John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 4. For there are certain men crept in unawares , etc.] These words contain a reason why the doctrine of faith should be contended for, because of false teachers, who are described as being then upon the spot; the Apostles Peter and Paul had foretold that they would come, but Jude here speaks of them as in being; wherefore present rigour and vigilance were necessary to be used: their names are not mentioned, nor their number, only that there were certain, or some men; which is done to stir up the saints to self-examination, whether they were in the faith; to diligence, in finding out these men; to vigour, in opposing them; and to care, to nip error and heresy in the bud: and they are said to have crept in unawares: either into private houses, as was the custom of those men; or into the churches, and become members of them being the tares the enemy sows among the wheat; or into the ministry, assuming that office to themselves, without being called and sent of God; and so into the public assemblies of the saints, spreading their poisonous doctrines among them; and also into their affections, until discovered; and so the Ethiopic version reads here, because ungodly men have entered into your hearts; and all this was at an unawares, privily, secretly, without any thought about them, or suspicion of them: who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ; or judgment; meaning either judicial blindness of heart, they were given up to, in embracing and spreading errors and heresies; so that these are not casual things, but fall under the ordination and decree of God, which does not make God the author of them, nor excuse the men that hold them; and they are ordained and ordered for many valuable ends; on the part of God, to show his power and wisdom; and on the part of truth, that it might be tried and appear the brighter, and to manifest his people and their graces: or else punishment is designed, even everlasting condemnation, to which some are preordained of God; for this act of preordination respects persons, and not mere actions and events; and is not a naked prescience, but a real decree, and which is sure, certain, and irrevocable; is God's act, and springs from his sovereignty, is agreeably to his justice and holiness; nor is it contrary to his goodness, and is for his glory: the date of this act is of old; or as the Syriac version renders it, ayrw Nm , from the beginning; that is, from eternity; (see 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Proverbs 8:22); for reprobation is of the same date with election; if the one is from eternity, the other must be so too, since there cannot be one without the other: if some were chosen before the foundation of the world, others must be left or passed by as early; and if some were appointed unto salvation from the beginning, others must be foreordained to condemnation from the beginning also; for these words cannot be understood of any prophecy of old, in which it was forewritten, or prophesied of these men, that they should be condemned for their ungodliness; not in ( Matthew 24:1-51), in which no such persons are described as here, nor any mention made of their punishment or condemnation; nor in ( 2 Peter 2:1-3); for then the apostle would never have said that they were of old, a long while ago, before written, or prophesied of, since according to the common calculation, that epistle of Peter's, and this of Jude's, were written in the same year; nor in the prophecy of Enoch, ( Jude 1:14); for Enoch's prophecy was not written, as we know of; and therefore these men could not be said to be before written in it; besides, that prophecy is spoken of as something distinct from these persons being before written, to condemnation; and after all, was a prophecy referred to, the sense would be the same, since such a prophecy concerning them must be founded upon an antecedent ordination and appointment of God; the word here used does not intend their being forewritten in any book of the Scriptures, but in the book of God's eternal purposes and decrees; and the justice of such a preordination appears by the following characters of them, ungodly men : all men are by nature ungodly, some are notoriously so, and false teachers are generally such; here it signifies such who are destitute of the fear of God, and of all internal devotion, and powerful godliness; and who did not worship God externally, according to his institutions and appointments, and much less sincerely, and in a spiritual manner; and who even separated themselves from the true worshippers of God, and gave themselves up to sensuality, and therefore their condemnation was just: turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness ; not the love and favour of God, as in his own heart, or as shed abroad in the hearts of others; for that can never, be turned to such a purpose, it always working in a contrary way; nor the principle of grace wrought in the soul, which being of a spiritual nature, lusteth against the flesh, and cannot be turned into it; more likely the goodness of God in his