All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…
2 Timothy 3:16
Jude
Jude as a chapter in the master story of the Bible. The letter of Jude contributes to the overall story of conflict between good and evil, truth and error, that is a unifying thread throughout the Bible, and it is a building block in the story of how God wants his followers to live.*
Greeting
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
Jude 1 There is a lot wrapped up in this simple greeting, the opening line of Jude’s epistle. Jude is the brother of James, by which he means James the apostle, the brother of Jesus (not James the disciple of Jesus, who was killed by Herod; Acts 12:2). So Jude himself is the brother of Jesus. But he doesn’t identify himself as such. He calls himself James’s brother but Jesus’ “servant.” The reason for Jude’s humility is obvious: this brother of Jude is the incarnate Son of God (John 3:16). He is the head and “the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent” (Col. 1:18). Jude says of the One who is not ashamed to call us his brothers (Heb. 2:11), “I am not worthy to call my brother my brother. I am his servant!” Yet, the one who is only worthy of being a “servant” addresses his readers as “beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ” (Jude 1). Thus, Jude grants believers his own family status. In doing so, he reminds us of the great gospel privilege of being children of God (1 John 3:1) even though we are deserving only of being his servants.**
2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Jude 2 Since the gospel is true, this is how we are invited to begin every day: with the multiplication of “mercy, peace, and love.” This is what is raining down on us every moment of the day by the grace of God. This is what is most deeply true of us.**
Judgment on False Teachers
3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jude 3–4 Jude urges believers to resist those who pervert the promises of grace into an excuse for sensuality (cf. Titus 2:11–12). He urges believers to contend for the faith once for all delivered to them. In 1 Timothy 1:8–11 we learn that sensual sins, passions of the flesh, are contrary to “sound doctrine” and “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” What we learn in this passage in Jude and others is that God’s grace does not lead us away from our Master and Lord (Jude 4). Grace liberates us not only by forgiving us but also by freeing us from bondage to sin by instilling loyalty to Christ in our hearts. Because he has given himself for us, we give ourselves to him. The gospel transforms our desires from the inside out. We are led into righteousness by discovering that our life and joy are most full as we serve the One we most love.**
5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Jude 5–7 Grace forgives disobedience but it does not produce disobedience, nor is it a free pass to disobey. Jude recalls God’s mighty deeds in history to remind his readers of coming judgment for the wicked. So where is the comfort? Jude gives it to us in verse 5. It is Jesus, who saved God’s people out of bondage in Egypt. He was the active agent rescuing his covenant people from bondage and preparing them to be the means by which the nations of the earth would be blessed. Christ alone saves. He did it in the days of the exodus, and he does it today, for any sinner who turns trustingly to him.**
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
Jude 14–16 The reality of coming judgment is sobering. Yet Christians can take comfort, for at least two reasons. First, all wrongs and injustices committed against God’s people will one day be avenged. God’s children will be vindicated. We do not need to seek vengeance now. God will settle all debts at his appointed time. Second, for those who trust in Christ, his cross has become our own final judgment. He was condemned so that we need not be.**
A Call to Persevere
17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
Doxology
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 24–25 Jude’s concluding doxology is stirring, connecting God’s infinite worth to our “great joy.” The affirmation of Christ’s ability to “keep [us] from stumbling” is an echo of verse 1, which assures us that we are being “kept for Jesus Christ.” There is an inextricable connection between God’s glory and our salvation. Were it not for God, we would be falling from grace every waking second. It is he who keeps us from stumbling; it is he who qualifies us as blameless. So Jude wants to ascribe to God all that he is due: glory (credit), majesty (beauty), dominion (jurisdiction), and authority (power). Thus, this closing doxology stands in stark contrast to the darkness Jude has spoken of throughout his letter. We see in the end the radiance of glory that stands in stark contrast to the depths of wickedness. Instead of dangerously hidden reefs (v. 12), we see in the doxology the visible rock of refuge, the rock higher than ourselves, the stone carved from the mountain that smashes kingdoms (Daniel 2), the strong tower and safe refuge, the rock upon which, if we are shipwrecked, it is for our good and security. Instead of self-centered shepherds, we see the Good Shepherd who cares for the sheep at all times, who feeds the sheep with his own flesh (John 10:11). We see the glory of God not in some thin, vaporous mist but in the pillar of cloud leading the sons of God through the wilderness. We see the commander of the winds, the sender and the stopper of them. Instead of fruitless trees, we see the true vine in whom there is life abundant—the vine who was once dead but who is now up-risen in glory and vindication (John 15:1). Instead of being swept along by the wild waves of the sea, we see the One who walks upon the waves and calms the storms (Mark 6:45–52). Instead of “wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever” (Jude 13), we see the bright morning star, the blazing sun of righteousness for whom the brightness of brightest glory has been reserved forever (Rev. 22:16). How great the light that casts the shadow! He has illumined our way, and has kept us from falling away, so he gets all the glory. This is indeed grounds for great joy, as we look to Christ. What shall we say then to this confrontation with God’s “glory, majesty, dominion, and authority”? Hallelujah! Praise Christ!**
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
*Taken from the ESV® Literary Study Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2007 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
**Taken from the ESV® Gospel Transformation Study Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2013 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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