(James 1:1)
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Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
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May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
God’s Judgment on the Ungodly
(2 Peter 3:1–7)
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Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I had to write to you to exhort you to struggle earnestly for the faith that was handed down once for all to the believers.
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For certain men have slipped in secretly among you. These are men who were marked out for condemnation. They are ungodly men who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality, and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
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Now I wish to remind you-although once you fully knew it-that the Lord saved a people out of the land of Egypt, but that afterward he destroyed those who did not believe.
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Also angels who did not keep to their own position of authority, but who left their proper dwelling place-God has kept them in everlasting chains, in utter darkness, for the judgment on the great day.
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It is just like Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, which also indulged themselves in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires. They were displayed as examples of those who suffer the punishment in eternal fire.
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Yet in the same way, these dreamers also pollute their bodies. They reject authority, and they say slanderous things against the glorious ones.
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But even Michael the archangel, when he was arguing with the devil and disputing with him about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous judgment against him. Instead he said, “May the Lord rebuke you!”
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But these people bring slanders against whatever they do not understand. And what they do understand-what unreasoning animals know by instinct-these are what destroyed them.
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Woe to them! For they have walked in the way of Cain, and have plunged into Balaam’s error for profit. They have perished in Korah’s rebellion.
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These are the ones who are hidden reefs in your love feasts. They feast shamelessly, feeding only for themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by winds. They are autumn trees without fruit-twice dead, torn up by the roots.
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They are violent waves in the sea, foaming out their own shame. They are wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
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Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them, saying, “Look! The Lord is coming with thousands and thousands of his holy ones.
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He is coming to execute judgment on everyone. He is coming to convict all the ungodly of all the works they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
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These are grumblers, complainers, who follow their evil desires. They are loud boasters, who, for their own advantage, flatter others.
A Call to Persevere
(Hebrews 10:19–39; 2 Peter 3:1–7)
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But you, beloved, remember the words that were spoken in the past by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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They said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”
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These people are divisive. They are worldly, and they do not have the Spirit.
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But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, and pray in the Holy Spirit.
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Keep yourselves in God’s love, and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that brings you eternal life.
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Be merciful to those who doubt.
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Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others be merciful with fear. Hate even the garment stained by the flesh.
Doxology
(Romans 16:25–27)
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Now to the one who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to cause you to stand before his glorious presence, without blemish and with great joy,
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to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, before all time, now, and forevermore. Amen.
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