Commentary on the General Epistle of Jude

By Jacob R. Blandford

(INTRODUCTION) The General Epistle of Jude is one of the shortest Books in the Holy Bible. It is the second to last Book in the Bible, right before Saint John’s Apocalypse. Jude is one of the General or Catholic Epistles directed to tribulation saints, but also aimed at church age Christians. The Book is only one chapter long: but what the Epistle lacks in length, it makes up for in punch. Jude is a hard-hitting denunciatory Letter against false prophets that would corrupt the church and lead others astray from the truth of Christ. The Epistle copies much information from 2 Peter. The reformer Martin Luther tells us that after Jude wrote the Epistle it went into Persia. It has been preserved because of its authenticity and translated here into English. This Book is highly relevant to the end times which our Lord Jesus Christ said would be marked for its profound deception.

(VERSE 1) “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called”

The Apostle Jude is the author of this holy Book, or rather the penman, the prophet in God’s hand, the instrument to express the words of God. As the Scripture says “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21). Jude then acknowledges himself as the “servant of Jesus Christ” he is not ashamed to name Christ’s name, but rather glories in his master. (see Matt. 10:32) Christ after all is our all our purpose, our God and Saviour; and if you’re going to be speaking about the Christian faith, you ought to mention the Author and Finisher of our faith’s name. Jude calls himself a “servant”, (not a “slave” or a “bondman”,) those are foolish corruptions found in new apostate versions of the Bible; the King James Version calls Jude a “servant” because we serve Christ happily: without the dark overtones of demonic enslavement. Jude then describes himself as the “brother of James”. This was James the son of Alphaeus. And in Luke and Acts, Jude or “Judas” is called his brother (see Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13). He’s the disciple spoken of in Gospel of John as “Judas... not Iscariot” (John 14:22). So we can more than likely acknowledge Jude as one of the twelve disciples. When the canon was being developed, the church leaders at the council of Hippo (393) and the council of Carthage (397) would not accept a New Testament Epistle as genuine unless it was Apostolic—this Epistle meets that criteria. Jude then turns to mention those to whom the Epistle is written to, or the recipient—it is the church, not just the first century believers, but every Christian born again and “sanctified”. How else can a man be “sanctified” but without receiving the blood atonement of Christ Jesus? Hebrews 10:10 tells us, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” All the good works in the world do not sanctify a man like the blood of Christ does. Jude then says the faithful are also “preserved in Jesus Christ”. There are many Scriptures in the Old Testament about the ‘preservation’ of saints, especially in the Psalms, but this preservation is even more secure because it’s “in Jesus Christ”. This is what the Lord referred to in John 10:28 when He said, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Christ is the supreme over comer and conquer holding all victory and power over all realms and all His enemies, this fact makes the preservation of the faithful all the more secure when one realizes just Who preserves them. Jude also says they are “called”. Every born-again Christian is called. He is called to follow His Master in carrying the cross through this evil, fallen world and finally reach the destiny and reward of New Jerusalem after our “calling” here on earth is complete. Apostle Paul speaks of the calling of saints in Romans Chapters 1 and 8.

(VERSE 2) “Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.”

This is the Holy Ghost speaking to His people. The Spirit wishes “mercy” unto us, as soldiers in a war, where failures are inevitable our Commander in Heaven acknowledges our weakness and extends mercy to us. Mercy is a key element in the Judeo-Christian heritage, without a concept of mercy a man will miss out on why an all-powerful and holy God can interact with fallen flesh on earth. “Peace” is the element presented by the Spirit and indeed Christ is “The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Unless He’s in battle, Christ’s presence will always bring peace, and so does the Holy Ghost. Then “love” is extended to the faithful. Revelation 1:5 and Romans 5:8 describe this love for fallen mankind began at Calvary with the Saviour’s bloody death on the cross. “Multiplied” are all these attributes to us because God’s presence knows no boundaries, and we are ever awakening to a greater sense of His awesomeness.

