Lectures on Jude
William Kelly
Table of Contents
Lectures on Jude 16-19
“These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their lusts, and their mouth speaketh swelling things, admiring persons for the sake of profit. But ye, beloved, remember ye the words that were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they said to you, In [the] end of the time shall be mockers walking after their own lusts of ungodliness. These are they that make separations, natural (or, soulish), not having [the] Spirit” (vers. 16-19).
“These are murmurers.” Murmuring is a more serious sin than many think. It could not but be that among Christians there are many things that do not go according to what we like. Suppose it to be even a man of sound wisdom; but if people are not very well founded they are always apt to be disappointed at something. It is natural for people to begin to murmur. The Israelites were constantly at that kind of work.
Now, he says, “These are murmurers,” (vs. 16) and he adds, “complainers”—not content with their lot (the strict literal meaning of the word). They are persons who like to be something more and greater than they are, than God ever called them to be. They want to be somebody.
“These are murmurers, complainers” (vs. 16); and what is the cause of that? “Walking after their own lusts” (vs. 16). Lust is not to be supposed to be merely gross lusts. There are refined lusts—vanity, pride, ambition; what are all these but lusts? They are all lusts. The lusts of the devil. These are not the same kind of lusts as the lusts of the flesh. Satan was lifted up with pride, and we are warned against falling into the fault or “condemnation” of the devil. It appears that the things mentioned in this verse are very much the same thing—“their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage” (vs. 16). They are fond of having a party, particularly if they can number some rich among the party, “because of advantage” (vs. 16).
What I particularly draw your attention to is this. Enoch prophesied of these. I do not know anything more striking than that. There are the same persons now as in Enoch’s day. There can be no doubt that these people lived in the time of Enoch. But Jude carries us on to the coming of the Lord. The people who are on the earth when the Lord comes will be the same kind in their wickedness as in the days of Enoch and of Jude. Evil, you see, goes on. Evil retains its own terrible character—malignancy and rebellion against God, and all self-sufficiency, and all these terrible things that are so entirely opposed to Christ. Enoch prophesied of these and of the judgment coming on. them.
“But ye, beloved, remember ye”—to confirm this—“the words that were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you that there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts”.
Well, we have at least two of these apostles. Surely, that is quite enough. Very likely the other apostles taught the very same things by word of mouth. But we have it written down—this warning about these characters—by two besides Jude. One the apostle Paul; the other Peter, and in both his Epistles. In his First, that the time is coming when judgment must begin at the house of God, and judgment on just this kind of ungodliness that was then working up; but in the Second Epistle of Peter there is a deal more. And I think that Jude goes still further, and that his Epistle was written after 2 Peter and for this reason, that it is an advance of evil. Peter speaks of unrighteous men, Jude speaks of men that once seemed to have the truth, and through their bad life, bad ways, pride, vanity, or whatever it was, they lost it. That is quite a common thing. By common, I don’t mean that any very great numbers break off in this way, but that it is a sin that every now and then breaks out. Why, even since “Brethren” began there have been the most terrible cases of people giving up all the truth. The greatest infidel of modern days was one of the early “Brethren.” He was a very clever man, and gave up his fellowship at Baliol to go to the Eastern world, among Arabs and Persians and the like, with the gospel. He seemed to be devoted to the Lord. But even on his way out he betrayed that he was not a true believer at all. How! By doubting about the full proper deity of the Lord Jesus; and when he came back brethren inquired into it. There had been whispers of it before his return, but then he was out of the way, so that till his return it was not possible to deal with him fairly, or to examine him fully, not merely whispers. When he came back he was seen and written to, and his words were the words of an unbeliever, and he was therefore refused any place in our fellowship. After this he went among the dissenters, who welcomed him most heartily, and he preached in their chapels and was most acceptable among them, particularly as he ran down the “Brethren” pretty hot. At this time he still appeared to be pious in his outward ways and manner, and still read the Bible. But he gradually gave up everything and gave an account of it in a book which he wrote bearing a very anomalous title indeed, for it would appear that he really never had faith. He was a man who was very impressionable, and he easily took the color of those with whom he was. He valued and was charmed with the sound of the truth, and thought he had it, but I am afraid he never had. So he lived and so, I fear, he died. There have been others of no such prominence who have had a similar end. Not so marked, perhaps, but as sad. And this in some who had once been in fellowship, and seemed to be very honored persons for a time, before they were known. And it falls in with what we have here.
There were persons still among them; and it is not merely the teachers. Peter speaks about teachers, but Jude looks at them more widely; but they are evidently responsible even though they are not teachers. If others dishonor the Lord who are not teachers, they are responsible. There is this character in Jude: they are apostate from the truth, they have not gone out of fellowship yet. That is the very thing he says. There they are, although it is likely that no one but Jude who saw these persons could speak of them, and Peter saw them where he was. They appeared fair enough, just as there were many at the time when the person referred to was in fellowship. Many would not believe a word of it. They thought he was a very good man, and that it was a scandal to speak hardly about him. They never could see till the thing came thoroughly out. We are not all “eyes” in the body. We may have an important place. The hand or the foot can do a work that the eye cannot, and there are those who could see far before others, and it is important for people to make use of those who have proved their competence. Otherwise we are apt to get wrong.
It is an immense thing to say that we have not only teachers now and preachers to spread the truth in spite of their weakness and their liability to err; but we have also those that were kept from error, in what they have written, absolutely kept from error; and these are here brought before us as the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were men of like passions as we are ourselves, but the peculiarity in the case of those apostles and prophets is, that in the midst of their weakness they were preserved-it was not, it is true, like Christ, absolute perfection-but there was the perfect preservation from error in what they wrote. And it was all the more remarkable that it was in one generation only. It was not like the succession that there was in the old dispensation of God. There we have prophets raised up at all times, wherever they were needed; but there was this great peculiarity, in the church and in the Christian, that we have not merely words that were perfect for their purpose, and words that were given faithfully by God in the midst of all the errors of Israel, but now we have a perfect revelation in all respects, by men themselves imperfect, but nevertheless kept, and empowered by the Holy Ghost to say the truth without error whatever.
