The Acts of the Apostle Mar-Enoch (Book of Sermons 1)
The Sacred Scriptures are the written word of God who is the author of the Old and New Testaments containing nothing but perfect truth in faith and morals. We receive the one and other with equal veneration. The canon of the Ethiopic Bible differs both in the Old and New Testament from that of any other churches. As a whole, books written in the Geez language and on parchment are numerous.
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The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has 46 books of the Old Testament and 35 books of the New Testament that will bring the total of canonized books of the Bible to I and II Samuel I and II Kings Ezra and Nehemia Ezra 2nd and Ezra Sutuel Metsihafe Tibeb the books of wisdom The Song of Songs Book of Joshua the son of Sirac The Book of Josephas the Son of Bengorion. Sirate Tsion the book of order Tizaz the book of Herald The I book of Dominos The II book of Dominos The book of Clement It includes the book of Enoch, Baruch, and the third and fourth Esdras. In the international Bible studies there are certain books belonging to the class usually designated pseudepigraphic.
The whole Christendom and whole-learned world owes a debt of gratitude to the church of Ethiopia for the preservation of those documents. Among these books is the book of Enoch which throws so much light on Jewish thought on various points during the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era. The book of Jubilee Kufale, i. Division otherwise known as the Little Genesis has also been preserved entire only in the Ethiopic version.
The preservation of yet one more book in its entity, namely, the Ascension of Isaiah, is to be remembered to the credit of the Ethiopic Church. But books, which should be considered for higher education and could be prepared carefully in order to suit modern thinking, are the following. Cyril and many other writers. Books on Church administration and on counseling.
Hymn books, mostly by St. Biography and works of St. Mary and many other apocryphal books are to be found. There are very many grammatical books written by different people and found at different places in the world. The above noted are but a very few examples from among the different books numbered by the thousands that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church has. In the past, at present and even in the future either in the church or at the schools what the church uses for educational services was and will not be outside of these books.
In the past, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church had not much opportunity to expand and propagate the above, noted doctrine and orders of the church inside and outside the nation; this is because of the different circumstances prevailing in the surroundings of the country. Because of the advent of European Colonialism upon its neighboring African countries and the great monetary support that other religious groups received to convert Africans. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church had no other choice but to defend on and preserve all here Christian legacy.
Why kept for Him? How much this suggests as to His coming manifested glory and the part believers will take in it? Notice that the faith delivered to the saints was delivered "once" - once for all. The word "faith" here is to be taken in the sense of that body of Christian doctrine which forms the sum and substance of the truth concerning "our common salvation. It is used synonymously with the word "Gospel. It is a sacred deposit not only to be preserved in its integrity, but to be defended and earnestly contended for. The necessity for this defense is seen in the substance of Jude 1: The word "foreshadowed" in that verse speaks of being "forewritten," i.
Our Lord had spoken of them, and so had all His apostles. The nature and outcome of their teaching as suggested by that word "lasciviousness" are particularly noticeable. The third division of the Epistle deals in detail with the subject of these false teachers Jude 1: We have first, a revelation of their condemnation or punishment vv. Do not fail to observe the special class of sins prominent in these instances, especially the two last named, and their relationship to that word "lasciviousness" already spoken of.
While the erroneous teachings of these false teachers were intellectual, of course, yet their power was terribly augmented by association with carnality of the grossest kind. The description of these false teachers is followed by a declaration of the punishment coming upon them Jude 1: Observe in verse 8 that they not only defile the flesh but speak evil of dignitaries, by which may be meant both civil and ecclesiastical superiors.
And in this connection there is a strange illustration used in verse 9, that throws a good deal of light on the mystery of the death and burial of Moses as recorded in Deuteronomy. And shall we say with some, that Moses in the flesh is to be one of the two witnesses named in Revelation 11, and did Satan seek thus to frustrate GOD's purposes concerning the last days?
And then the contention of Michael, how that brings to mind the teaching in Daniel concerning his particular relationship as the prince that stands for Israel. What a bearing all this has on the teachings of the New Testament about the dominions, and principalities and powers of the air Ephesians 6. It may be asked, Where did Jude obtain this information about the conflict between Michael and Satan?
