²² And on some have compassion, ^[a]making a distinction;

¹⁶ If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and ^(A)He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. ^(B)There is sin leading to death. ^(C)I do not say that he should pray about that. ^17 (D)All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

Knowing the True—Rejecting the False

¹⁸ We know that ^(E)whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God ^(F)keeps^{[a] [b]}himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

Bring Back the Erring One

¹⁹ Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone ^(A)turns him back, ²⁰ let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way ^(B)will save ^[a]a soul from death and ^(C)cover a multitude of sins.

Bear and Share Burdens

6 Brethren, if a man is ^[a]overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of ^(A)gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

⁴ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted ^(A)the heavenly gift, and ^(B)have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, ^6 [a]if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, ^(C)since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

⁷ For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, ^(D)receives blessing from God; ^8 (E)but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

¹⁷ ‘And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord God: ^(A)“Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.

²⁰ I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.

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 ^[a]God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Old and New Apostates

⁵ But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that ^(A)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 ^[b]proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; ⁷ as ^(B)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 ^[c]vengeance of eternal fire.

^8 (C)Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and ^(D)speak evil of ^[d]dignitaries. ⁹ Yet Michael the archangel, in ^[e]contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, ^(E)“The Lord rebuke you!” ^10 (F)But 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 ^(G)of Cain, ^(H)have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished ^(I)in the rebellion of Korah.

Apostates Depraved and Doomed

¹² These are ^[f]spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried ^[g]about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; ^13 (J)raging waves of the sea, ^(K)foaming up their own shame; wandering stars ^(L)for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.