Now there are two things in the words of the apostles, and the first is, the mind of God for the glory of Christ; and that we have in all the books of the New Testament. But in the midst of these words, and more particularly in the latter time of giving these words, we have the most solemn warnings that are given in any part of the Bible. It was not at all that all these characters of evil came out so that the Christian could discern them, but they came out sufficiently for the apostles to discern them.
Now we have our lessons for practical guidance in the words of the apostles. They are the persons through whom we have received the full truth of God. There was not an error that ever crept into the church but is provided for here. There is not a good thing that God had to reveal but what is revealed here.
For we are not meant to be inventors, we are not meant to make discoveries, like the men of science. The reason why there are inventions in the arts, and discoveries in science, is, because all is imperfect. But perfection is what marks the word of God-not merely relative perfection, relative to the state of Israel at different times, but-absolute perfection. What brought in absolute perfection? Christ. There is the key to all that is blessed, to all that is most blessed. There is what explains what is most of all peculiar. It was according to Christ that all the truth should be brought out, unstinted, and perfectly providing for everything that might be through the ages that follow down to the present time. And this in order that we might never have to look outside scripture for the proof of any error, and also for the provision of anything good. All is in the word; this word that we have got. The Old Testament is full of value, but, nevertheless, it is only general. Our special instructions are in the New Testament, for we can easily understand that there was no such thing as a Christian in Old Testament times. They were believers, but not Christians. A Christian is a man who is not merely looking for the promises, but who has the promises-accomplished in Christ. Well, of course, the Old Testament saints had not got this, and the church was an absolutely new thing. It was not merely promises accomplished, but the mystery revealed: the mystery that was hid in God up to that time. There was no revelation of it in the Old Testament whatever. Now it is revealed, and it is given to us. And how? By these perfect writings of the New Testament, that left nothing to desire, nothing for faith to desire. Plenty for unbelief to add, still more for unbelief to depart from; but nothing for faith to desire. We have all here, and it is only for our faith to discern it, and to practice it.
Now for this reason all came out in one generation. John, the very last of all, was the one that saw the Lord from the beginning. He was, not only one of the apostles, but, on of the first two that ever followed the Lord Jesus and entered into living relationship with Him here below. And he was kept here, beyond others, in the wisdom of God. But we have another, also, of those who were eminently favored, and were conspicuously used. Although Jude wrote a short epistle, what a great deal there is in it.
Now turning to what we have already touched upon. “But ye, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; that they said to you, In [the] end of the time shall be mockers walking after their own lusts of ungodliness.” That there should be, not merely unrighteous men, or lawless men, but, one of the worst features of evil, “mockers.” Why, in the Old Testament, when it was only a question of children that could not resist giving way to their humor—I may call it very bad humor, and very bad manners—but still they mocked the old prophet, they mocked Elisha. And even he, the man of grace, was no doubt led of God to call forth the bears that tore them all.
Here we find that it is not little children in their folly (for we know that “foolishness is bound in the heart of a child” (Prov. 22:15)), but the case of men who claimed wisdom; and the way they sheaved it was by “mocking” “Mockers in the last times, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts” their own lusts of ungodly things. It is rather stronger. Their lust was after ungodliness. That is what characterized their lust. It is not a mere vague term; it is a very succinct term—“lusts of ungodlinesses” (vs. 18). Now this is an awful thing. And resulting from what? Well, I will not say it results from Christianity, from the truth. God forbid. But it resulted from the fact that they were there, and that their hearts got tired of it, and they became the enemies of it. There is nothing more blessed than a Christian man walking in simplicity. There is nothing more awful than a Christian man who casts off Christianity, and who becomes a mocker after the lusts of his own ungodlinesses. That is what is described here, and what the writer prepares us for. No one could have believed that in early days.
These mockers once looked fair. They once spoke fairly. They were received, they were baptized; they remembered the Lord Jesus, taking part in the assembly, no doubt. They may have been preachers, very likely; but here it was evident they were given up to their own lusts of ungodliness and they were mockers; accordingly, they therefore turned with the greatest spite and hatred upon that truth that once separated them from the world.—They were professedly believers, but it is evident they were in reality the emissaries of Satan. And the Epistles (some of the last in the Bible), as well as the apostles of our Lord, laid down this: that these mockers were to come in the last time. The last time was therefore to be a peculiarly evil time, and it is a very solemn thing that we are in that time most fully now. I do not say that it may not be lengthened—that is entirely a question of the will of God. The lengthening of evil may be just as much as the lengthening of tranquility. There is the tranquility for one, and it may end in greater departure than ever, or it may be the means of repentance, and extrication from these toils of the enemy.
But here at any rate he declares, “These are they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” It is important to understand this verse, for there are various kinds of separations mentioned in the New Testament. Sometimes, it is separation within; sometimes, it is separation without; sometimes, it takes the character of parties as yet joined with the rest in outward observances, but their spirit alienated. Those are the persons the apostle refers to in Romans 16: persons “which cause divisions and stumbling-blocks, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned” (ver. 17). That doctrine was that we should walk, not only outwardly together but, inwardly, with real love. It is true it may not always be approving of what each may do and say, but with earnest desire that things might go well, and that those even who are in any way caught by the enemy might be delivered.
Now, the persons in the sixteenth of Romans were not to be “put away,” but avoided; and the object of that avoiding was to make them feel and reflect upon what they were about. Suppose they were preachers or teachers, avoiding such would be not to invite them, or if they invited themselves, not to accept their offer. Of course you can understand that they would not like it, unless they were really broken in spirit. In that case all would terminate happily, but if they were bent on doing their own will they ought to be avoided as the apostle says, and if they do not like this avoiding, and grow bitter under it, the effect would he that they would make a division “without” if they could, instead of “within.” They would “go out” themselves, and try and leaf away others.