- ?
- under the oversight of?
- Horse Island?
Of course, the answer is very simple, that he obtained it by inspiration of GOD; but is it not remarkable that it is spoken of nowhere else in the Scriptures? He refers to it as though it were a matter of tradition among the Jews, and a reference to it is found in their books; but the tradition must have had a source, and we can hardly believe an inspired writer would thus employ it if that source were not divine. How strange it would seem that such persons could have any standing in the Christian church were it not that we discover their successors among us at the present day!
These "love feasts" were the Christian gatherings on the first day of the week for the "breaking of bread," and the presence of such would be leaders and teachers in those assemblies suggested the perils of the hidden rocks to the mariners on the broad seas. What exceeding care and circumspection were required to avoid disastrous contact with them.
It is characteristic always of the heretical teacher that he is thinking of himself rather than the flock. And here is a quotation from Enoch in verse 14, on which we might say a word. Where are these words of Enoch found? There is an apocryphal book in which they are found, but its author probably quoted from our Epistle. Doubtless their real source should be spoken of in the same way as that of the reference to Michael and the body of Moses already mentioned.
How deeply interesting to learn that Enoch, away back there before the deluge, had his mind carried out in the Spirit to the day of the second coming of CHRIST! And how perfectly his words agree with those of all the later prophets down to the very last, concerning the details and the purposes of that momentous event! Every reader of this Epistle must have had his attention arrested by the fact that this whole passage, indeed from verse 3 to verse 13, is very similar to one found in II Peter 2: Does it not look as though one of these inspired writers saw and used the text of the other?
And would this destroy the feature of inspiration in either case? Certainly not, any more than it would destroy the same in the case of Moses, to learn that he had obtained his data for the book of Genesis from tradition or earlier written sources. Inspiration is as truly needed, and may be as truly exercised in the selection and use of such material as in that which is original in the most absolute sense.
Some who have carefully examined the two passages have reached the conclusion that Jude is the earlier writer of the two and that Peter is the copyist. And yet Peter is using the words with a somewhat different object from that of Jude, and is changing and abridging them a little to suit that object. Let the two passages be read side by side and these distinctions will scarcely need to be pointed out. The detailed reference to the false teachers or ungodly leaders in the church closes with verse 16, and gives way to the fourth general division of the Epistle, which contains a description of the true church or true believers in sharp contrast with the false Jude 1: That word "sensual" means "natural" or "animal.
Are these contradictory teachings? The exhortation is followed by instruction, and instruction especially concerning soul-winning Jude 1: The Greek text here, especially in Jude 1: The benediction and ascription follow, concluding the Epistle in language as well known to, and appreciated by the whole church as any in the New Testament. Apostates are described elsewhere in 2 Thess.
He wrote to condemn the apostates and to urge believers to contend for the faith. He called for discernment on the part of the church and a rigorous defense of biblical truth. He followed the earlier examples of: Jude also vividly described the apostates in terms of their character and unconscionable activities Jude 1: Additionally, he borrowed from nature to illustrate the futility of their teaching Jude 1: While Jude never commented on the specific content of their false teaching, it was enough to demonstrate that their degenerate personal lives and fruitless ministries betrayed their attempts to teach error as though it were truth.
This emphasis on character repeats the constant theme regarding false teachers—their personal corruption. While their teaching is clever, subtle, deceptive, enticing, and delivered in myriads of forms, the common way to recognize them is to look behind their false spiritual fronts and see their wicked lives 2 Pet. Desires of Jude Jude 1: Declaration of War Against Apostates Jude 1: Damnable Outcome of Apostates Jude 1: Denunciation of Apostates Jude 1: Defenses Against Apostates Jude 1: Doxology of Jude Jude 1: Like James, Jude was not an apostle, but just an ordinary disciple.
James, his brother, had been martyred a few years before Jude wrote this letter. He laid himself out to write a great treatise on verse 3 , Salvation, but abandoned it under the constraint of the Holy Spirit, to write a half-page letter giving a history of Apostasy, from the very beginning, and to warn his readers of that peril.
