Daily Text and Bible Reading: Thursday, December 26 [Press play below]

1.1 The older man to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I truly love, and not only I but also all those who have come to know the truth,
1.2 because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever.
1.3 There will be with us undeserved kindness, mercy, and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, with truth and love.
1.4 I rejoice very much because I have found some of your children walking in the truth, just as we received commandment from the Father.
1.5 So now I request you, lady, that we love one another. (I am writing you, not a new commandment, but one that we had from the beginning.)
1.6 And this is what love means, that we go on walking according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should go on walking in it.
1.7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those not acknowledging Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
1.8 Look out for yourselves, so that you do not lose the things we have worked to produce, but that you may obtain a full reward.
1.9 Everyone who pushes ahead and does not remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God. The one who does remain in this teaching is the one who has both the Father and the Son.
1.10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him.
1.11 For the one who says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.
1.12 Although I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I am hoping to come to you and to speak with you face-to-face, so that your joy may be in full measure.
1.13 The children of your sister, the chosen one, send you their greetings.
1.1 The older man to Gaius, the beloved, whom I truly love.
1.2 Beloved one, I pray that in all things you continue to prosper and enjoy good health, just as you are now prospering.
1.3 For I rejoiced very much when brothers came and bore witness about the truth you hold, as you go on walking in the truth.
1.4 No greater joy do I have than this: that I should hear that my children go on walking in the truth.
1.5 Beloved one, you show your faithfulness in what you do for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you.
1.6 They have given a witness about your love before the congregation. Please send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.
1.7 For it was in behalf of his name that they went out, not taking anything from the people of the nations.
1.8 So we are under obligation to show hospitality to such ones, so that we may become fellow workers in the truth.
1.9 I wrote something to the congregation, but Diotrephes, who likes to have the first place among them, does not accept anything from us with respect.
1.10 That is why if I come, I will call attention to the works he is doing in spreading malicious talk about us. Not being content with this, he refuses to welcome the brothers with respect; and those who want to welcome them, he tries to hinder and to throw out of the congregation.
1.11 Beloved one, do not imitate what is bad, but imitate what is good. The one who does good originates with God. The one who does bad has not seen God.
1.12 Demetrius has been well-reported-on by them all and by the truth itself. In fact, we too are bearing witness about him, and you know that the witness we give is true.
1.13 I had many things to write you, but I do not wish to go on writing you with pen and ink.
1.14 However, I am hoping to see you soon, and we will speak face-to-face. May you have peace. The friends send you their greetings. Give my greetings to the friends by name.
1.1 Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, but a brother of James, to the called ones who are loved by God the Father and preserved for Jesus Christ:
1.2 May mercy and peace and love be increased to you.
1.3 Beloved ones, although I was making every effort to write you about the salvation we hold in common, I found it necessary to write you to urge you to put up a hard fight for the faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones.
1.4 My reason is that certain men have slipped in among you who were long ago appointed to this judgment by the Scriptures; they are ungodly men who turn the undeserved kindness of our God into an excuse for brazen conduct and who prove false to our only owner and Lord, Jesus Christ.
1.5 Although you are fully aware of all of this, I want to remind you that Jehovah, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those not showing faith.
1.6 And the angels who did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place, he has reserved with eternal bonds in dense darkness for the judgment of the great day.
1.7 In the same manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them also gave themselves over to gross sexual immorality and pursued unnatural fleshly desires; they are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.
1.8 Despite this, these men too are indulging in dreams, defiling the flesh, despising authority, and speaking abusively of glorious ones.
1.9 But when Michael the archangel had a difference with the Devil and was disputing about Moses’ body, he did not dare to bring a judgment against him in abusive terms, but said: “May Jehovah rebuke you.”
1.10 But these men are speaking abusively about all the things they really do not understand. And in all the things that they do understand by instinct like unreasoning animals, they go on corrupting themselves.
1.11 Too bad for them, for they have followed the path of Cain and have rushed into the erroneous course of Balaam for reward, and they have perished in the rebellious talk of Korah!
1.12 These are the rocks hidden below water at your love feasts while they feast with you, shepherds who feed themselves without fear; waterless clouds carried here and there by the wind; fruitless trees in late autumn, having died twice and having been uprooted;
1.13 wild waves of the sea that cast up the foam of their own shame; stars with no set course, for which the blackest darkness stands reserved forever.
1.14 Yes, the seventh one in line from Adam, Enoch, also prophesied about them when he said: “Look! Jehovah came with his holy myriads
1.15 to execute judgment against all, and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly deeds that they did in an ungodly way, and concerning all the shocking things that ungodly sinners spoke against him.”
1.16 These men are murmurers, complainers about their lot in life, following their own desires, and their mouths make grandiose boasts, while they are flattering others for their own benefit.
1.17 As for you, beloved ones, call to mind the sayings that have been previously spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1.18 how they used to say to you: “In the last time there will be ridiculers, following their own desires for ungodly things.”
1.19 These are the ones who cause divisions, animalistic men, not having spirituality.
1.20 But you, beloved ones, build yourselves up on your most holy faith, and pray with holy spirit,
1.21 in order to keep yourselves in God’s love, while you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ with everlasting life in view.
1.22 Also, continue showing mercy to some who have doubts;
1.23 save them by snatching them out of the fire. But continue showing mercy to others, doing so with fear, while you hate even the garment that has been stained by the flesh.
1.24 Now to the one who is able to guard you from stumbling and to make you stand unblemished in the sight of his glory with great joy,
1.25 to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority for all past eternity and now and into all eternity. Amen.