 |  |
JUDE
A | 1, 2.
Benediction.
B | 3.
Exhortation. Beloved. Earnestly contend for faith.
C |
4. Ungodly men `of old'.
D
| 5. Remembrance. The Lord's acts.
E | 5-16. Judgment. |
a | 5-8. Three examples: Israel, angels and Sodom.
b | 9, 10. Michael the archangel.
Unrecorded elsewhere.
Reference to Satan.
a | 11-13. Three examples: Cain, Balaam and Korah.
b | 14-16. The Lord and holy myriads.
Unrecorded elsewhere.
Allusion to Satan.
D | 17. Remembrance. The Lord's words.
C | 18, 19. Ungodly of `last time'.
B | 20-23. Exhortation. Beloved. Build up on faith.
A | 24, 25. Doxology.
It will be seen that Jude's testimony is directed to one point, viz., the judgment of the
Lord upon ungodliness. Yet he ranges the whole of Scripture, and, by bringing forward
the angels that sinned and Michael's rebuke of Satan, penetrates into depths beyond our
experience. It is also evident that to lift Jude 14 and 15 out of its context and generalize
thereupon, will not help us to understand truth.
Enoch's prophecy is connected with a sin in which not only men but Satan and
fallen angels are involved. There is no reticence on Jude's part to indicate something of
its evil character. The sin of the angels is likened to that of Sodom and Gomorrah, and
those who follow in their evil train are likened to brute beasts that corrupt themselves,
being called `spots in the feasts of love'. Of both angels and men it is written that they
have been `reserved' in darkness for judgment (verses 6 and 13).
Ungodliness. We have long seen that the word `ungodliness' and `godliness' by
reason of their antithesis in the epistles, and in the expression `the mystery of godliness',
must have a far deeper meaning than `piety' or the lack of this virtue. This depth of
meaning is evident in Jude's epistle where the three words asebeia, asebeo and asebes
are found six times.
"Ungodly men, who turned the grace of God into lasciviousness" (verse 4).
"To convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have
ungodly committed, by ungodly sinners" (15).
"Mockers . . . . . who . . . . . should walk after their ungodly lusts" (18).
The sin of angels, Sodom and Satan, together with the sin that shall be judged at the
coming of the Lord, is denominated ungodliness. Peter confirms this, for in his second
epistle he speaks of the angels that sinned in the time of Noah, and of Sodom, Gomorrah,
and Balaam, and speaks of the Flood coming upon the world of the ungodly. Sodom and