The letter that Jude wrote
(The book in the Holy Bible called Jude)
About this letter
Jude wrote this letter about 2,000 years ago, about 30 years after Jesus went back to heaven, and now it is in the Holy Bible.
At that time, the name Jude and the name Judas were 2 ways of saying the same name. The man that wrote this letter was probably Jesus’s brother Judas (see Mark 6:2-3), but he might have been one of Jesus’s special workers called Judas (see John 14:22; Acts 1:13).
Jude wrote this letter to tell the Christians about some people that reckoned they were saying God’s words, but they were lying. Jude told the Christians to be very careful of them, and to keep on living God’s way.
These words that Jude wrote have very important messages for all of us Christians.
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1 This letter is from me, Jude. I work for Jesus Christ. And I’m a brother of James. I’m writing this letter to you people that God loves. God is your father. He picked you to be his people. He helps you stay strong for Jesus, until he comes back.
2 God is very good to you, and I pray that he will keep on being good to you more and more. I pray that he will keep on feeling sorry for you, and will help you be really happy and quiet inside yourselves. And I pray that he will keep on loving you very much.
Lying teachers try to trick people
3 You are my very good friends. I really want to tell you about how God has saved us all, but instead I reckon I have to write about something else. You see, we are God’s own people, and he gave us a true message that he will not change. You have to try really hard to keep God’s true message safe. You can’t let anyone stop you doing what that message says.
4 I talk like this because there are some bad people that secretly came into your group. That mob don’t want to do the things that God wants. Instead, they do all the bad things that they want to do. They reckon it is all right to do those bad things. They say, “God is good to us, so he lets us do these bad things.” Whenever they say that, they are really trying to change God’s true message. And they are turning away from Jesus, our only true boss. But God says in his book that he will punish those bad people.
Old stories from God’s book show us that God punishes bad people
5 I want you to remember what I told you before. Remember that God brought the people of Israel out from the country called Egypt. God saved those people then. But later, some of the people didn’t believe in him, and he killed them.
6 And think about the stories about the angels, God’s spirit messengers. Some of them didn’t want to do what God told them. They took power that God didn’t give them. They left their proper place in heaven. So God tied them up for ever and put them in a dark place. God will keep them there until the great day. Then God will judge everyone on that day.
7 Also, don’t forget the story about the towns called Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other towns around there. The people that lived there did bad things, like those bad angels. They always wanted to sleep with somebody, like husbands sleep with their wives, so they did that with people they were not married to, and they did it in all sorts of ways that were dirty and wrong. God is punishing those people now. He put them into the fire that doesn’t stop burning. That shows us how much he will punish people that do bad things like that.
8 Those lying teachers are doing the same bad things. They say that God showed them things in their dreams, so they do bad things with their bodies. They rubbish God and don’t respect his power. And they say bad things about God’s beautiful angels.
9 Michael is one of those angels. He is very powerful. But he didn’t say bad things about the devil, the boss over the bad spirits. A long time ago, Michael argued with the devil about which one of them can get Moses’s body. But Michael didn’t think that he was so important that he could say bad words to the devil. Instead, he said to the devil, “God will tell you that you are wrong.”
10 But that liar mob say bad words about anything they don’t understand. They are like animals that can’t think properly. They just think about what makes their bodies feel good, and so they do bad things. And those things will wreck them.
11 Very bad things will happen to that mob of lying teachers.
Do you know the stories about Cain, Balaam, and Korah? Cain killed his brother Abel. Balaam really wanted money and did bad things to get it. And Korah turned against God. God punished those men, Cain, Balaam, and Korah. Now that liar mob are doing the same wrong things, and God will punish them too.
The lying teachers can wreck you
12 You Christians love God, and you love each other, so you sometimes have dinner together. Those lying teachers come to those dinners. But they only come to eat and drink. They don’t respect God, and they don’t care about people. They only think about themselves. They are really dangerous. You know about rocks in the sea. You know that boats have to keep away from them, or they will wreck the boats. That mob are like those rocks to you. Keep away from them, or they will wreck you. They are useless. They are like clouds that don’t have any rain. Those clouds are useless, and the wind just moves them along. Those lying teachers never do anything good. They are like trees that don’t have fruit, even when it is the right time for fruit. Those trees are properly useless, so people pull them out of the ground.
13 And those lying teachers are like a storm in the sea. The water washes around, and a lot of rubbish comes up to the top of the sea. That rubbish is like a picture of all the bad, dirty things that mob does. And those lying teachers are like stars that moved away from their proper place in the sky. Those lying teachers don’t do the things God wants them to do. So God made a dark, black place for them, and he will put them there, and they will stay there for ever.
14 Remember the man called Enok. He lived a long time ago, not long after the first man, Adam. He said, “God will come with thousands and thousands of his own good angels,
15 and he will be the judge of everybody. God will punish all the bad people that don’t respect him. They did bad things against God, so God will punish them. They said rubbish things about God, so God will punish them.” He said those things about those lying teachers a long time ago.
16 That mob are always complaining and saying that they aren’t happy with things. They are always saying that other people have done things wrong. But they do all the bad things they want to do. They say very good things about themselves and tell everybody they are important. But they only say good things about other people when they want to get something from them.
Things that Christians have to do
17 But, my friends, you have to remember what Jesus Christ’s special workers said. They talked about what will happen later.
18 They said, “In the last times, some people will laugh at God, and they will laugh at Christians. They will only think about the bad things they want for themselves, and they will do whatever bad things they want to do.”
19 That liar mob don’t have God’s spirit inside them. They trick you and get you to argue with each other. They break you up into different groups. They let all the things that belong to this world control their lives, and they do whatever they want to do.
20 But, my friends, I know that you believe the message that comes from God himself. And you have to do everything that you can do to believe it more and more strongly. You have to help each other to believe this message. And you have to let God’s spirit show you how to pray.
21 Always remember that God loves you, and live for him while you wait for our leader Jesus Christ to come back. He feels very sorry for you, and he is good to you, so he will let you live with him for ever.
Help people trust God
22 Some people aren’t sure if God’s message is true. You have to feel sorry for those people and be good to them. You have to try to help them.
23 And some people are turning away from God and doing bad things. If they turn away and don’t come back to God, he will punish them in the fire. So you have to try to stop those people from turning away from God. Then you will save them, like you will pull them out of that fire. Some of them do a lot of bad things, and they get a lot of trouble. You have to feel sorry for those people and try to help them. But be careful. Stay away from the bad things that they do. Those bad things are like dirt on their clothes. So be careful to keep away from them, just like you are careful not to touch dirty clothes.
God is great and powerful
24 All right, I’ll finish my letter now. God can keep you safe so that you don’t go the wrong way. He can make you good and clean inside yourself, so that there aren’t any bad parts in you. Yes, one day, he will make you properly good, so that he can bring you close to himself. You will come near to the beautiful light that shines from him. He is very great and good, and you will stand with him. And you will be very, very happy.
25 He is the only God. He gets our leader, Jesus Christ, to save us. So everyone has to always thank him and remember how great he is. He has all power. Everyone has to do whatever he says. He always had that power. He had it right from the start of time. And he will have all that power for ever. That is true.
From Jude