For there are certain men crept in unawares
These words contain a reason why the doctrine of faith should be
contended for, because of false teachers, who are described as
being then upon the spot; the Apostles Peter and Paul had
foretold that they would come, but Jude here speaks of them as in
being; wherefore present rigour and vigilance were necessary to
be used: their names are not mentioned, nor their number, only
that there were "certain", or "some men"; which is done to stir
up the saints to self-examination, whether they were in the
faith; to diligence, in finding out these men; to vigour, in
opposing them; and to care, to nip error and heresy in the bud:
and they are said to have "crept in unawares": either into
private houses, as was the custom of those men; or into the
churches, and become members of them being the tares the enemy
sows among the wheat; or into the ministry, assuming that office
to themselves, without being called and sent of God; and so into
the public assemblies of the saints, spreading their poisonous
doctrines among them; and also into their affections, until
discovered; and so the Ethiopic version reads here, "because
ungodly men have entered into your hearts"; and all this was at
an unawares, privily, secretly, without any thought about them,
or suspicion of them:
who were before of old ordained to this
condemnation;
or judgment; meaning either judicial blindness of heart, they
were given up to, in embracing and spreading errors and heresies;
so that these are not casual things, but fall under the
ordination and decree of God, which does not make God the author
of them, nor excuse the men that hold them; and they are ordained
and ordered for many valuable ends; on the part of God, to show
his power and wisdom; and on the part of truth, that it might be
tried and appear the brighter, and to manifest his people and
their graces: or else punishment is designed, even everlasting
condemnation, to which some are preordained of God; for this act
of preordination respects persons, and not mere actions and
events; and is not a naked prescience, but a real decree, and
which is sure, certain, and irrevocable; is God's act, and
springs from his sovereignty, is agreeably to his justice and
holiness; nor is it contrary to his goodness, and is for his
glory: the date of this act is "of old"; or as the Syriac version
renders it, (ayrwv Nm) ,
"from the beginning"; that is, from eternity; see ( 2
Thessalonians 2:13 ) ( Proverbs
8:22 ) ; for reprobation is of the same date with election;
if the one is from eternity, the other must be so too, since
there cannot be one without the other: if some were chosen before
the foundation of the world, others must be left or passed by as
early; and if some were appointed unto salvation from the
beginning, others must be foreordained to condemnation from the
beginning also; for these words cannot be understood of any
prophecy of old, in which it was forewritten, or prophesied of
these men, that they should be condemned for their ungodliness;
not in ( Matthew
24:1-51 ) , in which no such persons are described as here,
nor any mention made of their punishment or condemnation; nor in
( 2 Peter
2:1-3 ) ; for then the apostle would never have said that
they were "of old", a long while ago, before written, or
prophesied of, since according to the common calculation, that
epistle of Peter's, and this of Jude's, were written in the same
year; nor in the prophecy of Enoch, ( Jude 1:14 ) ; for Enoch's
prophecy was not written, as we know of; and therefore these men
could not be said to be before written in it; besides, that
prophecy is spoken of as something distinct from these persons
being before written, to condemnation; and after all, was a
prophecy referred to, the sense would be the same, since such a
prophecy concerning them must be founded upon an antecedent
ordination and appointment of God; the word here used does not
intend their being forewritten in any book of the Scriptures, but
in the book of God's eternal purposes and decrees; and the
justice of such a preordination appears by the following
characters of them,
ungodly men:
all men are by nature ungodly, some are notoriously so, and false
teachers are generally such; here it signifies such who are
destitute of the fear of God, and of all internal devotion, and
powerful godliness; and who did not worship God externally,
according to his institutions and appointments, and much less
sincerely, and in a spiritual manner; and who even separated
themselves from the true worshippers of God, and gave themselves
up to sensuality, and therefore their condemnation was just:
turning the grace of our God into
lasciviousness;
not the love and favour of God, as in his own heart, or as shed
abroad in the hearts of others; for that can never, be turned to
such a purpose, it always working in a contrary way; nor the
principle of grace wrought in the soul, which being of a
spiritual nature, lusteth against the flesh, and cannot be turned
into it; more likely the goodness of God in his providential
dispensations, which is despised by some, and abused by others;
but rather the doctrine of grace, which though lasciviousness is
not in its nature, nor has it any natural tendency to it, yet
wicked men turn or transfer it from its original nature, design,
and use, to a foreign one: and they may be said to turn it into
lasciviousness, either by asserting it to be a licentious
doctrine, when it is not; or by treating it in a wanton and
ludicrous manner, scoffing at it, and lampooning it; or by making
the doctrine of grace universal, extending it equally alike to
all mankind, and thereby harden and encourage men in sin.
And denying the only Lord God;
God the Father, who is the only sovereign Lord, both in
providence and grace; and the only God, not to the exclusion of
the Son and Spirit, but in opposition to nominal and fictitious
deities, or Heathen gods; and he was denied by these men, if not
in words, yet in works: the word "God" is left out in the
Alexandrian copy, and in the Vulgate Latin version.
And our Lord Jesus Christ;
as his deity, or sonship, or humanity, or that he was the
Messiah, or the alone Saviour, or his sacrifice, satisfaction,
and righteousness; with respect to either of which he may be said
to be denied doctrinally, as he is also practically, when men do
not walk worthy of their profession of him; and both might be
true of these men, and therefore their condemnation was
righteous. The copulative "and" is omitted in the Syriac version,
which seems to make this clause explanative of the former.