The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People

³ Dear friends,^(A) although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share,^(B) I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend^(C) for the faith^(D) that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.^{(E) 4} For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about^[a] long ago have secretly slipped in among you.^(F) 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.^(G)

¹² These people are blemishes at your love feasts,^(A) eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves.^(B) They are clouds without rain,^(C) blown along by the wind;^(D) autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted^(E)—twice dead. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea,^(F) foaming up their shame;^(G) wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.^(H)

¹⁴ Enoch,^(I) the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming^(J) with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones^{(K) 15} to judge^(L) 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.”^{[a](M) 16} These people are grumblers^(N) and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires;^(O) they boast^(P) about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

A Call to Persevere

¹⁷ But, dear friends, remember what the apostles^(Q) of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.^{(R) 18} They said to you, “In the last times^(S) there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”^{(T) 19} These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.^(U)