There are these kinds of spirits First, they have an alienated mind within, and self-seeking; and because that is blamed by all that have the good of the saints at heart, and the glory of the Lord before them, they resent it strongly, and, instead of breaking down and judging themselves, they become worse, and then it is not a division “within,” but “without,” that they make. The former is called a schism, the latter a heresy. For I particularly press that on everyone here who may not have observed it-that “heresy” in scripture does not mean bad doctrine at all. There may be bad doctrine, of course, along with it; but this is rather heterodoxy-strange doctrine. There are proper terms for all forms of evil: falsehood, deceit, blasphemy, and the like. But heresy means the selfwill that does not care for the fellowship of the assembly in the least, and is so bent on its own object that it goes outside. That is what is called heresy. Now that is what the apostle means in 1 Corinthians 11 He says, “There are divisions (or, schisms) among you. For there must be also heresies (or, sects) among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (vers. 18, 19).
But there is no “must be” in reference to heterodoxy. People might remain, and like to remain, with their heterodoxy, but heresy does not mean bad doctrine, although this might go along with it. But it means that people might get too hot in their zeal, and, being reproved for their party spirit, they refuse to stand it any longer, and they get away. They break loose from fellowship and form some new thing that has not the sanction of the word of God. That is, in Scripture, what is called heresy. The doctrine might be sound enough in a general way. There might be no blasphemies, or heterodoxy, strictly speaking, but there is the heart entirely wrong and seeking its own things instead of those of Jesus Christ.
So in the verse before us, “These be they who separate themselves,” (vs. 19) it means those that separate themselves “within” not “without,” at all. This is very evident from the early part of this Epistle: “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 4). Certain men crept in. They are the same people that Jude is talking about all through. Unawares, they had “crept in,” not “gone out.” Now that is what gives the true force of the words—“those that separate themselves.” We can easily understand it if we bear in mind the Pharisees. The Pharisees never separated themselves from Israel, but the very name of a Pharisee means “a separatist.” They were separatists within Israel. These were separatists within the church and ‘n both cases it was not going out, but it was making a party of pride and self-righteousness within. And who are they? Ungodly men; these were the men that were proud of themselves; those men who had these wicked lusts. They were the persons who assumed to be pre-eminently faithful; and, I believe, you will generally find that it is so, that, when persons are given up to delusion, they always have a very high opinion of themselves. No matter how violent they may be, no matter how evil in their spirit, they claim to be more particularly faithful, and they have no measure in their denunciation of every one that stands in their way. That is exactly the class here described.
“These be they who separate themselves” (vs. 19). And what sort of men were they? “Sensual.” That word “sensual” is important to understand. Every man has got a soul, converted, or not. Now when we believe, we receive a nature that we never had before; we receive life in Christ. These men here described had nothing but their natural soul. They had not received life in Christ. They were merely “natural” men. “Sensual,” in our language, is very often taken to mean people that are abandoned to immoral ways. These people may have been so, but that is not the meaning of the word. The meaning of the word is that they were just simply “natural” men. It is the same word that is translated “natural man” in 1 Corinthians 2:14, contrasted with the “spiritual man.” So he adds here, “not having the Spirit” (vs. 19).
Now, having not the Spirit is to want the great privilege of a Christian. This is the great difference between a believer now resting on redemption, from an Old Testament believer. They were waiting for the Spirit in the days of the Messiah. Although the Messiah is rejected, the Holy Ghost has been poured down on us, but not on those that are still waiting for the Messiah. The Jews are still waiting and have not the Spirit. These men although they had taken their place in the church, had not the Spirit. They were natural men. We are therefore given this further development of the terrible evil that had come in even then, although the great mass of the saints, you may be sure, very little understood it, very little perceived it, and therefore it was of the greatest moment that the apostles should, that there should he inspired men, or, at any rate, inspired instruction upon that which otherwise people would not have been in the least prepared for, and would have counted it a very fierce and terrible picture without any good ground for it-that it was making the worst of everything instead of the best. But the Spirit of God does give it just as it is. [W. K.] (To be continued)
Lectures on Jude 20-21
Well, now we come to a very comforting word. “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in [the] Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in [the] love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto life eternal” (vers. 20, 21).
So then we are not to be cast down, we are not to be disheartened even by these terrible pictures of evil. They are revealed in order that we should not be deceived, that we might really know what the actual state of Christianity is before the eye of God, instead of yielding to false expectations and wrong and imperfect judgments of our own. But even in the face of all that, there is this call to these beloved saints to build up themselves on their most holy faith. This is very carefully worded. There is nothing at all said in this epistle about leaders, or guides, or rulers, or preachers, or teachers either. In a general way, as far as there were any, they have a very bad character, not of course that all that preached or taught were so, but that there were many of that class that were so especially. The saints are exhorted themselves directly. They are not to give up their privileges, or to imagine, that because it is a day of such abounding evil, they are not to be very happy. They are comforted with this; that the blessing is perfectly open to them, and they are called to more faith than ever. There is no time when faith shines brighter than in the dark day, and there is no time when love is more evidently discerned than when there are not many to love, not many that do love—where there is the reign of selfishness and indifference, and people care for other objects, and put them before that which is imperishable.
“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith” (vs. 20). This is the only place in all the New Testament where faith is called “our most holy faith” (vs. 20). It might have been thought that when things are so evidently wrong we must not be too stringent, that we must not be too exacting, that we must not look for such care as on the day of Pentecost. Why, so far from that being so, we require more care. And instead of its merely being called the holy faith, or precious faith, now Jude calls it, “your most holy faith” (vs. 20). The saints, in short, are encouraged to cleave to the truth in all its purity, in all its divine character, in all its sanctifying power. We cannot think too much of “the faith” of God’s elect. I am not speaking now of faith looked at in the saint, but of “the faith” looked at in itself. It is the thing that we believe, that is the meaning of it here. It is not crying up individuals, but what these individuals receive from God. That is what he calls it—“the faith.” There is a great difference between faith and “the faith.” Here it is “the faith.” Faith is a quality of you, and me, and every believer. But that is not the sense in which it is looked at here, which is, “the faith once delivered to the saints,” (vs. 3) as he says in this very epistle.
