God’s Judgment on the Ungodly

Jude says he had intended to write about the shared salvation of believers, but the emergency created by hidden intruders forces a different kind of letter. He now urges the church to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The reason is clear: certain ungodly people have slipped in unnoticed, turning God's grace into a license for immorality and denying the only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. The paragraph establishes both the necessity and the object of Christian contention.

B³eloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints. ⁴For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed — ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jude reminds the church of three classic judgments: unbelieving Israelites destroyed after deliverance from Egypt, angels kept in chains for abandoning their proper domain, and Sodom and Gomorrah enduring the punishment of eternal fire. These examples show that privilege does not exempt rebels from judgment. He then applies the pattern to the present intruders, who defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander glorious beings. In contrast to Michael, who would not presume a slanderous accusation against the devil but appealed to the Lord's rebuke, these men blaspheme what they do not understand and destroy themselves through instinctive corruption. The paragraph links past judgments to present arrogance.

⁵Although you are fully aware of this, I want to remind you that after Jesus had delivered His people out of the land of Egypt, He destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling— these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day. ⁷In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire. ⁸Yet in the same way these dreamers defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander glorious beings. ⁹But even the archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, did not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰These men, however, slander what they do not understand, and like irrational animals, they will be destroyed by the things they do instinctively.

Jude pronounces woe upon the intruders and compares them to Cain's hatred, Balaam's greedy error, and Korah's rebellious destruction. He piles up images that expose their emptiness and danger: hidden reefs at love feasts, self-feeding shepherds, waterless clouds, uprooted fruitless trees, wild waves of shame, and wandering stars reserved for darkness. He then invokes Enoch's prophecy of the Lord's coming judgment upon the ungodly for all their deeds and words. The section closes by describing them as discontented grumblers who follow their own lusts, speak arrogantly, and flatter others for advantage. The paragraph brings Jude's denunciation to its rhetorical peak.

¹¹Woe to them! They have traveled the path of Cain; they have rushed for profit into the error of Balaam; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion. ¹²These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted. ¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. ¹⁴Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about them: ¹⁵to execute judgment on everyone, ¹⁶These men are discontented grumblers, following after their own lusts; their mouths spew arrogance; they flatter others for their own advantage.