Jude 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.
These false teachers speak evil of anything they are ignorant of, Jude explains. They speak from the deep well of their great ignorance, as the saying goes. We are all guilty of this on occasion, and it is a very dangerous pastime to cultivate.
Jude 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
This verse in Jude seems to be a direct reference to a pseudepigraphical book, the Testament of Moses, or the Assumption of Moses. Found only in fragmentary form, the writer appears to have recorded the story of what is here being described. Mind you, this is not a tacit or direct endorsement of extra-biblical or non-canonical works; read such material with a grain of salt since we know the Holy Spirit did not include them in the canon of Scripture for a reason, whatever that may be.
Jude 8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.
In verses 5 through 7, Jude stirs up reminders for the congregation he’s writing to, warning them not only of the false teachers in their midst, but of the consequences of those who rebelled in former times and suffered the consequences for it. Now, in verse 8, Jude reaches something of a summary of the prior three verses.
Jude 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
In verse 7 Jude offers the third and final example from Scripture to liken to the false teachers infiltrating the church. Interestingly, this verse is closely linked to the previous, and Jude uses the inordinate behavior of the Sodomites to further detail the conduct of the angels in Noah’s time in order to clarify his present point.
Jude 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
Jude continues with his reminders in verse 6. The first reminder he brought up was disobedient Israel in the days of Moses. He begins verse 6 with the conjunction, “and.” Conjunctions connect one thought with another, and so, like unfaithful Israel, we find ourselves considering the unfaithful angels. Not all of them, mind you, because we know Satan’s kingdom persists for the time being, Matthew 12:26, Ephesians 2:2.
Jude 5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Jude elicits a contrast between the false teachers that have crept into the church, and the Jews who perished after being taken out of Egypt. This verse actually has some very interesting things to say about the salvation of God, who it applies to and how it is applied.
Jude 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.
Jude’s indictment of these men begins with this verse. He says that certain men have crept into the church unnoticed. The image Jude is attempting to portray is one of stealth and secrecy. They did not come boldly, but slipped in like the wedding guest in the parable Jesus told, who was found without a proper garment, Matthew 22:11-13. In fact, this passage in Matthew corresponds quite well with the content Jude is addressing.
Jude 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.
The introduction to verse 3 is prefaced by beloved, as mentioned earlier. Those that are beloved share with Jude a common salvation, and with that common salvation they share with him all things. “Now all who believed were together, and had in all things in common,” Acts 2:44. This togetherness is more than spatial. It was a shared realization of purpose and peace, administered through the Holy Spirit, by virtue of the blood of Jesus Christ, who washed away our sins by the sacrifice of Himself.
Jude 2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Jude continues in verse 2 with an opening benediction, desiring that mercy, peace and love be multiplied to his readership, whom he addresses intimately at the beginning of verse 3 with, “Beloved.” We are told that believers are, “accepted in the Beloved,” Ephesians 1:6. The first and greatest beloved in the Father’s eyes is His Son, with whom He is well pleased. When we are in Christ through faith in His gospel, we are in the Beloved, and therefore by virtue of adoption into God’s household we, too, are beloved. We are beloved for the Son’s sake.
