Commentary of the Book of Jude
By Dr. Barry L. Jenkins
Text Used: Legacy Standard Bible
Bible Study Jude 1-13
1917 Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Jude 1
Book Introduction
General Theme: Preserved
The General Epistle of Jude
WRITER: Jude, the brother of James (Jude 1)
DATE: Probably A.D. 66
THEME: It is not so much Jude who speaks, as the constraining Spirit (Jude 3) and the theme is, "Contending for the faith" (Lu 18:8), Cmt. on Lu 18:8. In this brief letter the apostasy (Cmt. on 2Th 2:3) of the professing church is predicted, and the cause and course described. As in Second Timothy and Second Peter the apostasy is treated as having already set in.
The Epistle is in five divisions:
I. Introduction vs. 1, 2 II. Occasion of the Epistle, vs. 3, 4 III. Apostasy is possible, vs. 5-7 IV. Apostate teachers described, vs. 8-19 V. The saints assured and comforted, vs. 20-25
Assurance is the believer's full conviction that, through the work of Christ alone, received by faith, he is in possession of a salvation in which he will be eternally kept. And this assurance rests only upon the Scripture promises to him who believes.
Text:
Contend Earnestly for the Faith
1 [a]Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of [b]James,
To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you exhorting that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the [c]saints. 4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand [d]marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5 Now I want to remind you, though you know all things, that [e]Jesus, having once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, [f]subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having indulged in the same way as these in gross sexual immorality and having gone after [g]strange flesh, are exhibited as an [h]example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and blaspheme [i]glorious ones. 9 But Michael the archangel, when he, disputing with the devil, was arguing about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these men blaspheme the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are [j]destroyed. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have poured themselves into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. 12 These are the men who are [k]hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, [l]doubly dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own [m]shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the [n]black darkness has been reserved forever.
14 But Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, also prophesied about these men, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with [o]many thousands of His holy ones, 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” 16 These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks arrogantly, [p]flattering people for the sake of their own benefit.
Keep Yourselves in the Love of God
17 But you, beloved, must remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” 19 These are the ones who cause divisions, [q]worldly-minded, not having the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 22 And on some, who are doubting, have mercy; 23 and for others, save, snatching them out of the fire; and on others have mercy with fear, hating even the tunic polluted by the flesh.
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and [r]forever. Amen.
Verse by verse commentary:
Verse 1: “Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:”
Jude, like others in the early church were “slaves” not “bondservants” as so many translations state. There is a tendency to avoid the word “slave” because of historical abuse. However, history doesn’t change the text. A person could have many bondservants (think full time job and part time job), but a slave had only one master. The same is true with us. We can have only one Master. James was the well-known leader of the Jerusalem church. The recipients of this letter are those that have been called by God to salvation, called because they were loved by God, and preserved for the Lord Jesus Christ. If it was my responsibility to keep myself, I would be lost in a day. However, in Christ, I can rest in His ability to keep me for all eternity as I surrender completely to Him. Those that surrender completely are the ones He called and loved.
Verse 2: “May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”
Jude combines a traditional Jewish greeting (“mercy and peace”) with the Christian emphasis on love in action. The addition of love made this a distinctive Christian greeting.
Verse 3: “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you exhorting that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”
Apparently, Jude intended to write a more theological letter with emphasis on doctrine. However, he now wants to focus on warning against false teachers and their teachings. “Contend earnestly for the faith” has the idea of agony. The Greek word is epagōnizesthai, and we get our English word agony from the noun of this word. Instead of writing on some great doctrine, Jude is saying that we are to contend or defend the great doctrines of Christianity. Dr. Kenneth S. Wuest, a Greek scholar, has provided a literal translation of the verse: “Divinely-loved ones, when giving all diligence to be writing to you concerning the salvation possessed in common by all of us, I had constraint laid upon me to write to you, beseeching (you) to contend with intensity and determination for the Faith once for all entrusted into the safe-keeping of the saints.” There are many false teachers today and we are to fight for the truth of the Gospel message. No compromise, no surrender to the world’s pressure to conform. Stand strong.
Verse 4: “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
The troublemakers came from outside the local church. They may have been traveling evangelists or teachers. “Marked out for this condemnation” refers to various prophecies about the coming and condemnation of ungodly men like the false teachers. They were “ungodly” because they taught antinomianism which is the belief that Christians are under no obligation to follow the moral law as a rule of life. Such teaching was a persistent problem in the early church. To teach that one can be saved and live a life of habitual sin is a lie from the pit of hell. Saved people live holy lives, not perfect, but a life of continual repentance and surrender. To teach such a doctrine is to deny the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not die to leave you in sin. Saved people will persevere.
Verse 5: “Now I want to remind you, though you know all things, that Jesus, having once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.”
God miraculously delivered the nation of Israel out of Egyptian bondage through a series of Divine plagues, only to have them respond in unbelief, doubting, and defecting from faith in God that He could continue to save them. They doubted His ability to take them to the Promised Land. They went so far as to make a golden calf and worship it. This rebellion was so severe that they called the golden calf YVHV, i.e. the Divine name for God. That apostate generation died during 38 years of wilderness wanderings. Their doubt and rebellion cost them their physical lives.