The words "keep" and "kept" are mentioned five times, and form a helpful study. The Lord's People are Kept Ones. Kept by God from sin for the Lord Jesus. We Must Keep Ourselves in the full constant assurance that God loves us He is Able to Keep Us, not merely from "falling," but as R. It is Offered to All Classes. So salvation is for all. Most of these are older commentaries like Matthew Henry, etc. To go to the next verse simply click "Jude 1: The great business of the saints is to defend, if necessary with their lives, the faith once delivered to them.
We are put in trust with the gospel. We are trustees of a divine deposit of invaluable truth, and we must be true to our trust at all costs. If sin could drag an angel from the skies, it may well pluck a minister from the pulpit, a deacon from the communion table, or a church member out of the midst of his brothers and sisters. Perseverance in holiness is the sign of eternal salvation. If we forsake the Lord and turn back to our former evil ways, it will be the evidence that we never really believed in Christ and that there was no true work of grace in our hearts.
But how will Jesus make us faultless? He will wash us from our sins in His own blood, until we are as white and lovely as God's purest angel! We shall be clothed in His perfect righteousness, which makes the saint who wears it truly faultless, perfect in the sight of God. Also, the work of the Holy Spirit within us will be altogether complete. He will make us so perfectly holy, that we shall have no lingering tendency to sin.
We shall be as holy as God is holy, and we shall dwell in His presence forever! Watch constantly against those things which are thought to be no temptations. Cleopatra was poisoned by an asp that was brought to her in a basket of fair flowers. Sharp-edged tools, long handled, wound at last. God has been pleased to make us free agents and never deprives us of our free agency. Yet, without the destruction of a quality necessary to our responsible personhood, God is nevertheless able to keep us from stumbling.
He could do this by shutting us up in a prison or by depriving us of the power to commit sins. But he does not keep us in that way. He leaves us with every faculty and propensity that we had before. Yet, by some mysterious, omnipotent working of his Holy Spirit—which we can no more understand than we can the blowing of the wind—he keeps his people from stumbling. Treatment of the texts is sermonic. Jude foresaw the coming of mockers in the last time who would walk after their own lusts and godlessness, and having the Spirit.
And by their deeds we see clearly that they have no hope, for they rage furiously and live shamelessly and desire inordinately and persecute arrogantly and seize and grasp everything that they can plunder or steal or gain. All these things are tokens of their godlessness and despair. Like their father the devil, they are harsh toward everybody, refuse the joy and consolation of salvation, and despise every warning that might turn them from error.
They will not retain God in their knowledge. So they begin to experience already that eternal perdition that in the world to come they will fulfill eternally. Recognizing the Danger Among Us. The Danger of False Teachers - Booklet. It moves through one small section of Bible verses after another. Hiebert - A valuable interpretation of the epistle with an abundance of homiletical suggestions appended.
Click here to see Vincent's original notes with no modifications. One of the brethren of Jesus; not the brother of James the Apostle, the son of Alphaeus, but of James the superintendent of the church at Jerusalem. He is named among the brethren of the Lord. We are told that Christ's brethren did not believe on him John 7: It is noticeable that James likewise avoids such a designation.
Laid up and kept is the idea. The verb signifies keeping as the result of guarding.
Thus in John So Peter was delivered to the soldiers to guard him phulassein , but he was kept etereito in prison Acts Compare 1 Thessalonians 5: Mercy eleos [word study] is the outward manifestation of pity and assumes need on the part of those who are recipients of the mercy and sufficient resources to meet the need on the part of those who show it. The idea of mercy is to show kindness or concern for someone in serious need or to give help to the wretched, to relieve the miserable. Here the essential thought is that mercy gives attention to those in misery. It follows that peace is the opposite of division or dissension.
Peace as a state of concord and harmony is the opposite of war. Peace was used as a greeting or farewell corresponding to the Hebrew word shalom - "peace to you". Peace is a condition of freedom from disturbance, whether outwardly, as of a nation from war or enemies or inwardly, as in the current context, within the soul. Peace implies health, well-being, and prosperity.