Well, there you look at it. When it came, you may say, It came down from God out of heaven, revealed through the apostles—Christ Himself of course in particular. There, was “the faith”: what we are called to believe, that which separated us to God from everything here below. Well, here we have the same faith, only, it is not said, “once for all delivered to the saints,” although that remains true. Here it is called “most holy.” What! has it not got tainted? Has it not got lowered now? Woe be to those that do! “The faith” is just the same faith now as on the day of Pentecost, the same faith that Peter preached, and also Paul, and all others of the apostles. And we have got Peter and Paul, i.e. we have got their words. We have got the most careful words they ever spoke. We have got the words that they were inspired to write from God. We do not therefore merely listen, as some of the early fathers talk about a man that saw the apostle and heard the apostle; and it appears that the man that did so was a poor foolish old man. Very likely. Well, and what have you got by a poor foolish old man between you and the apostle? Little or nothing. But Peter and Paul and Jude were not foolish, and whatever they may have been in themselves, there was the mighty power of the Holy Ghost that gave them the truth of God absolutely intact; and here it is His word now, and we come into personal contact with it by faith. We that believe receive that “most holy faith,” (vs. 20) and what is more, we are called upon to act upon it now.
And what are we to do with it? It is not only that we impart it to others, we “build up ourselves on our most holy faith” (vs. 20). Nothing, therefore, can give a more delightful picture of the resources of grace for as bad a time as can well be conceived—as that which we have here. “Ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith” (vs. 20); it is not on a little bit of the faith, not on the faith that was given to you through the intervention of a poor foolish old man. No, here it is, fresh from God—kept fresh and holy, unmixed with anything that could lower it.
“Praying in the Holy Ghost” (vs. 20). What can be better than that? There were men that spoke with tongues in the Holy Ghost. Do you think that is half so good as “praying in the Holy Ghost” (vs. 20)? Why, the apostle Paul says, that the men that spoke with tongues in the Holy Ghost were to hold their tongue, unless there were an interpreter there present so as to give what they spoke in a tongue, and make it intelligible to others. It was a real power of the Spirit of God, but it must not be exercised unless there were an interpreter. But think of the apostle silencing a man praying in the Holy Ghost! No, the very reverse. There is a great deal of prayer that is not in the Holy Ghost. And we are not at all called upon only to pray in the Holy Ghost. Happy is he who does, and happy are they that hear prayer in the Holy Spirit. And where there is prayer in the Holy Spirit it is all thoroughly acceptable to God, every word is so. Every word of such prayer expresses perfectly what God means at that time. But there are prayers that begin in the Spirit and do not end in the Spirit. Prayers that are often rather mixed, and that is true even with real believers; and sometimes we pray foolishly, sometimes we pray unintelligently! That is never in the Holy Ghost.
And, what is more, we are encouraged to pray at all times, even supposing we say what is foolish. Very well, it is better to say it, than to be silent. Much better. Because prayer is the going forth of the heart to God, and it may be like the words of a prattling child to its father or mother. It is all right that the child should prattle, far better than that the child should be dumb. But the best of all is when it is really prayer in the Spirit of God; yet that is a thing rather to desire than to presume that we have attained to. We have to be very careful indeed that we do not give ourselves credit for more activity in the Holy Ghost than we really possess. This supposes entire dependence, and no thought of self, and no opposition to this or to that. These are things that, alas! may be, and they all weaken and hinder “praying in the Holy Ghost” (vs. 20). But here you see the very same grace that encouraged the saints even in the darkest day, “to build up themselves on their most holy faith,” instead of having the notion:—Oh! it is hopeless to look for that now; when Peter or Paul was there we might have the most holy faith, but how could it be guaranteed now? Well, there it is in this precious word. And those that cleave to this precious word will find it out, and if their heart is full of it, their mouth will abundantly speak of it; and there is no ground to be discouraged, but the very contrary.
So, in this twentieth verse, we have two of the most important things possible—the one is, the standard of truth not in the least degree lowered, but maintained in all its highest and holiest character, even in that dark day; and, the second-the most spiritual action that could be in any believer here below, viz., “praying in the Holy Ghost” (vs. 20). Why, this is even more than preaching or teaching, because the heart is sure to be in the prayer. A man that can speak well and knows the truth—this may often be a snare. There is a danger in such a case to say the truth, and speak it out, and earnestly too, without there being the present power of the Spirit of God. But to pray in the Holy Ghost is another thing altogether. This cannot be without the immediate action of the Spirit in this most blessed way.
“Keep yourselves in the love of God” (vs. 21). Here, he is looking at the practical result of these two things. “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (vs. 21). Now, could we keep ourselves in anything better? Was there ever anything higher than the keeping ourselves in the love of God? Love is of God, and we are to keep ourselves in that, instead of being provoked by the evil things around us, instead of yielding because of others yielding. This necessarily supposes great confidence in God and delight in what God’s own nature is—the activity of His nature. Light is the moral character of God’s nature; love is the active character of God’s nature. Light does not allow any impurity; love goes out to bless others. We are called to keep ourselves, not merely in the light of God—we are there, we are brought there as Christians—but, in the love of God. We are not meant to have that doubted. We are to keep ourselves fresh and simple and confident in His love.
And he further adds, “Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (vs. 21). I think that mercy is brought in especially here because of the great need, because of the distress, because of the weakness, because of everything that tended to cast people down. No, he says, do not be downcast, look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is it only by the way? No, it is all along the way, to the very end “unto life eternal,” (John 12:25) the great consummation. This could not he unless they already had life eternal in Christ now; but this mercy of God, “of our Lord Jesus Christ unto life eternal,” looks at the full heavenly consummation.. [W. K.]
Lectures on Jude 22-23
Now we come to a passage which I feel to be unusually difficult to expound; and the reason is this. The original authorities and the best authorities are all in confusion about it. That is a thing that is very rarely the case in the New Testament. It is the case here. All the great authorities are at sixes and sevens in the report that they give of these two verses (22, 23). And, to show you how great that is, our Version—the Authorized, so-called—looks at two cases only, “And of some have compassion, making a difference” (vs. 22)—that is one class; “and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (vs. 23)—this is the second class.
