Beginning

God’s Truth and Blessings Abide Forever

¹ The elder.

To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth—and not I alone, but also all who have come to know the truth— ² because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:

³ Grace, mercy, and shalom be with us, from God the Father and from Messiah Yeshua, the Father’s Son, in truth and love!

Lovingly Walk in God’s Truth

⁴ I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we received as a commandment from the Father. ⁵ Now I ask you, dear lady, that we love one another. It is not as though I am writing you a new command, but the one we have had from the beginning. ^{[a] 6} Now this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the commandment—just as you heard from the beginning—that you walk in love.

Protect Against Messianic Pretenders

⁷ For many deceivers have gone out into the world—those who do not acknowledge Yeshua as Messiah coming in human flesh. This one is a deceiver and the anti-messiah. ⁸ Watch yourselves, so you do not lose what we have worked for but receive a full reward. ⁹ Anyone who goes too far and does not remain in Messiah’s teaching does not have God. Anyone who remains in this teaching has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not welcome him into your home or even give him a greeting. ¹¹ For the one greeting him shares in his evil deeds.

Brotherly Fellowship Is Joyful

¹² Although I have much to write to you, I don’t want to do it with paper and ink. But I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that our joy may be full.

¹³ The children of your chosen sister send you greetings.^[b]

The Joys of Walking Out the Truth

¹ The elder.

To Gaius the loved one, whom I love in truth:

² Loved ones, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul. ³ For I was overjoyed when some brethren came and testified of the truth in you—how you are walking in truth. ⁴ I have no greater joy than this—to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Support Faithful Kingdom Truth Tellers

⁵ Loved ones, you are acting faithfully in whatever you do for the brethren and especially for strangers. ^{[a] 6} They have testified to your love before Messiah’s community. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. ⁷ For on behalf of the Name they went out, accepting nothing from the pagans. ⁸ Therefore we ought to support such people, so we might become co-workers in the truth.

The Lust for Power Condemned

⁹ I wrote something to Messiah’s community, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, doesn’t welcome us. ¹⁰ So if I do come, I will call attention to what he is doing—slandering us with wicked words. Not even content with that, he refuses to welcome the brethren, and even forbids those who want to do so—throwing them out of the community!

Do Good Like God Does

¹¹ Loved ones, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.

Virtue Is Honorable

¹² Demetrius has a good testimony from everyone, even from the truth itself. We also vouch for him—and you know that our testimony is true.

Fellowship Is Desirable

¹³ I have much to write you, but I don’t want to write to you with ink and pen. ¹⁴ But I hope to see you soon, and we will speak face to face.

¹⁵ Shalom aleichem. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

Greeting

¹ Judah, a slave of Yeshua the Messiah and brother of Jacob,

To those who are called, who are loved in God the Father, and kept safe for Yeshua the Messiah:

² May mercy and shalom and love be multiplied to you!

Contend for the Faith with the Ungodly

³ Loved ones, though very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I felt it necessary to write to you urging you to continue to contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the kedoshim. ⁴ For certain people have secretly slipped in—those who from long ago have been marked out for this judgment. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into indecency and deny our only Master and Lord, Yeshua the Messiah.

⁵ Now I wish to remind you—though you have come to know all things—that the Lord,^[a] once having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels—who did not keep their own position of authority but deserted their proper place—He has kept in everlasting shackles under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great Day. ^{[b] 7} In the same way as these angels, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them—having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after a different sort of flesh—are displayed as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.^[c]

⁸ Yet in the same way these people also, by their visionary dreaming, defile the flesh, reject the Lord’s authority,^[d] and defame glorious beings. ⁹ But when Michael the archangel, disputing with the devil, was arguing about the body of Moses, he did not dare to render a judgment against him for slander, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” ^{[e] 10} But these people slander whatever they do not understand. And whatever they do understand instinctively—like animals without reason—by these things they are destroyed.

¹¹ Woe to them! For they went the way of Cain; they were consumed for pay in Balaam’s error; and in Korah’s rebellion they have been destroyed. ^{[f] 12} These people are hidden rocky reefs at your love feasts—shamelessly feasting with you, tending only to themselves.^[g] They are waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, doubly dead, uprooted; ¹³ wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame;^[h] wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.^[i]

¹⁴ It was also about these people that Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with myriads of His kedoshim, ^{[j] 15} to execute judgment against all. He will convict all the ungodly for all their ungodly deeds that they have done in an ungodly way, and for all of the harsh things ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

¹⁶ These are bellyaching grumblers, following after their own desires. Their mouth speaks grandiose things, showing favoritism for the sake of gain. ¹⁷ But you, loved ones, ought to remember the words previously proclaimed by the emissaries of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah^[k]— ¹⁸ how they kept telling you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following after their own ungodly desires.” ^{[l] 19} These are the ones who cause divisions—worldly-minded, not having the Ruach

²⁰ But you, loved ones, continue building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Ruach ha-Kodesh. ²¹ Keep yourselves in the love of God, eagerly waiting for the mercy of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah that leads to eternal life. ²² And have mercy on those who are wavering— ²³ save them by snatching them out of the fire;^[m] but on others have mercy with fear—hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

Hymn to God Our Savior