Multiplied plethuno [word study] means to be made full and in the active sense it means to cause to increase or to become greater in number. Alford, I found it necessary. See agonizomai [word study]. See on Acts 6: This passage and Galatians 1: In the great majority of New Testament passages faith is clearly used in the sense of faith in Jesus Christ: This interpretation is according to the analogy of such expressions as obedience of Christ 2 Corinthians Accordingly, faith, though it becomes in man the subjective moral power of the new life, regenerated through the power of the Spirit, is regarded objectively as a power—the authority which commands submission.
This interpretation is according to the analogy of the expression hearing of faith Galatians 3: Compare, also, obedience of faith Ro 1: The great majority of the best modern commentators hold that faith is to be taken as the subjective principle of Christian life though often regarded objectively as a spiritual power , and not as Christian doctrine.
Delivered paradidomi [word study]. With the whole verse compare 2 Peter 2: Ungodly asebes [word study] means lack of interest in the things of God and a behavior and lifestyle consistent with such an irreverent attitude. See the depth study of the related word ungodliness asebeia [word study]. Asebes pertains to violating norms for a proper relation to deity, and in short means irreverent lacking proper respect of God or impious.
In simple terms it is choosing to live as if God did not exist and without regard for Him. The verb means to get in by the side, to slip in by a side-door. Only here in New Testament. See similar descriptive verb in 2 Peter 2: The kindred adjective occurs Galatians 2: The metaphor is of spies or traitors introducing themselves into an enemy's camp.
The word occurs four times in New Testament. In two of these instances pro has clearly the temporal sense before Ro It seems better, on the whole, to take it here in the temporal sense, and to render written of beforehand, i. So the American Rev. He enumerates six forms of sensuality, three personal and three social:. See on Mark 7: It includes lasciviousness, and may well mean that here; but is often used without this notion. In classical Greek it is defined as violence, with spiteful treatment and audacity. As in this passage its exact meaning is not implied by its being classed with other kindred terms, it would seem better to take it in as wide a sense as possible—that of lawless insolence and wanton caprice, and to render, with Trench, wantonness, since that word, as he remarks, "stands in remarkable ethical connection with aselgeia, and has the same duplicity of meaning" "Synonyms of the New Testament".
Excesses of all kinds, with possibly an emphasis on sins of uncleanness.
See note on Mark 4: The word is also used of desire for good and lawful things Luke Pointing especially to fleshly lusts, "the inner principles of licentiousness" Cook. The kindred verb occurs in the Septuagint, Deuteronomy From oinos, wine, and phleo or phuo, to teem with abundance; thence to boil over or bubble up, overflow. It is the excessive, insatiate desire for drink, from which comes the use of the word for the indulgence of the desire—debauch. The remaining three are revellings, banquetings, and idolatries.
Turn change metatithemi [word study] literally means to put in another place. In the figurative sense metatithemi means to effect a change in state or condition and so to alter something as when the priesthood is changed Heb 7: Grace charis [word study] is God's unmerited favor and supernatural enablement and empowerment for salvation and for daily sanctification.
On Lord, see on 2 Peter 2: In three of these instances the word is used in direct address to God; and it may be asked why the Rev. In five out of the ten occurrences of the word in the New Testament it means master of the household. Originally, it indicates absolute, unrestricted authority, so that the Greeks refused the title to any but the gods.
In the New Testament despotes and kurios are used interchangeably of God, and of masters of servants. Lord master, owner kurios [word study] describes the supreme one, one who is sovereign and possesses absolute authority, absolute ownership and uncontested power. Kurios is used of the one God to Whom a person or thing belongs, about which He has the power of deciding.
The participle is to be rendered as present, and the once is not formerly, but once for all, as Jude 1: Destroyed apollumi [word study] conveys the basic meaning of describing that which is ruined and is no longer usable for its intended purpose. Believe pisteuo [word study] means to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something or someone. To accept the word or evidence of. Keep tereo [word study] means to keep an eye on, keep something in view, to attend carefully, or to watch over it.