(VERSE 3) “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

Notice the word to the faithful Christian; in heaven he is “beloved”. In John’s Epistles he uses the same term. It’s an expression of love from the Trinity towards saved men. In this Epistle Jude wanted to write about the “common salvation” viz. about the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, repentance, confession, grace, etc. All of which Apostle Paul throughly covered in his Epistles: but Jude saw an impending threat, a danger which he could not help warning us about. Jude said it was “needful” to write this General Epistle so believers would “contend for the faith”! What a statement! We Christians are in a battle, yea a war against the world, the flesh, and the devil. In a world full of lies and hate, our weapons are love and truth. We are soldiers according to 2 Tim. 2. Paul wrote about the Christian’s battle armour in Ephesians 6. To break it down: we are to use the Holy Bible to cut away at the devil’s lie so we and our brethren can walk in the freedom producing truth of Christ Jesus. We are to stand for the fundamentals which are never changing, immutable, forever settled in heaven, and were “once delivered unto the saints”. By “once delivered” Jude means that our religion is based upon “...the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Eph. 2:20). These men are our ‘founding fathers’: this is what we are contending for. If any man disagrees with the Scriptures of our fathers: “...yea, let God be true, but every man a liar...” (Rom. 3:4). The reason for this is because these men were inspired to write their holy books, it’s not really the work of men but the Holy Ghost in them. (see 2 Pet. 1:20-21; 2 Tim. 3:15-16)

(VERSE 4) “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.”

Just like Christ was foreordained to be the propitiation and champion of our faith, so were the “enemies of the cross” (Phil. 3:18) ordained to be adversaries aligned with Satan himself. Jude writes what these men were “ungodly” and predestined to “condemnation” or eternity in hell. But see what the adversaries to the faith do: they pervert or “turn” or change the purity of the Gospel of grace into lies and perverseness and vanity. This is how all cults and heresies begin. Then they deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Saint Peter related the same information in 2 Pet. 2:1. I can think of no better description of these sinners than those today who ‘pervert’ (see Jer. 23:36) and “corrupt” (see 2 Cor. 2:17) our precious, holy, tried & true, Holy King James Bible of our Protestant forefathers. (see Prov. 22:28, 23:10, 30:5-6) With about 230 modern English versions available on the market, the devil has been working overtime to flood (see Rev. 12:15) the truth of the AV 1611. These perverted scholars and their followers deny the Lord and his fundamentals in SCORES of New Testament passages. It truly a shame to see the truth changed into a lie (see Rom. 1:25) and hear these garbage versions preached from our Laodicean pulpits. But even before the King James Bible (1611) false prophets and seducers of the devil have always been working overtime to overthrow the faith of Christians and potential believers. Roman Catholics were the liars and persecutors of the faith during the Dark Ages (500 A.D. – 1500 A.D.) before the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Note: the NIV is based on the Vaticanus (‘B’) manuscript (the main Roman Catholic manuscript) and agrees with the Roman Catholic bibles: and it omits from the New Testament the word “Lord” 39 times, “Jesus” 87 times, and “Christ” 52 times.

(VERSE 5) “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.”

Jude now does what most wise teachers do, and that is: teach from history. If it’s one thing men learn from history, it’s that men don’t learn from history. In efforts to establish the truth Jude turns towards his nation’s Torah or the first five books of the Jewish Bible also known as the Pentateuch. He says it was the Lord who saved the people out of Egypt, not themselves. That’s evident from reading the Book of Exodus. But the ones whom he destroyed were mainly the generation of unbelievers in the Book of Numbers that spied out the land. Only Joshua and Caleb brought back a faith-filled report that they could overcome and take the Promised Land, the rest perished in the sins. The Book of Hebrews says, “...they could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Heb. 3:19)

(VERSE 6) “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.”

Apostle Peter relates the same information in 2 Pet. 2:4. These are the fallen angels that rebelled with Lucifer before the Creation. They’ll be judged by the church of Christ according to 1 Cor. 6:3.

