Jude, slave of Jesus,
the Messiah and Master,
and brother of James
by blood bonded both ways,
To those set aside
by divine intervention,
stained white by His blood,
secured by His selection:
Your debts have been paid;
may that truce produce fruit
bearing love in like kind
multiplied unto you.
Before need arose
the epistle proposed
confirmed our salvation
as same and supposed
But news of confusion
amended intentions,
refocused the locus,
required contention
For once was delivered
and that all sufficient
the ratified faith
exhausted, efficient
Yet certain sly sinners
have slid past securely
claiming grace as a ticket
that admits their tomfoolery
The credentials produced
permit sin like a privilege
turning grace into gross
and promote into pillage
So remember the Lord
who saved sinners through water
sentenced some all the same
on dry land that came after
For the hungry He led
left their hearts back in Egypt
and once they’d been fed
left their God and His edicts
And just like the angels
that fled far from home
are now doomed to dangle
where they’ll soon be bound
Or similarly cities
who supped on the strange
drank draughts full of danger
and suffered the same
So these nasty nightmares,
debauching undaunted,
despise the divine
living lives like the wanton
Yet not all the angels
abandoned their borders
by blighting their bodies
or betraying their orders
Most stayed in their places
remained in formation
refused to presume
on the Lord’s provocation
Yet these boast and brag
like the beasts bray and bellow
knowing not what they speak
still they shriek while they farrow
A plague and a curse
on the way Cain contrived,
on the pay Balaam gained,
on the sway Core conspired
These spots spoil your spreads
grazing brazen and bold,
foreshadowing showers
yet rain they withhold
Dead leaves off a tree
by the breeze bidden blown,
foul fruit off a shoot
of an uprooted throne
Tides tossed, ebb and flow,
bawdy foam-billowed brackish,
suns strutting to and fro,
darkened souls, swart and caddish
Yet Adam’s seventh saw
a great throng and the Throne,
and angels alighting
on benighted bones
To convict and convince
all ungodly contentions,
e’ery godless endeavor,
any godless intention
Of these slow-bellied ingrates,
these quick-tongued imposters,
this blaspheming species
of malcontent braggarts
But, beloved, remember
the words which were spoken
by apostles before
in the Lord still unbroken:
How mockers and mongers
would soon manifest
out of dark into darker
as a roach in darkness
It is these who despise
what the Lord has united,
and combine by desire
what the Lord has divided
Yet, beloved, keep building
beholding your God;
to your full height aspire
as you bow down in awe
Set your love on the Lord,
save your gaze for His Son,
give your days to your God,
raise your ways in His love
Be kind and compassionate
reflect on this thought:
remember your rescue,
consider those caught
And go as God went
staying anchored in faith
descending to save
yet remaining unstained
For God is owed praise
keeping saints when they slip
clearing sins from their lists
'til they stand in His bliss
Now to Him whom is wise
reckon honor and power,
glory, dominion,
both now and forever! Amen.
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