Jude 1

Chapter 1. The Epistle of JudeThis little epistle of 22 verses and less than 700 words is replete with the most solemn warnings and the loftiest spiritual lessons, conveyed with a vigor and vividness worthy of comparison with some of the finest visions of the old prophets, such as Jeremiah, Hosea and Zephaniah, Its author is Jude who described himself here as “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James” (Jude 1:1). The James to whom he refers as his brother is the author of the epistle of James, and was one of the three most prominent apostles and associated with Peter and John in many of the important scenes in the life of our Lord. James was the presiding officer in the church at Jerusalem, and represented in a special way the Hebrew element in the early Christian Church. He was also the presiding officer of the council at Jerusalem described in the 15th chapter of Acts. He and Jude both were literal brothers of the Lord Jesus, afterwards born of the same mother. But their earthly relationship was completely dropped and forgotten in the higher bond of the heavenly Master and the earthly disciple. The epistle is addressed “To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ” (1). If this language is too strong to apply to all Christians literally, it is well to remember that the Lord assumes that all the disciples of Christ are living up to their true standard. He speaks of them all, therefore, as “loved,” “kept” and “called,” because all ought to be conformed to this divine standard. To be truly sanctified is not merely to be chosen and set apart as the people of God, but to be self-surrendered and wholly dedicated to Christ, and then really filled with the Holy Spirit, cleansed from sin, and conformed to the character of Jesus Christ. But even after this experience we still need to be “kept.” No blessing takes us out of the sphere of temptation, and the Christian’s attitude is one of abiding and being “kept by Jesus Christ.” The expression “called” has reference, we believe, not so much to a spiritual experience, as to the divine purpose in each life, and the special ministry and service which God has for each of His children, to which we are called as the servants of Christ and for which we are specially enabled by the enduement of the Holy Spirit. Then follows the writer’s salutation: “Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance” (2). “Mercy” is the divine fountain of all our blessings. “Peace” is the stream that flows from that fountain. “Love” is the expression of divine fellowship toward all His redeemed children. After this introduction the epistle naturally divides itself into the following sections:

1. Certain reference to salvation and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ (3).
2. Warnings against false brethren who had crept in among them and were exercising a baneful influence in the Church of God (4-13).
3. A remarkable announcement of the Lord’s second coming, quoted from Enoch (14-16), coupled with warnings (17-19).
4. A beautiful exhortation to the true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ (20-21).
5. Counsels about Christian service and soul-winning (22-23).
6. A glorious doxology (24-25).

Salvation and the Gospel

Salvation and the Gospel"Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints" (3). In this remarkable passage two phrases of striking significance are used. First, he speaks of the “salvation we share.” By that he means the salvation which belongs alike to Jew and Gentile and is offered to every sinner on equal terms. Its watchword is, “Whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17). Next, he uses the still more striking expression, “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (3). This is the meaning of the Greek word translated “once.” The writer’s idea is that God’s word of salvation has been proclaimed once as his final word, and as the one gospel that He ever will offer to lost men. It is here described not so much as a system of truth, but rather as a faith, something to be believed. The gospel is not a theory but a faith. There is nothing in the gospel of the nature of theory, philosophy and speculation. Every word is given for faith to claim, and for love to obey. And so it is called “the faith” rather than “the creed.” Beloved, have we added our faith to this Word of God, and are we standing first upon and then standing for this faith, “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints”? Jude reminds them that they must “contend” for this faith. The enemy will try to destroy it, either by discrediting the Word of God, or by keeping us from fully believing it. The apostle, therefore, means that “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” should be preserved in its integrity. There is no new Bible for modern times, and there is no part of the Old Bible that is obsolete. Are we believing, and living every bit of it and proving in our lives that Jesus Christ and His Word are “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8)?

Warnings Against False Brothers

Warnings Against False BrothersJude now proceeds to expose certain false brethren, whose pernicious influence is already defiling and subverting the Church. Peter had warned his readers that in the last days such mockers should come, and perhaps Jude is referring to Peter when he says, “But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires’” (17-18). The book of Jude was evidently written after Peter, and the things which that apostle had intimated, had already come. Briefly summed up, the false teachers against whom he directs the larger portion of his epistle, were as follows:

1. Certain men had crept in unawares, and, through their personal and pernicious influence, error and sin were being communicated and circulated. The false seed consists not merely in false doctrine, but in living embodiments of it. It is error in an ungodly and wicked man which is Satan’s choicest instrument of attack upon Christianity, and the adversary is always trying to sow these tares in the Lord’s husbandry.
2. The particular character of their false teaching was to “change the grace of our God into a license for immorality” (4). They abused the doctrine of divine grace by proclaiming liberty to sin because of Christ’s salvation. They especially encouraged and practiced the sin of moral uncleanness. Jude speaks of them again in the eighth verse as “dreamers” who “pollute their own bodies”; and in the 16th verse as “they follow their own evil desires.” In the 10th verse he uses still more realistic language in describing their coarse and brutal depravity: “what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.”
3. The result of their teaching and their lives is to “deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (4). Elsewhere in the Scriptures we are reminded that men may confess Christ by their lips, but by their works deny Him.
4. These wicked men were also intolerant of all spiritual authority, selfwilled and scornful of the restraints and the warnings of those that were over them in the Lord. They “reject authority and slander celestial beings” (8). Already, in the time of Paul, such men had risen, setting at naught his apostolic authority, ridiculing his peculiarities and infirmities, and claiming for themselves the highest spiritual authority as equally inspired and authorized to teach and command. These false teachers were schismatics and tried to break up the peace and harmony of the Church. “These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit” (19). They claimed a higher sanctity and larger liberty and a loftier experience.
5. But Jude declares they “follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit” (19). Now this is an unfortunate translation. The word translated “natural instincts” literally means “psychical.” That is the favorite word of our modern new theologists. They claim to be psychical. They mean some higher, finer quality of ethical and spiritual life. But Jude says they did not have the Holy Spirit, but merely a human spirit. They were what might be called “soulish people.” We find this type among Christian Scientists, Spiritualists and Theosophists. It is a Satanic imitation and counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. It is the devil’s spirituality and not the Lord’s.
6. Jude next proceeds to emphasize his warnings against these teachers by a threefold reference to God’s judgments in the past, against those guilty of such errors and crimes. Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. (5-7) First, he reminds them of God’s judgments upon His own people Israel even after He saved them from the land of Egypt, when they fell into sin in the wilderness as they did on several occasions through the weakness of Aaron and the wickedness of Balaam. Secondly, he recalls the doom of those “angels who did not keep their positions of authority,” but fell into sin. The nature of their sin has been the subject of much controversy, some even alleging that they were guilty of impure and literal connection with human beings; and that it was through such vile intercourse between demons and the daughters of men in the days of Noah that the giants of that age were born, and the earth was filled with violence and sin. There is no need, however, that we should go beyond the simple statement of Jude and other Scriptures. We may simply apply this to the fall of those beings who once were holy angels, but now are demons, doomed in everlasting judgment. Thirdly, he tells them of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the special reason for that fearful retribution; namely, the defiling of their own bodies both in natural and unnatural sins of the flesh.
7. Next, Jude gives us three types of these wicked men in the 11th verse: “Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.” The first of these types is Cain, who represents the unbelieving man, the man who rejects the blood, and who presumes to approach God in his own righteousness. This is the type that is growing so common today, the men who reject the cross, dishonor the blood and go about to establish their own righteousness. Balaam is the second type. Balaam represents the world, especially the attempt on the part of the followers of God to compromise with the world. This, too, alas, is the almost universal type of the worldly church of today. The third type is Korah who rose up in rebellion against the authority of Moses and claimed for himself and his brethren an equal right to receive and proclaim the will of God. This is our blatant new theology, claiming that the gifted intellects of our time are just as true prophets of God as Isaiah, Paul and John.
8. Finally, Jude reaches his climax in a series of magnificent and awful metaphors, whose fiery eloquence it would be difficult to translate into ordinary speech. These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. (12-13) Briefly summed up, these lurid sentences imply that these wicked men, with cool and insolent assurance, were making themselves perfectly at home in the love feasts of the Church, and presuming to make these sacred feasts occasions for their own gluttony and indulgence. The apostle compares them to empty clouds at the sport of every wind; showy trees whose luxuriant foliage bears no fruit; rolling waves of the sea frothing with the foam of their own wickedness; falling meteors which blaze out for a moment in the sky of night and then disappear in the darkness forever. God save us from any partnership with such awful examples of ungodliness, wickedness and presumption. But let us not forget that the picture belongs to the last days, and that the last days are upon us.

An Announcement of the Second Coming

An Announcement of the Second Coming"Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: ‘See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him’" (14-15). In an old apocryphal book called the book of Enoch, we have this prophecy almost word for word. Whether the book of Enoch has any real authority or not, no doubt the prophecy was really given and divinely revealed to Jude. He notes particularly the fact that Enoch was the seventh from Adam, as though it had some typical significance. Did it mean that in Enoch the race reached its perfect development, seven being the number of perfection? Certainly Enoch’s prophecy is one of the most complete and striking revelations of the Lord’s coming to be found in the holy Scriptures. And as certainly Enoch himself was made a glorious sample of the translation of the saints before the coming of the Lord.

