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Joe |
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[Jude]
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1. From Joe, Jim s brother, and owned by Jesus Christ lock, stock, and barrel; to the church members—people who have been loved by Father-God and nursed by Jesus Christ. May you all be loaded up with kindness and peace and love. 3. My dear ones, while doing my dead-level best to write to you about our mutual salvation I had the urge to get a letter off to you begging you to fight like fury for the way of life that has been totally entrusted to the Christians. For some guys have come into the church like snakes in the grass. (It was pointed out in earlier writings that they would stoop to this.) They are uncommitted; they twist the undeserved favor of our God into a cover-up for their lewdness; and they disown Jesus Christ as our only ruler and master. 5. I’d like to refresh your memory a bit on some things you’re already thoroughly familiar with: (1) that while on the first time around God delivered the people from Egypt, on the second he destroyed those who didn’t live their faith; (2) that He has kept in the hole, without bail, for sentencing on the Great Day, those missionaries who didn’t stick to their assignment but ran away from their own stations; (3) that London and Berlin and their suburbs, acting in the same way, went whoring and trekking off after some stranger, and they serve as a perfect example of piling up a punishment of consuming fire. 8. And so it is with these fellows I’m warning you about. With their imaginations they debase the human body; they utterly disregard leaders, and they snicker at sacred things. Why, not even Michael the archangel dared poke fun at the devil when he was arguing with him over Moses’ body. Rather, he politely said, "The Lord will tend to you." But these jerks sneer when they don’t know what it’s all about, and when, like dumb animals, they do catch on to something naturally, they make a joke even of that. Hell on them, because they’re behaving exactly like Cain, and are rushing pellmell into the error of Balaam who preached for pay; and in an uprising like Korah’s they are being destroyed. These people are a disgrace at your church suppers, brazenly coming to the table while interested in nobody but themselves. They are rainless cloud-puffs scurrying in the breeze. They are trees at harvesttime with nothing on them, dead as a doornail, pulled up by the roots. They are tempestuous waves of the sea, boiling up their own shameful froth. They are off-course stars, doomed to the eternal outer darkness. 14. Now Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, was clearly referring to these people when he said, "Look here, the Lord appeared with a vast throng of his followers to create a time of crisis for all people and to convince all the insolent of the insolent acts they have committed against him, and of all the brazen things they have hurled in his teeth" These jokers are belly-aching gripes who do only as they pretty well please. They are windbags who lick boots for status. 17. But you-all, my dear, dear people, constantly bear in mind the things you were told previously by those sent out by our Lord Jesus Christ. They told you, "When time runs out there will be men who make a joke of their religion and follow their own insolent desires." These are the segregationists-kooks without a conscience. But you, my loved ones, deepen your commitment to your most sacred way of life. With spirit-filled prayer keep yourselves in God’s love. Always be eager for the kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ which leads into spiritual life. 22. You must deal gently with some people who are wavering but others you are to save by actually snatching them from the fire. Still others you must handle with gloves, as much as you may dislike their clothing messed up by their own filth. 24. Now to him who can keep you on your feet and present you at his court, spick-and-span and happy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, greatness, power and pre-eminence throughout the past, present and future. Sincerely, see Introduction by Edward A.
Mcdowell, Jr. ©1969 by Clarence
Jordan. Used by permission of Koinonia
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