Now I believe there are three classes and not two only. That will show how uncertain it is. Although, as I have said, I am very far from presuming to give more than my judgment as far as the Lord enables me to form one, I am open certainly to anything that might be shown to the contrary, but as yet no one has shown it. No one at all. I think those that know best about it are those that have spoken most cautiously as to it. Many who trust themselves are apt to speak more confidently.
First of all he says, “And some convict when contending”. That is the idea “when they dispute” (Judg. 8:1); not, “making a difference” (vs. 22), as of the man that shows compassion. The fact is compassion belongs to another class, not to this one at all, as far as I am able to judge, which depends upon looking at all the authorities and using one to correct another. That is what it comes to in this particular case, which is a very exceptional thing in the great original authorities; but God has been pleased in this particular case not to hinder their difference.
Some, then, “convict when they dispute.” I think that is the meaning of it. “Making a difference,” as in the Authorized, should rather be “when they dispute” (Judg. 8:1). It is the people that are being convicted that of course make the dispute, instead of the person that shows compassion making a difference among them. It is quite a different idea. The first class is given (in my belief) very wrongly indeed, in this twenty-second verse.
Well, then, the next is, instead of “convicting” people so as to leave them without any excuse for their disputatious spirit, another class is looked at—“others save, pulling them out of [the] fire” (vs. 23); then, a third class, “and others pity with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (ver. 23).
These then are the three classes: a disputatious class, to be convicted and silenced—then, those that are to he saved, snatched out of the fire—and, others to be compassionated with fear, hating the garment spotted by the flesh. So that this all tends to complete the picture of the danger to souls. There is the all-importance of grace in the midst of it, but the truth maintained in all its power. And, you observe, it is for the same persons who are building up themselves on their most holy faith to do this. It is work that is thrown on the responsibility of those that were thoroughly happy and walking with God. These are the persons that would be able to silence the disputatious if they would be silenced by any one. But even apostles could not always do that. The apostle John speaks of the “malicious words” (3 John 10) of Diotrephes. These words were directed against himself, and even an apostle could not hinder that. The apostle Paul complained of “evil workers” that pretended to he quite as much apostles, (if not more 9 as himself. He refers to them in very trenchant terms in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. He could not hinder that. And when there was the great meeting in Jerusalem, where all the apostles were present, there was a deal of disputation and discussion there. It was only after it burst out in a noisy meeting at first, that Peter, as well as Barnabas and Paul, gave their testimony, and then James summed up the decision of the assembly.
I only mention if to show that a like state of things existed at that time as now. We often look on the apostles as the painters represent the Lord. If you look at the pictures of the Lord Jesus, He is generally represented as going about with a halo of glory about His head. Well, if that were true, one might expect all the multitude to be down on their knees looking up to the man with this golden halo around him. But that is just what imagination does. It puts a halo around the Lord, and it puts a halo around the apostles; so that people do not realize at all the terrible evils that had to be faced. And that was the portion too of those that were serving God even in the best of times. How much more may we expect it now! As the Psalmist said, time was when the work of the sanctuary was regarded as a good thing for a man to have put his hand to: all that fine carved work, all that grandeur of gold that gleamed in the sanctuary; but now it came to that pass, that a man was prized because he brake it all to pieces.
Well that is what we have in the increasing lawlessness of Christendom, but let us not be downcast. Let us remember that the prize is coming; that the Lord puts especial honor on those that are faithful to Him in an evil day. The Lord grant us that great privilege.. [W. K.]
Lectures on Jude 24-25
In Enoch’s prophecy, we may observe once more, that it is not exactly “the Lord cometh,” (vs. 14) but, “Behold, the Lord came” (Acts 12:7). That is quite usual in the prophets, and that is the reason why they are called “seers.” What they described they saw as in a prophetic vision. John saw all the various objects which he describes in the Revelation. He saw the heaven opened and the Lord coming out, and the throne set. But it does not mean that all this was accomplished then. He saw it all before it took place. So did Enoch. He saw the Lord come-he presented it in that way. In Isaiah 53 we see the same thing. “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth” (Isa. 53:7). It does not mean that there was any doubt about its being all future; but that he saw it before his eyes, the eyes opened by the Holy Spirit. It is the same thing here. He is seen at the close of the age coming with ten thousands of His saints to take judgment, to inflict judgment on these apostates, and the Spirit of God here intimates that the same family likeness of departure from God has been going on since the days of Enoch, and that is, that it was not only in Jude’s day but it was to go on in the future till the Lord comes. It was all one in character hatred of God. And you see how entirely that falls in with what I have been saying, that man always departs from God. It is not only that he is rebellious, not only that he behaves himself badly, not only that he violates this and that, but turns his back upon God altogether and His truth. That is apostasy, and the spirit of it is already come. It will come out thoroughly, and then the Lord will come in judgment. But now the hope! What is that? Well, it is implied in what we saw. “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his saints.” The question is, How did they come with Him? If the Lord comes with His saints, He must have come before to fetch them to Himself, and that is just what He will do. But that is a thing entirely outside the prophetic introduction of the Lord’s coming. The Lord’s coming for His saints is not a matter of prophecy at all. It is a matter of love and hope; we may say of faith, love and hope. They are all in full play in that wonderful prospect that grace has opened out before our eyes. Therefore it is that the Lord does not introduce that, except in a very general way, in any of the Gospels so much as in John. “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself” (John 14:2, 3).