1. He announces the Lord’s coming with His saints. That is not His parousia to take away His waiting bride, but His glorious epiphany when He will come back with His saints, and judge the wicked world, and set up His millennial throne.
2. He announces the judgment which the Lord is to execute upon the ungodly. There are some striking expressions here. Not only is He to judge the wicked, but He is to convince and convict them of their wickedness, so that there shall be no answering back in that day, but every conscience shall admit its guilt, “so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God” (Romans 3:19). This judgment is not for the saints, but for the wicked world. Thank God, we are saved from that by our glorious Substitute, who bore our judgment on the cross of Calvary. The coming of the Lord is here recognized in its relationship to the wicked. The saints are seen only as assessors with the Judge, and sharers in His glory and His dignity.

An Exhortation to True Followers

An Exhortation to True FollowersBut now Jude turns from this painful picture of wickedness and addresses to the saints one of the sweetest and loftiest messages in all this volume of inspiration. “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” (Jude 1:20-21).

1. He bids them build themselves up in their most holy faith. The same word “faith” which we notice in the beginning of the epistle is fundamental in Christian life and character as here portrayed. It is a process of building, but faith is the foundation of all. It is the same thought which Peter expresses in his second epistle: “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). Christian life grows, not by adding one grace to another in our human character building, but by taking every grace directly from Jesus Christ Himself, and making each addition to the building an act of simple faith. We become complete in holiness simply by appropriating the life of Jesus, moment by moment, until He has become incarnate in all our actions and relationships.
2. Praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20) is the process by which our life is built up. It is a continual communion in the Spirit, a breathing out of self, a breathing in of Christ; and just as the human body grows by the exhaling of our exhausted breath and the inhaling of fresh life moment by moment, so the secret process of the soul’s growth is a ceaseless fellowship with God in the Holy Spirit. Each moment brings some new need, and that need is transformed into a prayer, and that prayer into a grace, and that grace into an added element in our Christian character and life. There is not a moment in our conscious existence that we may not be thus occupied in communion, and there is not a thing that comes to us that should not be made an occasion for this unceasing habit of prayer.
3. “Keep yourselves in God’s love” (21). Here we have the element in which we grow. It is a glorious tropical climate of divine love. It is ever warmed by the sunshine of His heart and illumined by the radiance of His smile. It does not mean our love to God, but it means our constant consciousness and recognition of His love to us. It is the same thought which the Lord Jesus expressed: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:9-10).
4. The last step in this beautiful ascent is hope. “As you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” (Jude 1:21). That means looking for the coming of our Lord and for the glory that is to be brought unto us at His appearing. It is the uplook of a spirit that is ever gazing sunward, heavenward. How beautifully Dr. Bonar has expressed it: My hopes are passing onward, upward, And with my hopes my heart has gone; My eyes are turning skyward,—sunward, Where glory brightens ‘round yon throne.

Christian Service and Soul: Winning

Christian Service and Soul-WinningFor a moment Jude turns his thought toward the sinner, and he gives two very practical directions for service and soul-winning. “Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh” (Jude 1:22-23). First, we are to save people by compassion. We must love souls if we would win them. And surely, if we realize their danger and their need, we shall understand the compassion of which the apostle speaks. We are to have great tenderness, gentleness and love, or we shall be little used in bringing men to God. But there are others with whom we must take a different course, and sometimes the sternest measure is the kindest. It is said that Dwight Moody was once talking with an inquirer who tried him with his indifference. Mr. Moody broke away from him, saying, “I guess God can get along without you, if you can get along without Him.” And for the remaining meeting Mr. Moody paid no attention to the man. First, the man’s pride was wounded, but soon his conscience was aroused; and before the meeting was over, he himself came imploring the prayers of the evangelist. Sometimes we must use messages as severe as Jude’s strong language expresses, “Snatch others from the fire and save them;… hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh” (23) and, making no compromise with sin or cowardice, press the soul right through to the most real and complete confession and renunciation of all sin as the only condition of the mercy and peace of God.

A Doxology

A DoxologyFinally, Jude closes with this beautiful doxology: “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen” (24-25).

1. He speaks of “him that is able to keep you from falling.” This is an inadequate translation. Literally it means from “stumbling.” He is not only able to keep us from the great falls, but from the slightest missteps. Oh, let us claim this great and wonderful grace.
2. He is “able… to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy” (24). This is His purpose. For this end He is taking us through all processes of His grace and all the discipline of His love. Some day we shall understand and thank Him for it all. Some day we will shine forth in the kingdom of our Father even as He, “without fault” or “without blemish,” which the original word literally means.
3. He is here described as “the only God our Savior.” This is a glorious name, and it is given to Jesus, the Son of man, our blessed Savior. Let us adore His glorious majesty as well as love His wondrous grace.
4. To Him “be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen” (25).