Jude 1:1-2. 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: mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
Our holy faith breeds in us the best wishes for others. As we desire to find mercy ourselves, so do we long that others also should find mercy; and as we rejoice in the peace and love which the Holy Ghost works in us, we desire that others may partake of the same spiritual benefits. Hence the apostles usually begin their Epistles with these good wishes, which are not mere wishes, but earnest prayers and inspired benedictions. May we breathe such petitions wherever we go! Let us wish no man any ill, even in the most exacting and trying times, and under the greatest provocation; but still let us breathe out this prayer, «Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.»
Jude 1:3. 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.
These godly men, though they wrote under divine inspiration, yet stirred themselves up that they might be in a right condition of mind and heart. Even though the pen does not by itself write, yet it is well that it be not corroded, lest it answer not to the hand that uses it; so Jude says, «I gave all diligence to write unto you.» All the diligence of Jude by itself could not have written this Epistle; still, while depending upon divine guidance, he was no mere passive agent, but he gave all diligence to the accomplishment of his task. Jude wrote of «the common salvation», for there is but one. He was writing a general Epistle, a catholic Epistle, to all sorts of persons all over the world, and he therefore wrote of «the common salvation.» There is but one salvation; there cannot be another. There are some who trouble us, as some troubled the Christians in the apostles' day, by preaching «another gospel, which is not another,» but there is only one salvation. «It was needful,» says the apostle, «for me to write unto you;» and oh, how needful it is still to preach the gospel, and to warn men against defections from it! Jude continues, «It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all» (that is the correct rendering) «delivered to the saints.» The faith is not a growth, it is not an evolution, it was once for all delivered to the saints; and the great business of the saints, the holy, the saintly among men, is to defend, if necessary with their lives, the faith once delivered unto them. We are put in trust with the gospel, we are trustees of a divine deposit of invaluable truth; and we must be true to our trust at all costs. It was needful for Jude to write as he did, for he had further to say,-
Jude 1:4. 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.
These are two vital points in which many have erred, either separating holiness of life from orthodoxy of belief, or denying the divinity and the supremacy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing could more discredit the gospel than the first error, that of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness; and nothing could more injure the gospel than the second error, that of «denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.»
Jude 1:5. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the laud of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
So you may get in among the spiritual children of Israel, you may share their privileges, you may sing the Red Sea song of triumph; and yet, after all, if there is not real living faith within your soul, God will as surely destroy you as he destroyed the unbelieving Israelites. Those myriads of graves in the wilderness are as sure a token of God's hatred of sin as the drowning of Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen in the Red Sea. Beware, then, of having a form of faith which does not purify your lives, a profession of belief in Christ which even allows you to live in sin with impunity; for if you have this however near you may seem to be to the people of God, even if you are counted in with them, yet God will not reckon you as his, for he is the same Lord who «afterward destroyed them that believed not.»
Jude 1:6. 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.
The angels think of how high they stood in their first estate. If sin could drag an angel from the skies, it may well pluck a minister from the pulpit, a deacon from the communion table, a church-member out of the midst of his brethren. It is only perseverance in holiness which is the token of eternal salvation; if we forsake the Lord, and turn back to our former evil ways, it will be the evidence that we never really believed in Christ, and that there was no true work of grace in our hearts.
Jude 1:7. 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.
Whatever the new gods, newly come up, that some preach nowadays, may be or may not be, «our God is a consuming fire,» our God is one who takes vengeance upon iniquity, and who will by no means spare the guilty. He is as terribly just as he is divinely gracious; let us bow before him.
Jude 1:8. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
What a strange thing it is that such evils should spring up in the nominal church of God! I suppose that, out of the professing church, there have come more monstrous evils than have been nursed in the world itself. Why, even in these days, we have had those who have professed perfection, who have given themselves over to abominable evils, and who have even taught them as a part of their perfection! Ah, me! To what depths of infamy will not men go! Under the very guise of holiness, the most loathsome iniquity has been practiced. Unless the grace of God prevent, that which is best rots into that which is worst. You could not make a devil except with an angel for the raw material; a Judas Iscariot could only be produced out of an apostle of Jesus Christ; and it was into the nominal church of God that these filthy dreamers of whom Jude wrote had come. They were also, according to the apostle, those who «despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities,» those who cavil at everything that is right and good, and seek to pull down everything that comes to them with authority, especially everything that is of divine authority.
Jude 1:9. 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.
I do not know when that happened, yet I believe it, because it is here. When we are called to dispute, whether it be about the law, which might be regarded as the body of Moses, or about the gospel, which is the body of Christ,-let us use no railing accusations, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Let us be satisfied with hard arguments and soft words; and when we feel that our own rebuke will be useless, let us simply say, «The Lord rebuke thee.»
Jude 1:10. But these speak evil of those things, which they know not:
Very generally it is so; those who revile Holy Scripture are usually persons who have not read the Bible; they «speak evil of those things, which they know not.»
Jude 1:10-12. But what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 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. These are spots in your feasts of charity,
You seem to he sailing smoothly along over the placid waters, but these men are like hidden rocks,-that is the expression used by the apostle rather than «spots.»
Jude 1:12. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear:
At the love feasts in the apostles' day, these ungodly men feasted without fear, just as some do at the communion table now. The absence of holy fear is a damning mark in the souls of unholy professors. That religion which has no awe in it, which never makes us tremble before the Most High, is not the religion of genuine faith, for there is a fear which even perfect love casteth not out, but it rather increases and deepens that holy fear which is the very essence of true piety.
Jude 1:12-13. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
Such were in the professing church in Jude's time, so we must not be surprised if we meet with men like them in the nominal church today.
Jude 1:14-15. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 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.
When Enoch thus prophesied, we do not know. That he did so, was revealed to Jude, and he here tells us of it. It was profitable for us that so pointed and plain a testimony of Enoch should not be lost.
Jude 1:16-18. 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. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
Jude gives a summary of warnings uttered by Paul, Peter, and James.
Jude 1:19. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
They know nothing of the divine life, and of that Divine Spirit who dwells in the bodies of the saints as in a holy temple.
Jude 1:20. But ye, beloved, building-
Is this the way, then, to prevent our falling into sin? Yes. To prevent doing wrong, do right: «Ye, beloved, building»-doing good, substantial, solid work, building-
Jude 1:20. Up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost!
He has told us about the one foundation, now he bids us build thereon: «Building up yourselves on your most holy faith.» «Praying.» That is the next thing; there is no preservation like that which is given by God in response to believing prayer. «Praying in the Holy Ghost.» There is a kind of praying which is without the Holy Ghost, and it speedeth not. There is a praying which is the breath of God in man, returning whence it came; this will keep us from falling, and bring us untold blessings.
Jude 1:21. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
While you thus carefully watch over yourselves, have great love also to others, and seek to bless them, especially your fellow church members.
Jude 1:22. And of some have compassion, making a difference:
They may all, apparently, sin in much the same way; but there may be circumstances that make a difference between them. There may not be the same willfulness, or the same continuance in the sin in some as there is in others; there may be in some cases greater temptation, and therefore more excuse for them: «Of some have compassion, making a difference.»
Jude 1:23. And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Loving the sinners, but hating their sin.
Jude 1:24-25. 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, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
The Lord bless the reading of his Word to our profit! Amen.