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.
Certain men - disparagement.
Crept in unawares - stealthily, (note, 2 Peter 2:1, "privily," etc.) Before ... ordained - `fore-written;' namely, in Peter's prophecy (Jude 1:17-18), and in Paul's (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1), and by implication in the judgments upon apostate angels, the disobedient Israelites, Sodom and Gomorrha, Balaam and Core-all written "for an example" (Jude 1:7 and Jude 1:5-6; Jude 1:11). God's eternal character as Punisher of sin, set forth in Scripture "of old," is the ground on which such apostate characters are ordained to condemnation. Scripture reflects God's "book of life" in which believers are "written among the living" (Isaiah 4:3; Philippians 4:3). 'Fore-written' is applied also, in Romans 15:4, to the things in Scripture. Scripture mirrors forth God's character from everlasting-the ground of His decrees from everlasting. Bengel makes it abbreviated for, 'They were of old foretold by Enoch (Jude 1:14, who did not write), and afterward noted by the written Word.'
To this condemnation. Jude graphically puts their judgment before the eyes, "THIS." Enoch's prophecy comprises the "ungodly" of the last days before Christ's second coming, as well as their forerunners, the "ungodly men" before the flood-the type of the last judgment (Matthew 24:37-39; 2 Peter 3:3-7). The disposition and the doom of both correspond.
The grace of our God - a phrase for the Gospel, especially sweet to believers who appropriate God in Christ as "our God;" so rendering the more odious the perversity of those who turn Gospel grace into a ground of licentiousness, as if exemption from the law gave a license to sin.
Denying the only Lord God. 'Aleph (') A B C omit "God." х Ton (G3588) monon (G3441) despoteen (G1203), kai (G2532) Kurion (G2962), 'the only Master;' here, Jesus Christ, who is at once 'Master' and "Lord."] So 2 Peter 2:1, note. By virtue of Christ's oneness with the Father, He also is termed "the ONLY" God and 'MASTER.' 'Master' implies God's absolute ownership, to dispose of His creatures as He likes.