There is nothing about prophecy in that. It is future, but its being future does not make it prophecy. It is an abuse of terms to think that prophecy is essentially bound up with judging a wrong state of things and replacing it with a better. But in this case, as in John 14, the Lord, when He comes to put us in the Father’s house, does not judge a wrong state of things. It is consummating His love to the dearest objects of His love, not merely on earth but for heaven, and it is in that way that the Lord speaks. It is the same thing in the Revelation. After He has done with all the prophetic part, He presents Himself as “the bright and the morning star.” And when the church has that before her, we find a new thing, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come” (Rev. 22:17). That is not prophecy; that is the church’s hope, and it is strictly the church’s hope. Because when you say, “The Spirit and the bride,” (Rev. 22:17) it is not merely an individual, it is the whole-personifiedof the saints that compose the bride. “The Spirit and the bride!” (Rev. 22:17). What a wonderful thing that the Spirit should put Himself at the head of it! “The Spirit and the bride say, Come” (Rev. 22:17). It might have been thought, Oh! that is only a sanguine hope that the bride has got. But, no; you cannot talk about anything sanguine in the mind of the Holy Spirit. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come” (Rev. 22:17). Hence you see that the great object of the Lord, in that close of the Revelation, was to show that you must not mix up the hope of the Lord’s coming to receive us to Himself with the accomplishment of prophecy. The hope is entirely apart from any prophetic events. It is not in the seals, it is not in the trumpets, still less is it in the vials. It is after all these things have closed that the Spirit of God, in the conclusory observations, there gives what the Lord had given, when Himself on earth, to His disciples, The Spirit of God takes up there what was suited to the then condition of the church. The church then knew that she was “the bride” of Christ. That had been clearly shown in more than one chapter of the Revelation. In chapter 19 the marriage of the Lamb had come, and the bride had made herself ready That could not be the earthly bride. How could the earthly bride celebrate a marriage in heaven? And how could the heavenly bride celebrate it there unless saints composing it had been taken there before? That is just what I am about to come to.
Well then, this coming of the Lord, which is “our hope” is exactly what Jude takes up here in the closing verses.
“But to him that is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you with exultation blameless before his glory; to an only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord**, [be] glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time, and now, and unto all the ages. Amen” (vers. 24, 25).
“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling.” How appropriate when thus presenting the dangers, the evils, the horrible iniquity of apostasy from all Christian grace and truth that might have the effect of greatly dispiriting a feeble soul! No one ought even to be dispirited; not one. “Now unto him that is able to keep” (vs. 24) that clearly refers to every step of the way, and there is power in Him to keep. It is we who fail in dependence. Never does He fail in power to preserve. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless” (vs. 24). Where? “Before the presence of his glory.” Where is that? Is not that the very glory into which the Lord has now gone? And does not He say, “That where I am there ye may be also” (John 14:3)? Here we find that the hope of the Christian and the hope of the church is entirely untouched by all the ruin that had come in. Spiritual power remained intact. And not only that: this glorious blessed hope remains for our consolation and our joy in the darkest day.
“Now unto him that is able to keep you without stumbling and to set you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” There we have what falls in, not with Peter but with Jude. Jude, of course, entirely agrees with Peter, and confirms Peter as to the judgment that is to fall on those that were not only unrighteous but apostate. But then Jude does not forget that there are those that are true, that there are those that are faithful, that there are those that are waiting for Christ, that there are those that are even more appreciative of the blessing because of the unbelief of man. Therefore it is that He brings in this present power that entirely depends on the Holy Spirit’s presence to keep us; and, further, the blessed hope depending upon Christ’s coming to receive us to Himself, “and to present us faultless.” That will only be because we are glorified; that will only be because we are like Himself. He was the only one intrinsically faultless, and He is the one who, by redemption, and then also by the accomplishment for the body-for redemption is only as far as the soul is concerned now, but when He comes it will be for the body as well-will present us faultless both in soul and body “before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (vs. 24).
(To be continued)
Lectures on Jude 24-25
In the body of the epistle we have already had the coming of the Lord in judgment, that is to say, bound up with the awful departure from the truth which was to be found in the Christian profession. This is what many souls are very unwilling to face. It is natural for man to think that everything must he progressive-the truth as well as all else. No one ever drew that from the Bible, and every part of the Bible from the first book till the last, shows us man set in a place by God, and abandoning it for Satan. And there is the same story here. No doubt it is unspeakably terrible to find that what bears the name of Christ should turn out worst of all. I need not say the guilt of that is entirely man’s, and that the secret source of that evil is still Satan, as Satan is always behind the scenes in his antagonism, not only to God, but more particularly to the Lord Jesus. He is the One that Satan hates and hates most of all, because He became Man to glorify God where man had failed, and as Man to glorify God even about sin. Therefore, there is, what we might call, a natural antagonism in the devil, being what he is, against the One who is to crush him at last. He well knows that, and there will come a time when, as he knows, he will have but a short time. That time has not yet come, but it is coming, and coming fast.
So Jude introduces the coming of the Lord in a very remarkable manner—not by a new prophecy, but by the recovery to us of one of the first prophecies that ever were uttered, and, certainly, the first prophecy that took the shape, the ordinary shape, that gave its character to all others that follow. For nothing could be more in the prophetic character than these words: “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam (to distinguish him from the Enoch who was the son of Cain) prophesied of these, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodlily committed, and of (what people think little of) their hard words which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” “Words” are the common expression of man’s iniquity, because he cannot do all that he would like to do, but there is nothing that he cannot “say.” Consequently it is said, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt. 12:37). This character of evil, so far from being a light thing, is one that is presented with the utmost gravity, and that by Enoch before the flood: and it is nowhere else preserved. Here, thousands of years afterward, Jude was enabled to disclose this to us-by what means we do not know. The Holy Ghost was perfectly capable without using any means. Whether there were any, we know not, but we know that there it is, and that this is the certain truth, not only of God, but through Enoch before he went to heaven.
But there is another connection with Enoch that we have now to look into, in the verses that close the epistle. That is, that we may regard a latent connection with the blessed manner in which Enoch was taken out of the scene altogether. Now, this fell to Jude and not to Peter. I have already compared the very great marks of distinction between Peter’s treatment of these very cases and Jude’s. Peter’s view is purely as a question of unrighteousness, and he looks also at the teachers as being the most guilty parties in that unrighteousness-generally done for gain, or fame, or for some earthly motive of the kind that is not of God. Jude looks at it in a still deeper light; for he does not make so much of the teachers. The awful thing to Jude was, that the church, that the body of the saints, who ought to he the light of God-the heavenly light of God in a world of darkness-that they were to become the seat of the worst evil of Satan; and this through letting in (no doubt, by carelessness, by lack of looking to God) these corrupters. That is his point of view. Not so much unrighteousness as apostasy. There is nothing so terrible as apostasy. In the case of unrighteousness it might be merely that of men going on with their badness. But apostasy always supposes that people have come out of their badness professionally, that they have received the truth professedly, that they have professedly received grace from God in Christ the Lord, and have turned their back upon it all. There is nothing so bad as that. So that you see, if there were not the gospel, and if there had not been the church, there could not have been so bad an apostasy as that which Jude contemplates here from first to last.
