Jude 1:4

Jude 1:4. For there are certain men; unknown, insignificant men, or otherwise not worth describing; but when their true character was seen, it was plain that they belonged to a class long before described in many an Old Testament passage; notably in the prophecy of Enoch (Jude 1:14), probably in the punishment of the Israelites (Jude 1:5), of the rebel angels (Jude 1:6), and in letters of fire on the plain of Sodom and Gomorrha (Jude 1:7).

Crept in is probably sufficient; unawares is even less accurate, suggesting that there may have been neglect upon the part of the Church, whereas it is the stealthy movement of those who have entered that is rebuked. They came in by a side door; not that they crept in from without, being really no members of the Church; but only that they came in as members, and yet had in fact, as was now clear, sentiments and habits foreign to those of a Christian community, and ought never, therefore, to have entered it at all. (See the same phrases in 2 Peter 2:1, and Galatians 2:4.)

before of old ordained is peculiarly unhappy. There is no predestination in the words, but only Scripture prophecy, or public information. The word is used in the New Testament four times (or five if we retain the common text in Romans 15:4), and is rendered twice ‘written before.' In Galatians 3:1 and here it probably means, from the custom of writing matters of general interest on tablets for public information.

have been evidently set forth, or written of as subject to this condemnation or judgment; ‘proscribed' or ‘designated,' other renderings, is too strong. Their character is further defined; they are ungodly men, with whom God's holiness is no ground of reverence, nor His law their guide, who, having broken loose from His authority, show their ungodliness in all they do, and especially in two forms; they pervert or turn the grace of God, the proffered gift of God in the free forgiveness of sin, with all its helps to holiness and blessedness, into lasciviousness; just as liberty is turned into licentiousness (Galatians 5:13); just as of old the removal, one after another, of the plagues with which Pharaoh was visited ended in renewed hardness of heart and in repeated sin. The more gracious God is, the more wanton they become.

and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. The word ‘God' goes out by preponderating authority. If it were retained, the description would imply that they denied both the Father and the Son. Even without ‘God' it is a possible meaning (the only Master and the Lord Jesus Christ), as it is a possible meaning in Titus 2:13; but the more accurate and the more natural meaning of the Greek refers both terms to Christ; and on comparing the passage with 2 Peter 2:1, where these men are said to ‘deny the Master that bought them,' the conclusion seems inevitable that both terms are to be applied to Christ, though everywhere in the New Testament, except here and in 2 Peter, the word ‘Master' is applied to God the Father. Christ is here called their one absolute Lord and Owner, not in contrast with the other persons in the Godhead, but with foreign lords who once had dominion over them. They are called godless, indeed, chiefly because they pervert the grace that is in Christ, and deny the claims of Him who first created and then redeemed them.