providential dispensations, which is despised by some, and abused by others; but rather the doctrine of grace, which though lasciviousness is not in its nature, nor has it any natural tendency to it, yet wicked men turn or transfer it from its original nature, design, and use, to a foreign one: and they may be said to turn it into lasciviousness, either by asserting it to be a licentious doctrine, when it is not; or by treating it in a wanton and ludicrous manner, scoffing at it, and lampooning it; or by making the doctrine of grace universal, extending it equally alike to all mankind, and thereby harden and encourage men in sin. And denying the only Lord God ; God the Father, who is the only sovereign Lord, both in providence and grace; and the only God, not to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit, but in opposition to nominal and fictitious deities, or Heathen gods; and he was denied by these men, if not in words, yet in works: the word God is left out in the Alexandrian copy, and in the Vulgate Latin version. And our Lord Jesus Christ ; as his deity, or sonship, or humanity, or that he was the Messiah, or the alone Saviour, or his sacrifice, satisfaction, and righteousness; with respect to either of which he may be said to be denied doctrinally, as he is also practically, when men do not walk worthy of their profession of him; and both might be true of these men, and therefore their condemnation was righteous. The copulative and is omitted in the Syriac version, which seems to make this clause explanative of the former.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-4 - Christians are called out of the world, from the evil spirit and tempe of it; called above the world, to higher and better things, to heaven things unseen and eternal; called from sin to Christ, from vanity to seriousness, from uncleanness to holiness; and this according to the Divine purpose and grace. If sanctified and glorified, all the honou and glory must be ascribed to God, and to him alone. As it is God wh begins the work of grace in the souls of men, so it is he who carrie it on, and perfects it. Let us not trust in ourselves, nor in our stoc of grace already received, but in him, and in him alone. The mercy of God is the spring and fountain of all the good we have or hope for mercy, not only to the miserable, but to the guilty. Next to mercy i peace, which we have from the sense of having obtained mercy. From peace springs love; Christ's love to us, our love to him, and ou brotherly love to one another. The apostle prays, not that Christian may be content with a little; but that their souls and societies may be full of these things. None are shut out from gospel offers an invitations, but those who obstinately and wickedly shut themselve out. But the application is to all believers, and only to such. It is to the weak as well as to the strong. Those who have received the doctrine of this common salvation, must contend for it, earnestly, no furiously. Lying for the truth is bad; scolding for it is not better Those who have received the truth must contend for it, as the apostle did; by suffering with patience and courage for it, not by makin others suffer if they will not embrace every notion we call faith, or important. We ought to contend earnestly for the faith, in oppositio to those who would corrupt or deprave it; who creep in unawares; wh glide in like serpents. And those are the worst of the ungodly, wh take encouragement to sin boldly, because the grace of God ha abounded, and still abounds so wonderfully, and who are hardened by the extent and fulness of gospel grace, the design of which is to delive men from sin, and bring them unto God.
Greek Textus Receptus
παρεισεδυσαν 3921 5656 V-AAI-3P γαρ 1063 CONJ τινες 5100 X-NPM ανθρωποι 444 N-NPM οι 3588 T-NPM παλαι 3819 ADV προγεγραμμενοι 4270 5772 V-RPP-NPM εις 1519 PREP τουτο 5124 D-ASN το 3588 T-ASN κριμα 2917 N-ASN ασεβεις 765 A-NPM την 3588 T-ASF του 3588 T-GSM θεου 2316 N-GSM ημων 2257 P-1GP χαριν 5485 N-ASF μετατιθεντες 3346 5723 V-PAP-NPM εις 1519 PREP ασελγειαν 766 N-ASF και 2532 CONJ τον 3588 T-ASM μονον 3441 A-ASM δεσποτην 1203 N-ASM θεον 2316 N-ASM και 2532 CONJ κυριον 2962 N-ASM ημων 2257 P-1GP ιησουν 2424 N-ASM χριστον 5547 N-ASM αρνουμενοι 720 5740 V-PNP-NPM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
4. With the whole verse compare 2 Pet. ii. 1.Crept in unawares (pareisedusan). Rev., privily. See on 2 Pet. ii. 1. The verb means to get in by the side (para), to slip in by a side-door. Only here in New Testament.
Ordained (progegrammenoi). The meaning is in dispute. The word occurs four times in New Testament. In two of these instances pro has clearly the temporal sense before (Rom. xv. 4; Eph. iii. 3). In Gal. iii. 1, it is taken by some in the sense of openly, publicly (see note there). It seems better, on the whole, to take it here in the temporal sense, and to render written of beforehand, i.e., in prophecy as referred to in vv. 14, 15. So the American Rev.
Lasciviousness. See on 1 Pet. iv. 3.
Lord God. God is omitted in the best texts. On Lord (despothn), see on 2 Peter ii. 1.
