My loved ones, while my thoughts were full of a letter which I was going to send you about our common salvation, it was necessary for me to send you one requesting you with all my heart to go on fighting strongly for the faith which has been given to the saints once and for ever.

Like Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns near them, which gave themselves up to fornication, and fell into unnatural vice, these angels now stand out as a warning, undergoing, as they are, the punishment of aeonian fire.

So these vile dreamers also defile the flesh, despise authority, and speak evil of dignities.

Alas for them, for they follow Cain's path, they plunge into Balaam's error for gain, and they perish in rebelliousness like Korah's.

These people are like rotten spots [contaminating the food] at your love feasts, while they gorge themselves without fear [i.e., unashamed of their selfish indulgence]. [Note: This passage may mean "like selfish shepherds, looking out only for themselves, they eat the grain set out for the animals"]. They are like clouds that blow over without producing rain; [they are like] trees in the fall that do not produce any fruit and have been uprooted, [thus] being dead twice [i.e., fruitless and rootless].

These men are murmurers, ever bemoaning their lot. Their lives are guided by their evil passions, and their mouths are full of big, boastful words, while they treat individual men with admiring reverence for the sake of the advantage they can gain.

for they assur'd you, there would be impostors in the last days, who would follow their own impious passions.

These are people who cause divisions [among God's people]; they follow their natural inclinations [i.e., worldly principles], for they do not have the Holy Spirit [in their lives].

But to Him who is able to keep you safe from stumbling, and cause you to stand in the presence of His glory free from blemish and full of exultant joy--