(VERSE 7) “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

This verse of Scripture here is a powerful indictment against homosexuals or fagots. In the Genesis account, Sodom and Gomorrha were two wicked towns and their chief sinful practice was sex perversion, which is forbidden in Leviticus 18:22, 20:13. The “fornication” and “strange flesh” refers to the homosexual practice itself. Jude says the judgment against them was given as an example and a warning to those who would so dare to wickedly follow after there example. The penalty of such behavior is eternity in the lake of fire. These sodomites have now been there suffering for 4,000 years.

(VERSE 8) “Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.”

Here again the practice of sex perversion is mentioned this time Jude calls them “filthy dreamers” because their motivations and their delights have been defiled by their fallen nature and repeated sinful practices. Because they want to practice more and more sin they hate anyone who would get in their way whether it is God or man or government. And on top of that they use their mouth to slander the righteous, while attempting to justify the wicked. (see Prov. 17:15)

(VERSE 9) “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.”

Even though Michael and Satan are mentioned throughout Scripture, Jude gives us insight into an extra-Biblical account of one their confrontations. For some reason after Moses died Satan wanted his body. We know that Moses has given a secret burial by the Lord, that’s recorded in the last chapter of Deuteronomy. But why is the question? Some scholars believe God buried Moses so the Israelites wouldn’t worship his remains. Anyway Michael gives us a good example to not get into a discussion or argument with the enemy but simply rebuke him and walk away. After all Christ defeated Satan at the Cross, we don’t have to do it again, but we should remind him of the victory we’ve always achieved through Christ Jesus our Lord.

(VERSE 10) “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.”

These are the ignorant dumb dogs that bite the hand of those that feed them. They have no knowledge of holy or high things, only the rudiments of this world, therefore Jude calls them “brute beasts”. There mouths get them in trouble again with God, because a wide mouth worketh ruin. They fulfill their own sayings and “corrupt themselves”. The infamous Bible pervert Hort fulfilled this verse when he called the Textus Receptus ‘vile’.

(VERSE 11) “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.”

Jude continues historical lesson from the Torah and gives three bad or anti-examples. Cain of course slew his brother Abel in a jealous rage over a religious service or sacrifice. Balaam in the Book of Numbers was a hired false prophet to curse the nation of Israel. Thankfully God changed Balaam’s curse into a blessing. Korah or “Core” is mentioned too. The reason for the difference in spellings is because the transliteration from the Hebrew Old Testament comes out differently than the Greek New Testament. Korah lead a rebellion of 250 men against Moses and Aaron: God chose to wipe them all out!

(VERSE 12) “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots”

Jude likens these enemies and sinners as “spots” because the righteousness of saints is clean and white, any blemish is a picture of sin. Jude says their “without fear” that is the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom (see Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10). He says they are ‘clouds without water’ viz. they appear as something they can’t provide: they provide no cooling and quenching rain, they only block the “Sun of righteousness” (Mal. 4:2) with their presence. Jude says they are “carried about of winds” viz. they have no foundation, no fundamentals, no ground to stand on; they just go any way the world and wicked one leads them. Paul warned about these ‘winds’ in Ephesians 4:14. Then Jude says their fruit withers and is dead. You need only read Psalm 1 to see these are apostates because a true man of God will bear good fruit. See Christ’s parable about the good tree and corrupt tree (see Matthew 7:15-20).

(VERSE 13) “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever”

Jude also liken the wicked to the “raging waves”, Isaiah did the same in his writings (see Isaiah 57:20). The foam of their polluted waters is their own shame. These are lost stars, like the lost sinners in Los Angeles: Americans call ‘stars’, but little do they know the outer parts of the galaxy are their eternal destination. (see Matt. 8:12, 22:13)

(VERSE 14) “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints”

This verse is probably the biggest highlight in this short Book and it relates to the patriarch and prophet Enoch. Genesis tells us Enoch “walked with God” (Gen. 5:22, 24) and he prophetically named his son Methuselah. So obviously being of Christ’s genealogy and operating in the office of a prophet, he was a godly man; in fact he was the only man (besides Elijah) to be translated to heaven without dying (see Heb. 11:5). He knows so much about prophecy that he knew about Christ’s Second Coming, 4,000 years before his First Coming! This shows us how the church’s prophets have always anticipated Christ’s return and the ushering in of the Millennial Kingdom That fact that the Lord Jesus Christ returns to earth with His saints is written of in Zechariah 14:5 and 1 Thess. 3:13. This is no doubt the revelation of the King of kings and Lord of lords written of by John the Revelator in Revelation 19.

