Jude 1:1. JUDAS. This name is of frequent occurrence in the New Testament, and is given in the shorter form, Jude, only here in the Authorised Version, perhaps to distinguish the writer from Iscariot; but the following clause is sufficiently distinctive; and it should be noted that the name is unifo... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:2. MERCY UNTO YOU, AND PEACE, AND LOVE. ‘Mercy' is used in the salutation of the pastoral epistles only except here. In Paul's view, those who minister in holy things specially need it, as in Jude's view do those whom he addresses. ‘Mercy' is God's feeling towards them; ‘peace' is their condi... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:3. WHILST I WAS GIVING, OR USING, ALL DILIGENCE; either inwardly in purpose, finishing one work and postponing another; or outwardly in actually writing what was not finished (de Wette). The latter is rather favoured by the tense of ‘write' (which is present, not aorist); but the former is pr... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:4. FOR THERE ARE CERTAIN MEN; unknown, insignificant men, or otherwise not worth describing; but when their true character was seen, it was plain that they belonged to a class long before described in many an Old Testament passage; notably in the prophecy of Enoch (Jude 1:14), probably in the... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:5-7. In these verses we have examples of the judgment spoken of in Jude 1:4. It is only necessary, says the writer, that I should remind you of facts with which you are already familiar. You have been instructed in the Gospel; you have accepted what is a revelation of righteousness as well as... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:8. AND YET THESE MEN (Jude 1:4) actually do the same things as the people of Sodom and the fallen angels. IN THEIR DREAMINGS THEY DEFILE THE FLESH, that of others as well as their own; they live in the feelings of their own perverted sense, and they corrupt others as well as themselves (othe... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:9. They do against dignities what even the archangel would not do against Satan. Michael (‘who is like God') was regarded as the guardian angel of the nation of Israel (Daniel 12:1; cp. Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:21). In the New Testament he is mentioned only here and in Revelation 12:7. ‘Archan... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:10. BUT THESE, who ‘defile the flesh,' as they ‘rail at dignities' (Jude 1:8), AT WHATEVER THEY KNOW NOT the whole range of invisible and heavenly things, and even the nobler sentiments of our nature THEY RAIL; and WHATEVER THEY KNOW NATURALLY AS BRUTE BEASTS (‘irrational animals'), their ins... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:11. WOE TO THEM. This expression is often used by our Lord, but never elsewhere except in Jude and in Revelation. (Paul's use, ‘Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel,' is different.) The words may mean, ‘Woe is to them,' a description of their miserable condition, present or future, uttered as... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:12. Here follows a further description of these teachers as set forth in strong figures expressly and earnestly reiterated. THESE ARE THEY WHO ARE SUNKEN ROCKS, seen indeed, but their true nature concealed, IN YOUR FEASTS OF CHARITY. The word for ‘rocks' is found only here in the New Testamen... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:13. They are at once rocks and waves, WILD WAVES OF THE SEA, which ‘cannot rest,' and throw up only ‘mire and dirt' (Isaiah 57:20). FOAMING OUT THEIR OWN SHAME their lusts ‘disgraceful.' WANDERING STARS (comets or meteors, not planets), which neither light the world nor guide the mariner,... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:14. Nor is this warning the warning of Jude only. AND TO THESE ALSO (literally, with respect to these also) PROPHESIED ENOCH THE SEVENTH FROM ADAM, _i.e_ the seventh including Adam; a description added probably to mark his importance by the coincidence of the sacred number seven. To Adam was... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:15. TO EXECUTE JUDGMENT, _i.e_ to pronounce the doom, and see that it is carried out. Then follows the description of these sinners. The characteristic of the antediluvians, as of those whom Jude addresses, is ungodliness: four times is this quality named, first and last and midst, in the des... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:16. A further description is now given of these teachers by an enumeration of the qualities by which all may identify them. They are characterized by a chronic discontent with everything and everybody, with their own lot especially the providence and ways of God, as we should call it; by inte... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:17. Nor has any new thing happened to you. All this was foreseen and foretold. You yourselves know it; you have only to ‘remember the words spoken before by the apostles' (as in Acts 20:29-30; 1 Timothy 4:1, where the evils are _foretold_, as in nearly every Epistle they are _set forth_ the d... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:18. HOW THAT THEY TOLD YOU IN THE LAST TIME THERE SHALL BE MOCKERS; only here and in 2 Peter 3:3, where it is said that they show their quality in relation to the Second Coming of the Lord. WALKING AFTER THE LUSTS OF THEIR UNGODLINESSES; each begetting the other; every lust rejecting the Di... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:19. Again the deceivers reappear; described not now by historical parallels (Jude 1:11), not by figures of speech (Jude 1:12-13), not by prophetic announcements (Jude 1:14-15), not even as their own offensive talk has done (Jude 1:16), but as they are in their inner nature, and in the influen... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:20-21. BUT YE (strongly emphatic), BELOVED, as against those dividers of the Church who are pulling it down stone by stone, EVER BUILDING UP YOURSELVES ON YOUR MOST HOLY FAITH, PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST, KEEP YOURSELVES IN THE LOVE OF GOD, AWAITING THE MERCY OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST UNTO ETER... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:22-23. Of the false teachers the writer has spoken. Their condition is hopeless (Jude 1:12). But in the treatment of those who have been exposed to the influence of these ungodly men (Jude 1:4) great care is needed, and the treatment must vary with the character of each class. The classes are... [ Continue Reading ]
Jude 1:24-25. Exhortations to keep themselves in the love of God are fitly followed by a doxology which reminds them that the power and grace are from Him who alone can keep them. NOW TO HIM THAT IS ABLE TO GUARD YOU (not the same word as in Jude 1:21, but a strong military term) FROM STUMBLING (fro... [ Continue Reading ]