It means to watch as one would some precious thing. The idea is to observe attentively and to retain in custody. From this comes a secondary meaning of sovereignty, dominion, magistracy, as being the beginning or first place of power. So mostly by Paul, as principalities Romans 8: A peculiar use of the word occurs at Acts In this passage the A. The Jews regarded the angels as having dominion over earthly creatures; and the angels are often spoken of in the New Testament as archai, principalities; as Romans 8: Left abandoned apoleipo [word study].
For a longer form aeidios , from aei, always. Under darkness hupo zophon zophos [word study] Under carries the sense of the darkness brooding over the fallen spirits. On darkness , see on 2 Peter 2: Originally of the gloom of the nether world. Even as just as homoios [word study]. The force of ek is out and out; giving themselves up utterly. See on followed, 2 Peter 1: Giving pareisphero [word study] means literally to bear in alongside or besides to bring to bear , and so to introduce simultaneously.
This verb implies making a strong effort to provide something. Pareisphero was at times used of smuggling or of importing along byways. The phrase occurs Mark 1: Used of meats on the table ready for the guests; of a corpse laid out for burial; of a question under discussion. Thus the corruption and punishment of the cities of the plain are laid out in plain sight. From deiknumi, to display or exhibit; something, therefore, which is held up to view as a warning. Some of the best modern expositors render are set forth as an example of eternal fire, suffering punishment.
This meaning seems, on the whole, more natural, though the Greek construction favors the others, since eternal fire is the standing term for the finally condemned in the last judgment, and could hardly be correctly said of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those cities are most truly an example of eternal fire. The participle is present, indicating that they are suffering to this day the punishment which came upon them in Lot's time.
The verb means, literally, to hold under; thence to uphold or support, and so to suffer or undergo. Defile miaino [word study] means literally to dye with another color. Figuratively miaino it describes a mind and conscience that is morally contaminated, corrupted, tainted, tinged and polluted. In a ceremonial or cultic sense it means to defile or make unclean and so unacceptable.
Jude uses miaino in a physical and a moral sense of the one's flesh defiled by licentiousness and so to corrupt morally. Reject set aside, nullify atheteo [word study] means to regard as nothing, to not recognize, to spurn, to despise, to do away with what has been laid down. In Classic Greek atheteo is used to describe setting aside of a treaty or promise.
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Blaspheme blasphemeo [word study] means literally to speak to harm and in general therefore means to bring into ill repute and so to slander. Kuriotes, dominion, occurs in three other passages, Ep 1: In the first two, and probably in the third, the reference is to angelic dignities.
Some explain this passage and the one in Peter, of evil angels. In Colossians the term is used with thrones, principalities, and powers, with reference to the orders of the celestial hierarchy as conceived by Gnostic teachers, and with a view to exalt Christ above all these. Glories or dignities is used in this concrete sense only here and at 2Pe 2: The passages are Jude 1: This reference to Michael was said by Origen to be founded on a Jewish work called "The Assumption of Moses," the first part of which was lately found in an old Latin translation at Milan; and this is the view of Davidson, so far at least as the words "the Lord rebuke thee" are concerned.
Others refer it to Zechariah 3: Others, again, to a rabbinical comment on Deuteronomy Doubtless Jude was referring to some accepted story or tradition, probably based on Deuteronomy For a similar reference to tradition compare 2Ti 3: This conception is developed in the books written during and after the exile, especially Daniel and Zechariah.
Michael Who is like God? He is mentioned three times in the Old Testament Daniel He is adored as a saint in the Romish Church. For legends, see Mrs. Jameson, "Sacred and Legendary Art," i. Archangel archaggelos [word study] refers to the first or highest angel, the leader of the angels. He constantly throws between seeking to divide whether it be between a husband and wife, a child and parent, a church, etc. Resist his divisive, condemnatory accusations firm in your faith. Michael remembered the high estate from which he fell, and left his sentence to God.
