Jude 1:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Having invented certain nocturnal rites, they gave themselves over to corruption. From this also comes their denial of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For how could those not deny Him who drive away from themselves, by their unclean life, the Teacher of all chastity? For what fellowship has light with darkness (2 Cor 6:14)?

He exhorts those who once acknowledged our Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and believed in Him to contend for the faith.

For if we have received the Word become man, and yet say that He Who is from the Father before the ages is one, and He Who is from the Mother is another, and that this latter is a separate person, how do we not deny the one Lord and Master?

For the Lord Jesus is one according to the union of the divine economy. The pre-eternal Word of God, Himself God, is the same one Master of all from the very conception.

He has the flesh, received by Him from the Holy Virgin, planted in the glory of the Godhead.

The Apostle depicts the impious men who appeared as godless men, ασεβείς, who turn the grace of our God into defilement and deny the authority of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

From descriptions of the heretics in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2:13, in Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 1:20, and in other writers, it is clear that the Simonians and those like them held that the world was created not by God, but by other lower powers.

They taught that the world is in their power and in dependence on Satan. Therefore, to harm Satan, one must abuse the things of this world and weaken the powers of the flesh through corruption, since through the flesh the devil has power over the spirit.

The Nicolaitans taught almost the same thing. They said that it was even necessary to sin more, so as to give God the opportunity to show His goodness more greatly.

“Let us continue in sin,” they said, “that grace may abound” (Rom 6:1). The result of the teaching of both groups was extreme corruption.

“Appointed beforehand” more precisely means “written of beforehand.” They are those concerning whom the ancient prophets, and afterward the Apostles, had written beforehand, foretelling the appearance of such and similar false teachers, or deceivers.

“Impious” means people who have neither right knowledge of God nor right worship of God in their soul. They are people corrupted morally and intellectually (cf. 2 Tim 4:3 and following; 2 Tim 3:1 and following).

“Grace into an occasion for licentiousness”: grace is understood in the general sense, as all and every gift bestowed on believers through the redeeming sacrifice of Christ.

These highest gifts are what the false teachers and impious men transform into defilement. They not only quench the gifts of grace, but defile these gifts in their own heart.

“Denying,” and so forth: see the note on 2 Pet 2:1-3.

The general abuse of the grace of salvation consisted in this: the heretics, the Nicolaitans, considered everything permissible for themselves. The second fearful abuse of the heretics was their rejection of God Himself as the one Creator and Provider of the world. The third was their rejection of Jesus Christ as a divine Person and Savior.

The Apostle Peter partly indicated the second of these errors among the heretics, though not so clearly (see 2 Pet 2:1; 2 Pet 3:4). One may say that the heretics denounced by Jude were utterly impious men.

Covering the vileness of their deeds with the name of Christian freedom, they surrendered themselves to every kind of licentiousness. They taught not as the Word of God teaches, and not as the Holy Church explains it, but as they pleased and as the spirit of their life required.

The statement about the ancient appointment of heretics to destruction may be understood in this sense. According to the ancient law and examples, all apostates must be subjected to punishment. In the judgments of the foreknowing Judge, this has certainly already been determined.

This idea of the ancient law as condemning impious apostates to destruction is confirmed first by an event from the life of the Jewish people under the Law. Their history was so well known to Christians from among the Jews.

In secular courts, those “appointed beforehand to condemnation” were persons whose names, as accused, were posted in a public place, and whose punishment could not be delayed (cf. 2 Pet 2:3).

Therefore at the universal judgment they will be judged together with the angels who did not keep their own principality, but left their own dwelling (verse 6). They will be convicted of all their transgressions (verses 14 and 15).

All this clearly shows that they were appointed beforehand to condemnation not at all by one unconditional will of God. He had offered them all the means necessary for salvation.

They were appointed because of the stubbornness of their own will, which hardened itself and rejected both these means and their all-good Giver Himself. This, of course, was known to God beforehand.

The words of 1 Pet 2:8 contain a similar meaning: concerning Him, the cornerstone, Christ, they stumble at the word [...].

These are impious men. They consider themselves Christians, but in fact they are strangers to Christian piety, for they have departed from ecclesial unity (Jude 1:19), although outwardly they have not broken communion with the faithful.

They “turn the grace of our God into defilement,” making it an occasion for licentiousness. How could this happen?

Grace is the power of God which grants us forgiveness of sins and at the same time sanctifies and strengthens us for the struggles against sins.

The false teachers denounced by the Apostle did not view grace in this way. They placed the action of grace solely in the forgiveness of sins.

If sins are forgiven and are not imputed to those who believe in Christ, then, they reasoned, one may give oneself to a sinful life without punishment and live carelessly in corruption.

The teaching on grace, which saves man apart from works of the Law and apart from each person’s personal merits, was set forth by the Apostle Paul with special clarity and fullness.

Yet with this teaching he joined the teaching on withdrawal from sinful life and on good works performed with the help of grace.

“Shall we remain in sin, that grace may abound?” he asks. He answers, “By no means. We died to sin. How can we still live in it?” (Rom 6:1).

The false teachers did not reason or act in this way. Abusing the teaching on grace, they themselves acted lawlessly and taught others to do the same.

In words they “profess to know God” (Tit 1:16). In deed, however, they deny the one Master, God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

They behave so impiously and immorally, as though they did not believe in the one God the Father and His only-begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

They do not fear the judgment of God for their impiety and lawlessness. They treat profanely the grace granted to us for our sanctification through the merits of Christ.

Yet they once were partakers of this grace from the time of the baptism they received in the bosom of the Church.

In the following verses examples are given from Old Testament history of the wrath of God against the impious. This is so that no one may think one can offend the Lord with impious opinions and a corrupt life without punishment.