Jude is a small book with a big message and one that is especially relevant for the church in the 21st century. In connection with Dr Perkins’ new commentary on Jude we are publishing this resource page to aid your study of of this important book.

Dr Perkins’ Fresh Translation of Jude

¹ Jude, Jesus Christ’s servant but James’ brother, to the called ones, who have been loved by God the Father and are certainly kept for Jesus Christ. ² Let mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

³Beloved, although making every effort to write to you concerning our common salvation, I have necessity to write to you, so exhorting to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints ⁴ because certain men have weaseled in, those who long ago had been marked out for this condemnation, ungodly ones, altering our God’s grace into sensuality and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵ Now, I want to remind you, despite how you once fully knew it, that Jesus, after saving a people out from the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe, ⁶ so too those angels who did not keep themselves in their first condition but left their proper dwelling he has kept until the great day in eternal chains under darkness, ⁷ likewise Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which in similar manner committed sexual immorality and went after another kind of flesh, present an example by suffering the penalty of everlasting fire.

⁸Nevertheless in like manner also these false teachers by being dreamers, on the one hand defile the flesh, but also rebel against authority, but further blaspheme the glorious [angels]. ⁹ Now, Michael the archangel, while deliberating with the devil, disputed about Moses’ body, yet did not dare to execute a verdict of blasphemy but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” ¹⁰ But these false teachers, on the one hand, slander as much as they do not understand and, on the other hand, as much as they think naturally like unreasoning animals, they are destroyed by these things. ¹¹ Woe to them because they walked in Cain’s way and committed themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of pay and perished in Korah’s rebellion.¹²These false teachers are hidden reefs at your love feasts [of the Lord’s Supper] by feasting with you without reverence, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds carried away by the winds, autumnal trees that are twice dead and uprooted, ¹³ wild waves of the sea that are foaming their own shame, wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been kept forever.

¹⁴Further, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about these false teachers, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ with the result of executing judgment against everyone and with the result of convicting every soul concerning all their ungodly works, which they committed in such an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh things, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁶These false teachers are murmurers, discontents, ones going after their own desires, and their mouth speaks boasts, ones admiring faces to gain advantage.

¹⁷Despite all this, beloved, you must remember the words foretold by our Lord Jesus Christ’s apostles, ¹⁸ since they said to you, “In the last time, there will be mockers, pursuers of ungodliness according to their own desires. ¹⁹ These are the ones causing divisions, natural people, not having the Spirit.

²⁰Despite all this, you beloved, by building yourselves upon your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹keep yourselves in God’s love by waiting for the mercy of our Lord Christ Jesus that results in everlasting life. ²² Further, one the one hand, have mercy on those who cause divisions, ²³ but, on the other hand, save them by snatching them from the fire, and again have mercy on them with fear despite hating even the garment that has been soiled by the flesh.

²⁴Now, to the one who has the power to protect you from stumbling and to set you blameless in the presence of his glory with gladness, ²⁵ to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and for all times. Amen.