Rebuke epitimao [word study] means literally to put honor upon and then to mete out due measure and so then to find fault with, to censure severely, to rebuke, to express strong disapproval of, or to denounce cp the incredible example in Mt Compare phusika, natural phusikos [word study] , 2 Peter 2: To shrivel, to wither, to spoil. It means to ruin or destroy something with the implication of causing something to be corrupt. The expression in 1 Corinthians 9: There the word is not used as an imprecation, but almost as a noun: A strong expression, indicating a reckless, abandoned devotion of the energies, like the Latin effundi.
So Tacitus says of Maecenas, "he was given up to love for Bathyllus;" lit. Error plane [word study] describes a roaming or a wandering and then figuratively a going astray or a wandering out of the right way. Vincent says plane is an "error which shows itself in action It may imply deceit as accompanying or causing error". Reward wage misthos [word study] literally refers to pay which is due for labor performed or dues paid for work. Antilogia is from anti, against, and lego, to speak. Gainsay is a literal translation, being compounded of the Anglo-Saxon gegn, which reappears in the German gegen, against, and say.
Perished apollumi [word study] means to destroy utterly but not to cause to cease to exist. Apollumi is not the loss of being per se, but is more the loss of well-being. It means to ruin so that the person ruined can no longer serve the use for which he was designed. His very existence in time and eternity is rendered useless! The water which Moses brought from the rock at Kadesh was called the water of Meribah Strife , or, in Septuagint, hudor antilogias, the water of contradiction.
So rendered in A. So Homer, "Odyssey," iii. These men were no longer mere blots, but elements of danger and wreck. Compare Paul's words, 1Cor The word occurs only here and Jude 1: Possibly, as Lumby suggests, implying a rebuke to the Christian congregations for having suffered such practices. As clouds which seem to be charged with refreshing showers, but are borne past parapheromenai and yield no rain.
Hence, literally, pertaining to the late autumn, and rightly rendered by Rev. Without fruit Unfruitful akarpos [word study] means barren, without fruit or unprofitable. Akarpos pictures a tree without fruit under the most favorable of circumstances. Waves, by nature untamed. The act or expression of the nature is given by the next word.
It is not a feeling one has but an experience which comes to someone. Possibly referring to comets, which shine a while and then pass into darkness. Originally of the gloom of the nether world, So Homer:. Skotos is from skia a shadow thrown by an object. Skotos is literally that sphere in which light is absent. Skotos is used as another name for the place of punishment, eternal misery and eternal separation from God the meaning of skotos here.
It is quoted from the apocryphal book of Enoch, directly, or from a tradition based upon it. The Book of Enoch, which was known to the fathers of the second century, was lost for some centuries with the exception of a few fragments, and was found entire in a copy of the Ethiopic Bible, in , by Bruce.
It became known to modern students through a translation from this into English by Archbishop Lawrence, in It was probably written in Hebrew. It consists of revelations purporting to have been given to Enoch and Noah, and its object is to vindicate the ways of divine providence, to set forth the retribution reserved for sinners, angelic or human, and "to repeat in every form the great principle that the world—natural, moral, and spiritual—is under the immediate government of God.
Besides an introduction it embraces five parts: A narrative of the fall of the angels, and of a tour of Enoch in company with an angel through heaven and earth, and of the mysteries seen by him. Parables concerning the kingdom of God, the Messiah, and the Messianic future. Astronomical and physical matter; attempting to reduce the images of the Old Testament to a physical system. Two visions, representing symbolically the history of the world to the Messianic completion.
Exhortations of Enoch to Methuselah and his descendants. The book shows no Christian influence, is highly moral in tone, and imitates the Old Testament myths. Ungodly asebeis asebeia [word study] —ungodly deeds ergon asebeias, lit. The evident play upon the word ungodly can be rendered but clumsily into English. The words ungodly sinners are placed in an unusual position, at the end of the sentence, for emphasis; ungodliness being the key-note of the writer's thought.
