Jude 1:1-4 (NKJV) Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Believer’s Bible Commentary Outline
I. SALUTATION (Vv. 1, 2)
II. THE APOSTATES UNMASKED (Vv. 3-16)
III. THE BELIEVER’S ROLE IN THE MIDST OF APOSTASY (Vv. 17-23)
IV. THE BEAUTIFUL BENEDICTION (Vv. 24, 25)
V1-2 “Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.”
This is a standard Christian greeting. It is not about us but about Jesus and His kingdom. We want, don’t we, mercy, peace, and love to all our Christian brothers and sisters. God initiates salvation (John 16:8), then frees our will by opening our mind and heart (Acts 16:14), then calls. All have opportunity. Most, sadly, refuse to believe in Jesus. The reason people refuse is love of sinful pleasures, pride, and believing lies (rejection and suppression of truth—Romans 1:18). When one believes, they are sanctified by God (1 Corinthians 6:11) and preserved by Jesus Christ (not our own efforts—Ephesians 5:26-27). There are 3 stages of sanctification for every believer in Jesus: 1) justification (when one believes; is a one-time event—Romans 8:2 and Acts 13:39), 2) progressive sanctification (a life long process of growth initiated and guided by the Holy Spirit—Romans 6:19, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, and 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4), and 3) glorification (a one-time event happening at death and lasts for eternity—Romans 8:17).
Sanctification is the process the Holy Spirit uses to transform, grow, disciple, and discipline us to be the type of people that honor God. We grow into maturity, a mature Christian faith and life. As one of the commentary versions translate: Ephesians 4:13 (GW) “This is to continue until all of us are united in our faith and in our knowledge about God’s Son, until we become mature, until we measure up to Christ, who is the standard.”
V3 “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” The “common salvation” is the common Gospel for both Jews and Gentiles to be saved. It is the “faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” The life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ is “the faith (1 Corinthians 15:3-7).” We need to earnestly contend, which means the effort to maintain unwavering loyalty to the truth of the Gospel. There are no other Gospels except the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
V4 “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Some teachers and increasingly so are become stealth as they infiltrate churches teaching error, lies, false Gospels, etc. God knew about this and planned their hell for them. They are ungodly, false Christian teachers. They teach a false gospel and instead of teaching the Law of Christ teach the laws of antinomianism. In doing so, this makes them deniers of the authentic Jesus, His gospel, His laws, and His doctrines.
The Greek word for “Lord” is (G1203) δεσπότης despotēs, which means absolute ruler having full authority and power. He is not subject to any other, indeed cannot be by nature. He is the supreme leader. Compare Revelation 19:16. The Lord God is the Father. Two persons of the Trinity are mentioned here—God the Father and God the Son.
Others comments:
Bible Believer’s Commentary: “Who are these men? They are supposed ministers of the gospel. They hold positions of leadership in Christendom. Some are bishops or church council members or seminary professors. But they all have this in common—they are against the Christ of the Bible and have invented for themselves a liberal or Neo-Orthodox “Christ”, stripped of glory, majesty, dominion, and authority.”
(Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary) “The Gnostics also taught that every human being is composed of body, soul, and spirit. Since the body and the soul are part of people’s earthly existence, they are evil. Enclosed in the soul, however, is the spirit, the only divine part of this triad. This “spirit” is asleep and ignorant; it needs to be awakened and liberated by knowledge.
“According to the Gnostics, the aim of salvation is for the spirit to be awakened by knowledge so the inner person can be released from the earthly dungeon and return to the realm of light where the soul becomes reunited with God. As the soul ascends, however, it needs to penetrate the cosmic spheres that separate it from its heavenly destiny. This, too, is accomplished by knowledge. One must understand certain formulas that are revealed only to the initiated.”
We learn:
- We need apologetics to answer seekers, fakes, false religions, and our questions.
- We need to be aware of dangerous false teachers who hide under a fake righteousness.