Jude 1:1-7, 17-25 (Vespers, 3rd reading)
- 1
- Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
- 2
- Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
- 3
- Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you 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 Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
- 5
- But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the 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 their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
- 7
- as Sodom 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 the vengeance of eternal fire.
- 17
- But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ:
- 18
- how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.
- 19
- These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having 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, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
- 22
- And on some have compassion, making a distinction;
- 23
- but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
- 24
- Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
- 25
- To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.