¹ From the church leader.^[a]

To a very special woman and her children.^[b] I truly love all of you, and so does everyone else who knows the truth. ² We love you because the truth is now in our hearts, and it will be there forever.

³ I pray that God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son will be kind and merciful to us! May they give us peace and truth and love.

Truth and Love

⁴ I was very glad to learn that some of your children are obeying the truth, as the Father told us to do. ^5 (A) Dear friend, I am not writing to tell you and your children to do something you have not done before. I am writing to tell you to love each other, which is the first thing you were told to do. ⁶ Love means we do what God tells us. And from the beginning, he told you to love him.

⁷ Many liars have gone out into the world. These deceitful liars are saying Jesus Christ did not have a truly human body. But they are liars and the enemies of Christ. ⁸ So be sure not to lose what we^[c] have worked for. If you do, you won't be given your full reward. ⁹ Don't keep changing what you were taught about Christ, or else God will no longer be with you. But if you hold firmly to what you were taught, both the Father and the Son will be with you. ^10 (B) If people won't agree to this teaching, don't welcome them into your home or even greet them. ¹¹ Greeting them is the same as taking part in their evil deeds.

Final Greetings

¹² I have much more to tell you, but I don't want to write it with pen and ink. I want to come and talk to you in person, because this will make us^[d] really happy.

¹³ Greetings from the children of your very special sister.^[e]

^1 (A) From the church leader.^[a]

To my dear friend Gaius.

I love you because we follow the truth, ² dear friend, and I pray all goes well for you. I hope you are as strong in body, as I know you are in spirit. ³ It makes me very happy when the Lord's followers come by and speak openly of how you obey the truth. ⁴ Nothing brings me greater happiness than to hear that my children^[b] are obeying the truth.

Working Together

⁵ Dear friend, you have always been faithful in helping other followers of the Lord, even the ones you didn't know before. ⁶ They have told the church about your love. They say you were good enough to welcome them and to send them on their mission in a way God's servants deserve. ⁷ When they left to tell others about the Lord, they decided not to accept help from anyone who wasn't a follower. ⁸ We must support people like them, so we can take part in what they are doing to spread the truth.

⁹ I wrote to the church. But Diotrephes likes to be the number-one leader, and he won't pay any attention to us. ¹⁰ So if I come, I will remind him of how he has been attacking us with gossip. Not only has he been doing this, but he refuses to welcome any of the Lord's followers who come by. And when other church members want to welcome them, he puts them out of the church.

¹¹ Dear friend, don't imitate the evil deeds of others, but follow the example of people who do kind deeds. They are God's children, but those who are always doing evil have never seen God.

¹² Everyone speaks well of Demetrius, and so does the true message that he teaches. I also speak well of him, and you know what I say is true.

Final Greetings

¹³ I have much more to say to you, but I don't want to write it with pen and ink. ¹⁴ I hope to see you soon, and then we can talk in person.

¹⁵ I pray that God will bless you with peace!

Your friends send their greetings. Please give a personal greeting to each of our friends.

^1 (A) From Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James.

To all who are chosen and loved by God the Father and are kept safe by Jesus Christ.

² I pray that God will greatly bless you with mercy, peace, and love!

False Teachers

³ My dear friends, I really wanted to write you about God's saving power at work in our lives. But instead, I must write and ask you to defend the faith that God has once for all given to his people. ⁴ Some godless people have sneaked in among us and are saying, “God treats us much better than we deserve, and so it is all right to be immoral.” They even deny we must obey Jesus Christ as our only Master and Lord. But long ago the Scriptures warned that these godless people were doomed.

^5 (B) Don't forget what happened to those people the Lord rescued from Egypt. Some of them did not have faith, and he later destroyed them. ⁶ You also know about the angels^[a] who didn't do their work and left their proper places. God chained them with everlasting chains and is now keeping them in dark pits until the great day of judgment. ^7 (C) We should also be warned by what happened to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah^[b] and the nearby towns. Their people became immoral and committed all sorts of sexual sins. Then God made an example of them and punished them with eternal fire.

⁸ The people I am talking about are behaving just like those dreamers who destroyed their own bodies. They reject all authority and insult angels. ^9 (D) Even Michael, the chief angel, didn't dare to insult the devil, when the two of them were arguing about the body of Moses.^[c] All Michael said was, “The Lord will punish you!”

¹⁰ But these people insult powers they don't know anything about. They are like senseless animals that end up getting destroyed, because they live only by their feelings. ^11 (E) Now they are in for real trouble. They have followed Cain's example^[d] and have made the same mistake that Balaam^[e] did by caring only for money. They have also rebelled against God, just as Korah did.^[f] Because of all this, they will be destroyed.

¹² These people are filthy minded, and by their shameful and selfish actions they spoil the meals you eat together. They are like clouds blown along by the wind, but never bringing any rain. They are like leafless trees, uprooted and dead, and unable to produce fruit. ¹³ Their shameful deeds show up like foam on wild ocean waves. They are like wandering stars forever doomed to the darkest pits of hell.

^14 (F) Enoch was the seventh person after Adam, and he was talking about these people when he said:

Look! The Lord is coming with thousands and thousands of holy angels ¹⁵ to judge everyone. He will punish all those ungodly people for all the evil things they have done. The Lord will surely punish those ungodly sinners for every evil thing they have ever said about him.

¹⁶ These people grumble and complain and live by their own selfish desires. They brag about themselves and flatter others to get what they want.

More Warnings

¹⁷ My dear friends, remember the warning you were given by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ^18 (G) They told you that near the end of time, selfish and godless people would start making fun of God. ¹⁹ And now these people are already making you turn against each other. They think only about this life, and they don't have God's Spirit.

²⁰ Dear friends, keep building on the foundation of your most holy faith, as the Holy Spirit helps you to pray. ²¹ And keep in step with God's love, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to show how kind he is by giving you eternal life. ²² Be helpful to^[g] all who may have doubts. ²³ Rescue any who need to be saved, as you would rescue someone from a fire. Then with fear in your own hearts, have mercy on everyone who needs it. But hate even the clothes of those who have been made dirty by their filthy deeds.

Final Prayer

^24-25 Offer praise to God our Savior because of our Lord Jesus Christ! Only God can keep you from falling and make you pure and joyful in his glorious presence. Before time began and now and forever, God is worthy of glory, honor, power, and authority. Amen.