7th Sunday of Pascha

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: ²May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

³Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn’t believe. ⁶Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. ⁷Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having in the same way as these given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. ⁸Yet in the same way, these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings. ⁹But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰But these speak evil of whatever things they don’t know. They are destroyed in these things that they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason. ¹¹Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah’s rebellion. ¹²These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; ¹³wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. ¹⁴About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, ¹⁵to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁶These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts—and their mouth speaks proud things—showing respect of persons to gain advantage.

¹⁷But you, beloved, remember the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸They said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.” ¹⁹These are those who cause divisions and are sensual, not having the Spirit.

²⁰But you, beloved, keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. ²¹Keep yourselves in God’s love, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. ²²On some have compassion, making a distinction, ²³and some save, snatching them out of the fire with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

²⁴Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy, ²⁵to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

Jesus said these things, then lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; ²even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. ⁴I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do. ⁵Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.

⁶“I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. ⁷Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you, ⁸for the words which you have given me I have given to them; and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. ⁹I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. ¹²While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. I have kept those whom you have given me. None of them is lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.