Verse 6: “And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,”
Angels were created with free will. They did not have the ability to reproduce. Therefore, they had no inherited sin. They were direct creations by God. The angels referred to here, rebelled and and God did not tolerate their sinfulness and judged them. These angels and their apostasy is described in Genesis 6: 1-3.The angels desired the women but because they could not reproduce, had to possess natural men to cohabit with them. The “great day” is the final judgment at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 7: “just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having indulged in the same way as these in gross sexual immorality and having gone after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”
Jude connects the sexual sins, immorality, and perversity of Sodom and Gomorrah with the angels from verse 6. The fiery judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns in Genesis 19 serves as a model of God’s judgment on sin. The end result are the eternal flames of hell fire.
Verse 8: “Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and blaspheme glorious ones.”
“Dreaming” refers to a confused state of the mind or abnormal imagination, producing delusions and sexual confusion. These men’s minds were numb to the truth of God’s Word. They were beguiled and deluded. “Defile the flesh” means they fantasized wicked perversions, being blind and deaf to reality and truth. They refused God’s Word and rebelled against His commandments. They rejected the authority of God’s Word and blasphemed the “glorious ones” which meant angels.
These are the characteristics of the apostates who have come into the church:
They came in the back door.
They are ungodly.
They turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.
They deny the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word.
They are dreamers, they defile the flesh, they despise dominion, and they have disrespect for dignities.
These are the things that characterize them, and they are dangerous because of the way they have come into the church.
Verse 9: “But Michael the archangel, when he, disputing with the devil, was arguing about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’”
Michael is one of the chief angels and the special guardian of Israel. Jude was contrasting Michael’s appeal to God’s authority with the false teachers’ claim to having their own spiritual authority. Michael appealed to God’s authority to rebuke Satan and not his own. We need to be mindful of this principle. We are slaves to our God and all authority is in Him, not us.
Verse 10: “But these men blaspheme the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.”
The word translated “understand” is the Greek word eidō which speaks of “mental comprehension and knowledge … referring to the whole range of invisible things.” Knowledge is not confined to what you can pour into a test tube or look at under a microscope. You can know the sound of music but you can’t put that music in a test tube or in a microscope. Love is the same. We can know love but you can’t scientifically study it. The same is true with faith. These blasphemers did not understand the Gospel because they had not experienced saving grace. The word translated “know” is epestamai, which means “to understand.” It refers to palpable things, e.g., objects of sense; the circumstances of fleshly enjoyment. These are things you can pour into the test tube. The apostate leaders act by instinct, like a bird that migrates in the winter. ThThe false teachers have no comprehension and no understanding. The apostates know only physical things that they can see and measure. What they did not understand was the spiritual knowledge that comes from the Holy Spirit conviction, taking responsibility for your sins, knowing that you deserve hell but only through the blood of Christ can you be saved, repentance and surrender. These are things the apostates did not understand these truths.
Verse 11: “Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have poured themselves into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.”
Cain was a religious man but a carnal (of the flesh, e.g. prideful) man. He believed in God and believed in religion, but he did on his terms. He denied that he was a sinner, rejected redemption by blood, and thought that he could come on his own merits. In other words, Cain did not come to God in faith. Balaam was guilty of covetousness, greed which is idolatry. He was a preacher for hire. He wanted to profit with the gift he had, a gift that was apparently from God. That was the way of Balaam, and it was his downfall. This error is not limited to money but can include seeking for prominence, for popularity, for fame, for applause, or for positions of authority. There are many different things which would put a man in the way of Balaam. Jude writes that this marks the apostate. Korah led a rebellion against Moses recorded in Numbers 16. He came to the conclusion that Moses was not the only one around who had access to God. The sin of Korah is that he rebelled against God’s constituted authority. Jude says “woe” to the apostate ministers. “Woe” denotes a wail of grief or of denunciation. This is strong language and Jude then provides the three examples to describe them.
Verse 12: “These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;”
I love the phrase "clouds without water.” I heard the old time preachers describe a minister without an anointing as “lots of thunder no rain.” It meant that while someone may say something correct, there were no results because a man speaking was not under the authority and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Just like a ship could be damaged by “hidden reefs” so could the church be damaged by the false teachings from the apostates who had crept in the assembly. For years we have known that churches will use food and fellowship as a way to draw a crowd. The apostates used the “love feasts” as an opportunity to give their false teachings. They had no fear in doing so. The false teachers cared only for themselves and just like trees without fruit, these teachers produced no Godly fruit. Jude is warning his readers that these false teachers exist in their midst.
Verse 13: “wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”
The apostate teachers promised powerful ministries, but just like “wild waves,” they do nothing but rant and put on a show. That show delivers a brief, aimless, and worthless flash. “Wandering stars” just move through space. They are lawless in that they follow no course whatsoever. You cannot use them for navigation purposes. The same is true for these false teachers. You can’t depend on them or their false teachings. “Black darkness” is a description of hell.
No comments:
Post a Comment