Here we have observable, the person saluting, the persons saluted, and the salutation itself. Observe, 1. The person saluting described three ways. 1. By his name, JUDE, called Thaddeus and Lebbens, to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. Behold, an holy apostle, and. perfidious traitor, bearing t... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. courteous and loving compellation, BELOVED; people should study to render themselves fit objects of their pastor's love. Observe, 2. How his love towards them put upon writing to them with all diligence: love must be the spring and fountain of all our ministerial performances; all... [ Continue Reading ]
Here we have. reason of the foregoing exhortation assigned, why we should contend so earnestly for the Christian faith once delivered by Christ to his apostles, because there were crept, by little and little, such seducers into the church, as would endeavour to adulterate and corrupt it: THERE ARE C... [ Continue Reading ]
In this, and the following verses, our apostle, to deter them from following the pernicious ways of these seducers, sets before them the several examples of God's judgments inflicted in former times upon persons guilty of such crimes as these seducers were stigmatized for, and guilty of; he begins w... [ Continue Reading ]
The next example set before them, is that of the apostate angels, who for their rebellion against God were thrown down from heaven, and are reserved as so many prisoners in chains of darkness, to the judgment of the great day, when their condition will be more miserable than now it is. Now, if God d... [ Continue Reading ]
Another example of God's severity against sin and sinners, is Sodom and Gomorrah, Adma and Zeboim, who having themselves up to the lusts of uncleanness, were in an extraordinary manner destroyed by fire from heaven, which was. forerunner of that eternal fire of hell, which they are to suffer to all... [ Continue Reading ]
As if our apostle had said, "Notwithstanding these fore-mentioned examples of God's vengeance upon the unclean Sodomites, and others, yet these heretical seducers, whom he calls dreamers, because they vented their own dreams and phantasies, instead of God's truth, did defile themselves with their fi... [ Continue Reading ]
Our apostle in the preceding verse having charged seducers with contemptuous speaking against governors and government, in this verse he aggravates the impudence and impiety of it, by the carriage of Michael the archangel towards the devil. The argument is taken from the greater to the less, and li... [ Continue Reading ]
A double crime is here charged upon these seducers by our apostle, namely, pride, in speaking evil of things they know not; and wickedness, in abusing the knowledge they had. 1. Their sin was great in speaking evil of what they did not know, (they reviled dignities and magistrates, the usefulness o... [ Continue Reading ]
Our apostle goes on charging these seducers with several crimes; particularly with the malice and envy of Cain, with the sordid covetousness of Balaam, with the sedition and gainsaying of Core: they hate their brethren, and so are murderers like Cain; they have adulterated the truth for base gain, a... [ Continue Reading ]
Our apostle having set forth these seducers in the foregoing verses by sundry examples, he now comes to set them forth by several similitudes and resemblances. 1. He calls them spots in their love-feasts, (the infamy of their lives being. blemish and scandal to their Christian assemblies,) feeding... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle having described the sin of the seducers in the former verses, declares the certainty of their destruction in the verses now before us; assuring us that Enoch of old, by the spirit of prophecy, did foretell the sins of such persons, and their condemnation also at the general judgment upo... [ Continue Reading ]
Our apostle having asserted in the former verse, that Christ will at the great day convince and judge all the ungodly; in this verse he declares that these seducers were of the number of the ungodly, whom Christ will certainly judge, because they were MURMURERS, COMPLAINERS, discontented with, and a... [ Continue Reading ]
Having largely described those seducers, our apostle now comes to exhort those to whom he wrote to BEWARE of them, assuring them that the apostles of Christ, St. Paul, and particularly St. Peter, had expressly foretold of those wicked scoffers that would arise in the church in the last times; which... [ Continue Reading ]
Our aostle having, in the former part of this chapter, warned the Christians of the danger of seducers, he closes his epistle with directions and advice how they may be preserved from seduction, and what means they should use for their perseverance and establishment in the doctrine of Christ. First... [ Continue Reading ]
In these words our apostle directs them how to carry and behave themselves toward those who were seduced, in order to their recovery, namely, after. different manner. 1. He advises to Christian lenity and gentleness, to compassion and tenderness towards some: OF SOME HAVE COMPASSION. Learn thence,... [ Continue Reading ]
By this the apostle means every thing that doth defile, though in the least degree; he forbids all affinity and nearness to the errors and vices of these sinners, implying that some sinners are so filthy and unclean, that there is no keeping company with them without defilement; and intimating that... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. How our apostle shuts up his exhortation with prayer; having exhorted them to duty, he commends them to the divine grace, intimating, that the fruit of all must be expected from God, without whose blessing all exhortations and endeavours will nothing avail. Observe, 2. The person w... [ Continue Reading ]
Our apostle shuts up his epistle (as is usual) with. doxology; where observe, 1. The person to whom the praise is given, to God, the wise God, the only wise God, so called because he is infinitely and transcendantly wise; all the wisdom of the wisest of men is nothing in opposition to his wisdom, no... [ Continue Reading ]