Study Desk

^(C1)Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our ^(C2)common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you ^(C3)contend earnestly for ^(C4)the faith that was once for all time ^(C5)handed down to ^(C6)the ^(F1)saints.

For certain people have ^(C1)crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand ^(F1)(C2)marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn ^(C3)the grace of our God into ^(C4)indecent behavior and ^(C5)deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Now I want to ^(C1)remind you, though ^(C2)you know everything once and for all, that ^(F1)the Lord, ^(C3)after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, ^(F2)subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.

And ^(C1)angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has ^(C2)kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day,

just as ^(C1)Sodom and Gomorrah and the ^(C2)cities around them, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in sexual perversion and ^(C3)went after ^(F1)strange flesh, are exhibited as an ^(F2)(C4)example in undergoing the ^(C5)punishment of eternal fire.

Yet in the same way these people also, dreaming, ^(C1)defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak abusively of angelic ^(F1)majesties.

But ^(C1)Michael ^(C2)the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about ^(C3)the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him an abusive judgment, but said, "^(C4)The Lord rebuke you!"

But ^(C1)these people disparage all the things that they do not understand; and ^(C2)all the things that they know by instinct, ^(C1)like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.

Woe to them! For they have gone ^(C1)the way of Cain, and for pay ^(F1)they have given themselves up to ^(C2)the error of Balaam, and ^(C3)perished in the rebellion of Korah.

These are the ones who are ^(F1)hidden reefs ^(C1)in your love feasts when they feast with you ^(C2)without fear, like shepherds caring only for themselves; ^(C3)clouds without water, ^(C4)carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, ^(F2)doubly dead, ^(C5)uprooted;

^(C1)wild waves of the sea, churning up ^(C2)their own shameful deeds like dirty foam; wandering stars, ^(C3)for whom the ^(F1)gloom of darkness has been reserved forever.

It was also about these people that ^(C1)Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "^(C2)Behold, the Lord has come with ^(F1)many thousands of His holy ones,

^(C1)to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ^(C2)ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

These are ^(C1)grumblers, finding fault, ^(C2)following after their own lusts; ^(F1)they speak ^(C3)arrogantly, flattering people ^(C4)for the sake of gaining an advantage.