We have, first of all then, as I have already shown, the tracing of that apostasy as it presented itself to Jude by the Holy Ghost. And he takes his great figures of it from Israel, which after it was saved became the enemy of God, and fell under judgment. Peter does not say a word about that; he looks at merely wicked men, consequently he is more occupied with the evil that brought on the deluge. Jude does not say a word about the deluge, because there was no question of a people being saved. There was a family-a few individuals-but there was not a people. Jude looks at the church, and compares the church getting wrong and losing everything after, apparently, having gained everything: according to the picture of Israel, that it was saved out of Egypt, and nevertheless, that it all came to nothing.
We see how beautifully the figures employed, and the illustrations used, are all perfectly in keeping with the great differences between the two epistles of Peter and Jude. And I mention it again, as I have already done, as a proof of the blindness of men in our day, in what they call “higher criticism.” They will have it that the one epistle is only a copy of the other. Why, they are perfectly contrasted the one with the other. There are some points, of course, that must be common-the wickedness of man, the grace of God, the truth of God. All that must be common to the two epistles.
But the character of the truth in the one case is simply, men corrupting righteousness into unrighteousness—that is Peter. In Jude it is men, that were blessed by the revelation of grace, turning it to licentiousness, those who had not merely the authority of God, but the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter does not say a word about that. It is God’s authority. Even the Lord is there looked at as Master—a Sovereign Master—not in the attitude of “our Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 4). Jude adds that. So Noah is the great figure in Peter; whereas Enoch, and not Noah, is the figure before us in Jude.
Now, I ask, how could the wit of man ever have done that? Even when people have read the two epistles, many Christians have not noticed these differences, yet there they are. What learned men see is, the apparent resemblances between the two. But that is an altogether unintelligent way of reading anything. Because, even if you look at all the men of the world, well, they all agree in being men, but just think how foolish a person must be who could sec no difference between one man and another because they are all men! That is just the way these learned men talk. They see no difference between Peter and Jude, the one copied the other. Whereas the striking thing is that, although they both go over the same ground they look at it in different ways-both full of instruction, yet such instruction as only the Holy Ghost could give.
Oh! how solemn when we read this last epistle, which bears upon the apostasy of Christianity, or rather of Christendom, of those that were introduced to the richest blessings of God’s grace and truth in Christ, yet turning to be the bitterest enemies of it (not only abandoning it, but) treating it with contempt and disdain, and with hatred to the last degree.
That is exactly what we have in the middle of the epistle. We saw the characters that it takes, particularly Cain, Balaam, and Core-the beginning, middle and end, I might say. The unnatural brother that hated, not a mere man only, but his own brother, and slew him. The bitterest enemies of the faithful are always those who profess to be faithful and are not. There is no bitterness so deep as an unworthy bearer of the name of Christ. Well, that is Cain. Not a word of that in Peter. That belongs to Jude and is here.
Then Balaam figures in Peter because he is a false prophet that figures the false teachers, which are more the thing in Peter, but not in Jude; for here it is the saints, the body of the saved ones-at any rate in profession. That is what alarmed and shocked him. And he puts it forth for us, that we might now understand it, that we should not be too much perplexed by any of these terrible things that might break out at any time in our midst. There never was a more foolish idea, perhaps, entertained by some of us, that whoever might go wrong this could not happen amongst those called brethren. Oh! foolish brethren! to flatter themselves in such a way as that. Why you, we, for I take my place along with you in it altogether—we are the persons most liable to have the highest flown expressions and pretension to the greatest piety, while there may be an enormously evil thing going on. How are we to judge of such things? By the word of God. And you will always find that those that are carrying on in that way slip from the word. They do not want the word. They want something new, something that will go on with the times, something that will make the brethren more popular, something that will get bigger congregations, and all these things that are flattering to human vanity; and the consequence is they are naturally afraid of the word. No wonder. No one ever quarreled with the word of God, if the word of God did not condemn them. Every person who loves the word owes to it all his entrance into blessing-he derives all from that precious word, and that precious word reveals Christ. Consequently we should not he occupied about pleasing others and about their work, but with Christ. And we want all God’s children also to be occupied with Christ as the only ground of any solid and sure peace. [W. K.] (To be continued)
Lectures on Jude 25
“To the only [wise] God” (vs. 4). The word wise has crept in here. In all correct texts that word “wise” disappears in this place. It is perfectly right in Romans 16:27. And I just refer to that to show its appropriateness there: “To God, only wise” (Rom. 16:27). I presume that that is the passage that led the ignorant monk, or whoever he was that was copying Jude, to (as he thought) correct it. But we cannot correct. All these human corrections are innovations, and our point is to get back to what God wrote and to what God gave. Everything except what God gave is an innovation, but God’s word is the standard, and all that departs from, or does without it, is an innovation.
Now, in this chapter in Romans, what made the word “wise” appropriate and necessary there, is this-that he refers to the mystery. He does not bring out the mystery in Romans; but after completing the great subject of the righteousness of God, first, in its personal application as well as in itself, secondly, comparing it with the dispensations of God, and, thirdly, in its practical shape -personal, dispensational, and practical-he here adds a little word at the close, “Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery.” The revelation of the mystery-he had not brought this in. But he maintains that this gospel of his was according to it. It was not the revelation of it; but it did not clash with it. There was no contrariety, but that revelation of the mystery was left for other epistles, Ephesians and Colossians more particularly. Corinthians also in a measure, but chiefly Ephesians and Colossians.
