Jude 1:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"To the only God": that is, He alone is to be worshiped.

"Our Savior": for of Him it is said, "For He will save His people from their sins" (Mt 1:21).

"To whom be glory": that is, to Him who conquers wars.

"Majesty": that is, great praise for heavenly virtues.

"Power": that is, over all creatures.

"And authority": because He can destroy and liberate all that He has created.

"Before all ages": that is, without beginning.

"Now, and in the present, and unto all ages": that is, without end.

In this closing phrase, equal and co-eternal glory and majesty are ascribed both to the Father and to the Son.

Refuting the error of those who consider the Son lesser and later than the Father, Jude proclaims glory, majesty, power, and authority to God the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now, and unto all ages. Amen.

"Before every age." By these words the eternity of the Son of God is shown, through whom the Apostle offers glory to God the Father.

"To the only wise God": that is, to God, in whom alone are all wisdom and understanding (Rom 14:26; 1 Tim 1:17).

He is the Savior, who has saved, or delivered, the whole world from the power of sin, curse, and death through Jesus Christ, or through the death on the Cross of our Lord.

To Him belong glory, majesty, power, and authority unto all ages. That is, both before the creation of the world and the ages that have been, and now, and unto all future ages, or into one eternal day (2 Pet 3:18).

Amen.

The Apostle ends his epistle with a doxology to the Lord God, "who is able to keep us from falling and to set us blameless before His glory with joy."

To Him, "the only wise God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory and majesty, power and authority unto all ages. Amen."

The Apostle Jude ends his epistle with glory to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ. To Him belongs incomparable divine dignity, glorified by all, which is glory. To Him belongs the wondrous manifestation of it in creation, which is majesty. To Him also belongs eternal dominion in all things and over all, which is power and authority. The Apostle sets this doxology against the blasphemous words and absurd teaching of the Gnostics. According to that teaching, they stripped all glory from our Lord Jesus Christ. They claimed that they were saved by their own powers and not by the grace of Christ. They allowed an indifference between good and evil actions, rejected the universal judgment, eternal torments, and the like.

In conclusion, the Apostle Jude raises a doxology to God the Father, who has saved us, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He glorifies His majesty, dominion, and eternal authority. Here he calls God the Father the only wise God, meaning the incomparable superiority of His wisdom over every wisdom proper to creatures, which they receive from Him. He confesses that by His grace God can keep believers from falling into sin and from defilement by false teaching. He can set them blameless before His glory with joy. This means that when Christ comes in the glory of His Father (Mt 16:27), surrounded by the same glory in which God the Father dwells, to judge the world, they will stand before that judgment with joy and boldness.