The railing, gainsaying ; the profane and vain babblings 2Ti 2: Sinners hamartolos [word study] describes those who are continually erring from the way, constantly missing God's mark, living in opposition to His good and acceptable and perfect will. Doubtless, originally, with some adaptation of sound to sense, gongustai. It is used of the cooing of doves.
Lusts epithumia [word study] most often in the NT describes strong desires which are perverted and unrestrained and which originate from the Sin nature, which is corrupt and fallen. Only here and Jude The word means of excessive bulk. It accords well with the peculiar word uttering, since it denotes a kind of speech full of high-sounding verbosity without substance.
Phtheggomenoi, uttering, is significantly applied alike to Balaam's beast and to these empty declaimers. Words rhema [word study] refers to the spoken word, especially a word as uttered by a living voice. Scoffers walking eupaiktai poreuomenoi This is the reading followed by A. But the later texts have added eupaigmone, in mockery, occurring only here, though a kindred word for mockings eupaigmon is found Hebrews This addition gives a play upon the words; and so Rev.
Ulrich Zwingli - Jude foresaw the coming of mockers in the last time who would walk after their own lusts and godlessness, and having the Spirit. The verb is compounded with apo, away; dia, through; pros, a boundary line. Of those who draw a line through the church and set off one part from another. Hence, as an emphatic designation of the man himself. So that the word denotes "life in the distinctness of individual existence" Cremer. See further on psuchikos, spiritual, 1Corinthians So 1 Corinthians 2: The rendering sensual, here and James 3: So the adjective pneumatikos, spiritual, is everywhere in the New Testament opposed to psuchikos, natural.
Keep tereo [word study] - The aorist imperative is a command calling for effective, even urgent carrying out of this action. The present tense pictures this as one's habitual practice! Prosdechomai is used of things future, in the sense of expecting and with the meaning of accepting.
Others, again, for eleeite, have mercy, read elegchete, reprove, and render diakrinomenos, who are contentious: Snatching harpazo [word study] means to snatch up or way, to seize, to steal, to pluck or to pull and to do so suddenly, even with violence and speed and no warning. The idea is to take by force with a sudden swoop and usually indicates a force which cannot be resisted.
See on 2 Peter 2: Able dunamai [word study] The present tense pictures His continual inherent ability to keep us from falling. See the kindred word offend. Keep phulasso [word study] means to watch, to carry out the function as a military guard or sentinel cp Ac Phulasso is used to describe the shepherds "keeping watch over their flock by night Lk 2: This picture parallels our Good Shepherd Who keeps watch over His sheep as in this verse.
Faultless above reproach, blameless amomos [word study] is literally without spot or blemish. It was used to describe the absence of defects in sacrificial animals and figuratively of the Lamb of God as unblemished. Glory doxa [word study] is from the verb dokeo which means to give a proper opinion or estimate of something and thus the glory of God expresses all that He is in His Being and in His nature, character, power and acts.
The word is always employed in the New Testament for great or lively joy. Savior soter [word study] refers to the agent of salvation or deliverance, the one who rescues, delivers, saves and preserves. Anyone who saves or delivers can be called a deliverer or rescuer a soter. Here obviously soter is used of God as the source of salvation - the Deliverer, the Preserver, the Protector, the Healer, the One Who rescues us from danger and to a state of spiritual prosperity now and throughout eternity.
Dominion kratos [word study] denotes the presence and significance of force or strength rather than its exercise.
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It is the ability to exhibit or express resident strength. Power authority exousia [word study] refers to authority and combines the idea of the "right and the might". The best texts add pro pantos tou aionos, before all time. For the decree of election, the setting apart of the chosen is usually ascribed unto God the Father. We have here a very blessed description of the whole work of our salvation, — set apart by the Father, joined unto Christ, and preserved in him, and then, in due time, called out by the Spirit of God.
Christian letters should be full of love and good will. The Christian dispensation breathes beneficence, it is full of benediction: Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. In the sense of being once for all given to the saints, the faith of Christians is not a variable quantity. It is not a thing which changes from day to day, as some seem to suppose, vainly imagining that fresh light is bestowed upon each new generation.
