The elder,(A)

To the lady chosen by God(B) and to her children, whom I love in the truth(C)—and not I only, but also all who know the truth(D) because of the truth,(E) which lives in us(F) and will be with us forever:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ,(G) the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.

It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth,(H) just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning.(I) I ask that we love one another. And this is love:(J) that we walk in obedience to his commands.(K) As you have heard from the beginning,(L) his command is that you walk in love.

I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ(M) as coming in the flesh,(N) have gone out into the world.(O) Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.(P) Watch out that you do not lose what we[a] have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.(Q) Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ(R) does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.(S) 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them.(T) 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares(U) in their wicked work.

12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face,(V) so that our joy may be complete.(W)

13 The children of your sister, who is chosen by God,(X) send their greetings.

The elder,(Y)

To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy when some believers(Z) came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it.(AA) I have no greater joy than to hear that my children(AB) are walking in the truth.(AC)

Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters,[b](AD) even though they are strangers to you.(AE) They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way(AF) in a manner that honors(AG) God. It was for the sake of the Name(AH) that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans.(AI) We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come,(AJ) I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers.(AK) He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.(AL)

11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good.(AM) Anyone who does what is good is from God.(AN) Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.(AO) 12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone(AP)—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.(AQ)

13 I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.(AR)

15 Peace to you.(AS) The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.(AT)

Jude,(AU) a servant of Jesus Christ(AV) and a brother of James,

To those who have been called,(AW) who are loved in God the Father and kept for[c] Jesus Christ:(AX)

Mercy, peace(AY) and love be yours in abundance.(AZ)

The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People

Dear friends,(BA) although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share,(BB) I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend(BC) for the faith(BD) that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.(BE) For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[d] long ago have secretly slipped in among you.(BF) They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.(BG)

Though you already know all this,(BH) I want to remind you(BI) that the Lord[e] at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.(BJ) And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.(BK) In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah(BL) and the surrounding towns(BM) gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.(BN)

In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.(BO) But even the archangel(BP) Michael,(BQ) when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses,(BR) did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”[f](BS) 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.(BT)

11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain;(BU) they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error;(BV) they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.(BW)

12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts,(BX) eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves.(BY) They are clouds without rain,(BZ) blown along by the wind;(CA) autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted(CB)—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea,(CC) foaming up their shame;(CD) wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.(CE)

14 Enoch,(CF) the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming(CG) with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones(CH) 15 to judge(CI) everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”[g](CJ) 16 These people are grumblers(CK) and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires;(CL) they boast(CM) about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

A Call to Persevere

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles(CN) of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.(CO) 18 They said to you, “In the last times(CP) there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”(CQ) 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.(CR)

20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up(CS) in your most holy faith(CT) and praying in the Holy Spirit,(CU) 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait(CV) for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.(CW)

22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire;(CX) to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.[h](CY)

Doxology

24 To him who is able(CZ) to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence(DA) without fault(DB) and with great joy— 25 to the only God(DC) our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!(DD) Amen.(DE)

Footnotes

  1. 2 John 1:8 Some manuscripts you
  2. 3 John 1:5 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family.
  3. Jude 1:1 Or by; or in
  4. Jude 1:4 Or individuals who were marked out for condemnation
  5. Jude 1:5 Some early manuscripts Jesus
  6. Jude 1:9 Jude is alluding to the Jewish Testament of Moses (approximately the first century a.d.).
  7. Jude 1:15 From the Jewish First Book of Enoch (approximately the first century b.c.)
  8. Jude 1:23 The Greek manuscripts of these verses vary at several points.

The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;

For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.

Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.

And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.

And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:

11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

12 Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.

13 The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen.

The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers;

Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well:

Because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.

We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.

I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.

10 Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

11 Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.

12 Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye know that our record is true.

13 I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee:

14 But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.

Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:

Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.

17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;

18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.

20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:

23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.