(VERSE 15) “To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

This verse presents the returning Jesus Christ as ‘Judge’ (see Acts 10:42, 17:31; II Thess. 1:7-9). And these “ungodly” sinners are ripe for judgment. They’ve spoken and committed ungodly deeds, and they’ve even had the audacity to open up their wicked mouths against heaven itself.

(VERSE 16) “These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.”

We know from the Pentateuch that murmuring and complaining angered the Lord when the children of Israel were in the wilderness. Jude also mentions that they walk after their own lusts viz. they are idolaters, they care nothing for the truth but what their own personal desires led them to. They are also flatters and have men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. Jude knocks those that flatter and idolize others for only personal gain. Papists praising their Pope comes to mind for an example.

(VERSE 17) “But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ”

Jude commends us to the New Testament writing of his fellow apostles’ viz. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, and Peter.

(VERSE 18) “How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.”

This is a last day’s prophecy given by Peter in 2 Pet. 3:3-4. There nothing more haughty and prideful than a man that will mock and ridicule the holy things of God. This is why Jesus said, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine...” (Matt. 7:6). If you do give holy things to dogs and swine they’ll only tear and trample them. All too often do movies in Hollywood blaspheme and belittle God and Christ, they fulfill prophecies written in the very Book they scoff at.

(VERSE 19) “These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.”

This separation isn’t Biblical separation as of believers from unbelievers, but what Jude is saying here is that the ungodly separate themselves from the true church of Christ and sound doctrinal teaching. Instead of being led by the Spirit they are led by the flesh, that why he calls them “sensual”.

(VERSE 20) “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost”

Contrary to the wicked the Christian is “beloved” and Jude commends us to a strong prayer life. He says the way to build up the faith is by praying. Charismatics will say “praying in the Holy Ghost” means praying in tongues, but that’s only partly true, it includes all spiritual prayers where the truth of Christ is forth most. See Romans 8:26.

(VERSE 21) “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

The way to keep yourself in the love of God is to mediate on Christ’s passion and sacrifice, to realize we are completely forgiven and made righteous. Prayer and regular Bible reading are keys too. The mercy Jude says we are to look to is the Second Advent. It’s the mercy on our bodies, souls, and lives we will receive at the Rapture; spiritually we’ve already received perfection through faith in Christ. We currently possess eternal life, but it will be fully unveiled to us at the Lord Jesus Christ’s Second Coming!

(VERSE 22) “And of some have compassion, making a difference”

Compassion is a key element to Christianity. It was because of compassion God sent His Son to die for our sins, and because of it He did make a difference. We are to follow the same example to the lost and hurting brethren.

(VERSE 23) “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”

Soul winners will save others but it is fear of God that keeps them safe from stealing souls from the devil and yielding them up to Christ. Jude says it’s like pulling the lost out the fire because without salvation they are doomed to hell. Jude says you can even get a little dirty doing the work of evangelist, but he commends to remember our robes have been made white in the blood of the Lamb. (see Rev. 7:14)

(VERSE 24) “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy”

Now as Jude begins his closing and famous doxology, he commends us a Calvinistic doctrine of preservation of saints. It is only because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ that we can come before God’s throne “faultless” or unblameable. (see 1 Thess. 3:13) Because we’ve been united to God through Christ we’ll have “exceeding joy” when we see Jesus face to face.

(VERSE 25) “To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”

He is indeed the only true God and there is no other. Modern bible versions have omitted the word “wise” here because they are based on corrupt manuscripts. But Jude reminds us that God is our Saviour because we didn’t save ourselves. He then writes that God holds the divine attributes of glory, majesty, dominion, and power: all fit for the King of kings and Lord of lords—for ever. Jude concludes with a hearty, “Amen”.