on the beach but the foam of their shame; Lost stars in outer space on their way to the black hole.
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wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
14 Enoch, the seventh after Adam, prophesied of them: "Look! The Master comes with thousands of holy angels
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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 bring judgment against them all, convicting each person of every defiling act of shameless sacrilege, of every dirty word they have spewed of their pious filth."
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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 the "grumpers," the bellyachers, grabbing for the biggest piece of the pie, talking big, saying anything they think will get them ahead.
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These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.
17 But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen:
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But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18 "In the last days there will be people who don't take these things seriously anymore. They'll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts."
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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 split churches, thinking only of themselves. There's nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit!
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These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit,
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But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!
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keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
22 Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith.
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And have mercy on some, who are doubting;
23 Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.
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save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
24 And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating -
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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 our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes.
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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.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, California. All rights reserved.