Jude 1

Chapter 1

1:1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and ^a brother of James, to them that are sanctified ^b by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, [and] called:

(a) This is to distinguish between him and Judas Iscariot.
(b) By God the Father.

1:3 ¹ Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the ^d common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort [you] that ye should ^e earnestly contend for the faith which was ^f once delivered unto the saints.

(1) The goal of this epistle, is to affirm the godly as opposed to certain wicked men both in true doctrine and good conduct.
(d) Of those things that pertain to the salvation of all of us.
(e) That you should defend the faith with all the strength you can muster, both by true doctrine and good example of life.
(f) Which was once given, that it may never be changed.

1:4 ² For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ³ ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

(2) It is by Gods providence and not by chance, that many wicked men creep into the Church. (3) He condemns this first in them, that they take opportunity or occasion to wax wanton, by the grace of God: which cannot be, but the chief empire of Christ must be cancelled, in that such men give themselves up to Satan, whom they call Libertines.

1:5 ⁴ I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

(4) He presents the horrible punishment of those who have abused the grace of God to follow their own lusts.

1:6 ⁵ 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.

(5) The fall of the angels was most severely punished, how much more then will the Lord punish wicked and faithless men?

1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, ^g giving themselves over to fornication, and going after ^h strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

(g) Following the steps of Sodom and Gomorrah.
(h) Thus he sets forth their horrible and wicked perversions.

1:8 Likewise also these ⁱ [filthy] dreamers defile the flesh, ⁶ despise ^k dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

ⁱ Who are so stupid and void of reason as if all their fears and wits were asleep. (6) Another most destructive doctrine of theirs, in that they take away the authority of the government and slander them.
(k) It is a greater matter to despise government than the governors, that is to say, the matter itself than the persons.

1:9 ⁷ 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.

(7) An argument of comparison: Michael one of the chiefest angels, was content to deliver Satan, although a most accursed enemy, to the judgment of God to be punished: and these perverse men are not ashamed to speak evil of the powers who are ordained of God.

1:10 ⁸ But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

(8) The conclusion: These men are doubly at fault, that is, both for their rash folly in condemning some, and for their impudent and shameless contempt of that knowledge, which when they had gotten, yet nonetheless they lived as brute beasts, serving their bellies.

1:11 ⁹ 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.

(9) He foretells their destruction, because they resemble or proclaim Cains shameless malice, Balaams filthy covetousness, and to be short, Cores seditious and ambitious head.

1:12 ¹⁰ These are spots in your ^l feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without ^m fear: clouds [they are] without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

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