Further he says, “which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by prophetic writings” (or, scriptures-namely, those of the New Testament. I understand that what is called here “scriptures of the prophets” (Rom. 16:26) are the prophetic writings of the New Testament, of which Paul contributed so much) “according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all the nations”-that shows it is not the Old Testament prophets referred to here at all-“for the obedience of faith; to God only wise be glory” (Rom. 16:26-27). That is to say, this concealment of the mystery and now bringing it out in due time-not in Romans, but in what would be found to agree with Romans and confirm Romans when the mystery was communicated to the saints in the epistles that had to be written afterward-all this showed “God only wise.” It is in connection, you see, with this keeping back for so many ages, and now for the first time bringing out this hidden truth, the hidden mystery, as he calls it, to our glory, which is involved in Christ’s exaltation at the right hand of God, and in His leaving the world for the time entirely alone, whilst meanwhile forming the disciples according to the truth of His being in heaven.
In Timothy, however, we have exactly a similar expression to what we have here. “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Tim. 1:17). There is the word “wise” brought in again in our Authorized Version. There is no reason for it there. So that there is the same error brought in in Timothy as there is in Jude, and both of them brought from what we already have in Romans 16, where it ought to be. There, again, we find what a dangerous thing it is for man to meddle with the word of God. The apostle is here looking at God Himself, not at what He particularly does. The wisdom of His revelation-that is Romans. But here it is, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Tim. 1:17). There might be all these pretenders, these gods many and lords many that Paul knew very well among the Gentiles, and Timothy also, and particularly ct this very Ephesus where Timothy seems to have been at this very time. That is where the famous temple (one of the wonders of the world) was, what is called the temple of Diana. Artemis is the proper word. Diana was a Roman goddess. Artemis was a Grecian goddess quite of a different nature, although there were kindred lies about the two.
Here, therefore, in Timothy the apostle presented with great propriety and beauty “the only God.” Bringing in the “wise” God introduces quite another idea that does not fall in with the context, it does not agree with it properly. It is just the same thing that we find in Jude. So that the comparison, I think, of the three scriptures will help to show that “the only wise God” (vs. 25) belongs to Romans; that “the only God”-who is presented in contrast with idols and imaginary beings-brings in the force of the “only” true God to Timothy.
In Jude we have it for a slightly different reason, but equally appropriate. He is looking at all this terrible scene and at the greatness of the grace of God towards His beloved ones carried through such an awful sea of iniquity and apostasy. But if our eye be fixed on Christ, my dear brethren, it does not matter where we are or when we are, smooth or rough. Some would make a great deal of the large waves, and I have no doubt that Peter was frightened at the big waves on which he found himself walking, and when he looked at the waves down he went. But if there had been no big waves, all as smooth as glass, and Peter had looked down on the glassy sea, down he would have gone all the same. It is not, therefore, at all a question of the particular circumstances-the fact is, there is no power to keep us, except a divine one, and it is all grace; and the grace that supports on a smooth sea is equally able to preserve on a rough one. `Whatever, therefore, may be the special characters of evil and of danger at the present time, all turns upon this: What is Christ to my soul? And if I believe in His grace and in His truth then what does not my soul find in Christ?
“Now, unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy” (vs. 24). For the grace on His part is just the same as if there had been no departure, no apostasy, no wickedness, no unrighteousness of any kind. He wrought His marvelous work of grace for us when we were nothing but sinners. He brought us to Himself when we were no better-unmoved, perhaps, by that wonderful work when we first read and heard about it. But when the moment came for us to believe on Him, how it changed all! And surely the times that have passed over us have only endeared the Lord more to us. I hope there is not a soul in this room but what loves the Lord a deal better to-day than the day on which he, or she, was first converted. It is one of those notions of Christendom that our love is always much better and stronger on the day we were first converted. Never was there greater mistake. There was a feeling of mercy, no doubt; a deep sense of pardoning grace, but, beloved friends, do we not love the Lord for incomparably more than what we knew when converted? Surely that love has grown with a better knowledge of His love, and of His truth. And here we find that His grace is exactly the same, that the grace that brought Him from heaven, the grace of Him who lived here below, that died here below, and is now gone back into glory, is without change; and that that exceeding joy or exultation will be unquenched in the smallest degree when the blessed moment comes. “He will set us blameless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy.” It is not very much to find where the exceeding joy is. I am persuaded it is both in Him and in us. Perhaps we may be allowed -to say, “which thing is true in Him and in you” (1 John 2:8). That was said about another thing altogether-the love that He put into our hearts when we knew His redemption; for until we know redemption there is not much love in a believer. He may have a good bit of affection for the people that he is intimate with, but he is very narrow at first, and till he knows the love of Christ his affections do not at all go out to all the saints. Here • then we find, at any rate, this glowing picture of that bright hope, when it will surely be accomplished.
Now, he adds, “To the only God” (vs. 4). For who could have met all this confusion? Who could have conceived and counseled all this grace and truth? Who could have kept such as we are through all, remembering our total weakness, our great exposure, the hatred of the enemy, the contempt of adversaries, of all that are drawn away, all the enticement to go wrong, all the animosities created worst of all by any measure of faithfulness? Yet He does keep through it all. “The only God our Savior.”
Not only Christ our Savior. Christ is the accomplisher of it all, but here he looks at God as the source, and it is no derogation from Christ. It was the delight of Christ on earth to present God as a Savior God, and not merely that He Himself was that personal Savior, the Son of man. So here the apostle desires that we should ever honor God our Savior, as indeed we find it rather a common expression in those very epistles to Timothy.
“To the only God our Savior.” All other dependence is vain, all other boast is worthless. We are intended to rejoice, or, rather, more strictly to “boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the reconciliation.”
“To [the] only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might and authority, before all time, and now and ever (or, to all the ages).” It is a very interesting thing to note here the propriety with which Jude closes the epistle. He says, “be glory, majesty, might and authority, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen.” He looks at the full extent of eternity. It is much more precise than what we have in our Authorized Version; and is here given according to the reading of the best authorities, and rightly adopted by the Revisers.
Peter also closes his Second Epistle in what is said to be the same. But there is this distinction, that whilst Peter speaks of “glory both now and unto eternity’s day” (3:18), Jude brings out what was, and is, and is to be, in all its full eternal character in the remarkable completeness of his closing ascription.
W. K.