1.
Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
2.
Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
3.
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Verse 3
Once; formerly; or, it may be, once for all, meaning that the revelation thus made is permanent, not to be changed for any new system yet to come.
4.
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 4
Before of old ordained to this condemnation. Nothing in the Scriptures of the New Testament is more remarkable than the readiness with which the minds of the inspired founders of Christianity, when speaking of the most extreme and aggravated of human sins, or of the deepest injuries inflicted upon the cause of Christ, by human instrumentality, at once recur to the thought of the all-controlling superintendence of God, which they represent as including and covering all human events and transactions whatsoever. Jesus speaking of his betrayal by Judas, (Mark 14:21,) the disciples describing the crucifixion of the Savior, (Acts 4:28,) and now Jude called to testify against the most alarming indications of an internal corruption in the church, are very striking instances. While they fully appreciated the enormity of these sins, they never admitted the idea that any human guilt could be an unlooked-for contingency, interfering with and thwarting unexpectedly the divine designs,--or that any sinner, in his greatest excesses of crime, could really have broken away from the control of that hand by which they regarded the whole moral world as invariably and every where governed.
5.
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
6.
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Verse 6
Compare 2 Peter 2:4.
7.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Verse 7
And the cities about them; Admah and Zeboim are named in Deuteronomy 29:23.--Going after strange flesh; abandoning themselves to unnatural and enormous sins.
8.
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Verse 8
These filthy dreamers; the corrupt teachers who are referred to Jude 1:4.
9.
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
Verse 9
As there are no accounts in the books of the Old Testament to which the allusions in this verse can be supposed to relate, it is thought by many that the writer refers in them to traditional accounts which came down to his times; or else to writings which then existed, but have since been lost. In respect to the body of Moses, see Deuteronomy 34:6.
10.
But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
11.
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
Verse 11
The gainsaying; the sedition.--Core; Korah. (Numbers 16:1-50:)
12.
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13.
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14.
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
Verse 14
Enoch. There is no prophecy of Enoch extant in the Old Testament,--nor is any thing certain known of the writing ere referred to. There is a book purporting to be the Book of Enoch, but it is generally considered spurious.
15.
To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16.
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
17.
But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
18.
How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19.
These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
20.
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
21.
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22.
And of some have compassion, making a difference:
Verse 22
Have compassion; treat them gently and tenderly.
23.
And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Verse 23
With fear; with the utmost urgency.--The garment spotted by the flesh; the least touch or contamination of evil.
24.
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25.
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.