1 But there were also false prophets
among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will
secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who
bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring
the way of truth into disrepute.
3 In
their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their
condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been
sleeping.
4 For if God did not spare angels
when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting
them in chains of darkness to be
held for judgment;
5 if he did not
spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but
protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to
happen to the ungodly;
7 and if he
rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the
lawless
8 (for that righteous man,
living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the
lawless deeds he saw and heard)—
9 if
this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold
the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt
desire of the flesh and
despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings;
11 yet even angels, although they are
stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing
judgment on them from the
Lord.
12 But these people blaspheme in
matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of
instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will
perish.
13 They will be paid back with
harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad
daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they
feast with you.
14 With eyes full of adultery, they never
stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed
brood!
15 They have left the straight
way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who
loved the wages of wickedness.
16 But
he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke
with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These people are springs
without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for
them.
18 For they mouth empty,
boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they
entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.
19 They promise them freedom, while they
themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has
mastered them.”
20 If they have
escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end
than they were at the beginning.
21 It
would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than
to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was
passed on to them.
22 Of them the
proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A
sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
No comments:
Post a Comment