⁴ For ^(A)certain people ^(B)have crept in unnoticed ^(C)who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert ^(D)the grace of our God into sensuality and ^(E)deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

^4 (A)Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who ^(B)slipped in to spy out ^(C)our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, ^(D)so that they might bring us into slavery—

False Prophets and Teachers

2 But ^(A)false prophets also arose among the people, ^(B)just as there will be false teachers among you, who will ^(C)secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master ^(D)who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth ^(E)will be blasphemed. ³ And ^(F)in their greed they will exploit you ^(G)with false words. ^(H)Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

¹⁰ and especially ^(A)those who indulge^[a] in the lust of defiling passion and ^(B)despise authority.

Bold and willful, they do not tremble ^(C)as they blaspheme the glorious ones,

²² Who is the liar but ^(A)he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is ^(B)the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

^16 (A)Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but ^(B)living as servants^[a] of God.

⁸ and

They stumble because they disobey the word, ^(B)as they were destined to do.

^15 (A)To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and ^(B)unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both ^(C)their minds and their consciences are defiled. ^16 (D)They profess to know God, but they ^(E)deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, ^(F)unfit for any good work.

¹⁸ For, ^(A)speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely ^(B)escaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them ^(C)freedom, ^(D)but they themselves are slaves^[a] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. ²⁰ For if, ^(E)after they have escaped the defilements of the world ^(F)through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, ^(G)the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For ^(H)it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from ^(I)the holy commandment delivered to them. ²² What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The ^(J)dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”