No, the truth was delivered once for all, it was stereotyped, fixed; and it is for us to hold it fast as God has given it to us. They did not boldly avow their heresy when they came in; — they would not have been allowed to enter if they had done so, — but they sneaked in, they climbed into the pulpit, professing to be preachers of the gospel, when they knew, all the while, that they intended to undermine it.
Basest of all men are those who act thus: Proscribed by God as traitors long ago. Those who have not the courage of their convictions probably have no convictions at all, but seek to undermine the faith which they profess to hold. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
If we have no real faith, we may appear to go a long way towards heaven, but we shall not enter the heavenly Canaan. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. They cast off all restraint; they claim to have liberty to do whatever they like; and when reproved, they utter railing words against those who honestly rebuke them. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. To what does this refer? I am sure I do not know. I cannot think it refers to anything recorded in the Old Testament, but to some fact, known to Jude, who here speaks by revelation, and records it.
We believe it, and learn from it that, when an archangel disputes with the devil, he does not use hard words even against him, for hard words are an evidence of the weakness of the cause which they are used to support. Hard arguments softly put, are the really effective weapons, but it takes some of us a long time to learn this; and generally, in our younger days, we wear away our own strength by the violence with which we use it. But these speak evil of those things which they know not: These are spots —. They spoil your love feasts at the communion table, they mar your fellowship when you gather together for worship.
Yet those very persons who have a holy fear lest they should come amiss, are those who really ought to come. They believe according to what is said to them by the last man who speaks to them; they are easily persuaded to this doctrine, and to that, and the other. Foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the thickness of darkness for ever. These are the false professors of religion, the members of the church for whom there are seats reserved in hell.
This is a dreadful thought: And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand 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 ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
You know the sort of people alluded to here, nothing ever satisfies them. They are discontented even with the gospel. The bread of heaven must be cut into three pieces, and served on dainty napkins, or else they cannot eat it; and very soon their soul loatheth even this light bread. There is no way by which a Christian man can serve God so as to please them. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should talk after their own ungodly lusts.
These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference:.
Some of those professors, who are not living consistently with their profession, in whom you can see signs and tokens of sin, yet there may be some trace of repentance, some reason to hope that they will forsake the evil when they see it to be evil: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. When you have to deal with unclean professors, there must be an abhorrence and detestation of their sin even when there is great gentleness towards the sinner.
We must never be such believers in the repentance of the guilty as to be willing to wink at sin; for sin is a great evil in any case, and repentance cannot wipe it away; and though it behoves us to be tender to the sinner, we must never be tender to the sin. How beautifully this short and sad Epistle ends! Having described the many who, after making a profession, yet turn aside, Jude bursts out with this jubilant doxology: 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, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Before you "go to the commentaries" go to the Scriptures and study them inductively Click 3 part overview of how to do Inductive Bible Study in dependence on your Teacher, the Holy Spirit, Who Jesus promised would guide us into all the truth John Remember that Scripture is always the best commentary on Scripture.
Old Time Exegesis Preaching that Teaches & Baptizes
Therefore the inclusion of specific links does not indicate that we agree with every comment. We have made a sincere effort to select only the most conservative, " bibliocentric " commentaries. Should you discover some commentary or sermon you feel may not be orthodox, please email your concern.
I have removed several links in response to concerns by discerning readers. I recommend that your priority be a steady intake of solid Biblical food so that with practice you will have your spiritual senses trained to discern good from evil Heb 5: Epistle Dedicatory Jude 1: Speaking the Truth in Love Jude 1: To Pray or Prey Jude 1: Unclouded Truth Jude 1: The Blackness Of Midnight Jude 1: Smooth Talkers Jude 1: Timely advice Jude 1: All Spruced Up Jude 1: Introduction Jude Critical and Exegetical Notes.
How unwisely do those believers talk who make preferences in the Persons of the Trinity; who think of Jesus as if he were the embodiment of everything lovely and gracious, while the Father they regard as severely just, but destitute of kindness. Equally wrong are those who magnify the decree of the Father, and the atonement of the Son, so as to depreciate the work of the Spirit.