3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you aconcerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting byou to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord1 God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Old and New Apostates
5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that athe Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And the angels who did not keep their1 proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
7 as aSodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the1 vengeance of eternal fire.
8aLikewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and bspeak evil of dignitaries.
9 Yet Michael the archangel, in1 contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, a“The Lord rebuke you!”
10aBut these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.
11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way aof Cain, bhave run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished cin the rebellion of Korah.
Apostates Depraved and Doomed
12 These are1 spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried2 about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;
13araging waves of the sea, bfoaming up their own shame; wandering stars cfor whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,
15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the aharsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Apostates Predicted
16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they amouth great swelling words, bflattering people to gain advantage.
17aBut you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ:
18 how they told you that athere would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.
19 These are1 sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
Maintain Your Life with God
20 But you, beloved, abuilding yourselves up on your most holy faith, bpraying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, alooking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And on some have compassion,1 making a distinction;
23 but aothers save with fear, bpulling them out of the fire, hating even cthe garment defiled by the flesh.
Glory to God
24aNow to Him who is able to keep1 you from stumbling, And bto present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
25 To1 God our Savior, 1Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and1 power, Both now and forever. Amen.
Jude wishes upon his readers specific blessings. His salutation is not the same as the apostle Paul and some of the other writers used. He specifically chooses "mercy, peace, and love," as all three are vital in times of apostasy.
He asks for mercy because they probably needed to repent. His whole reason for writing the epistle stems from the fact that they had begun to get lax, allowing false teachers and false teachings in. They needed God's mercy as they began to repent.
He wishes them peace because, obviously, a major result of apostasy is war and division. Remember, his brother writes in James 3:18 that the fruits of righteousness are produced in peace, and these people were not producing the fruits of righteousness for two reasons: false teachings and war. Thus, they needed peace
Finally, he includes "love," the prime virtue. They needed love because it would take love to resolve this situation—and not just love for God but love for one another. This is the agape form of love, not just phileo— not just caring for one another but setting the mind to do God's will for each other and for God.
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