THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JUDE.

INTRODUCTION.

The writer of this very short epistle describes himself in two points only. First, as a "servant of Jesus Christ;" second, as "a brother of James"-the former supremely honorable, but not particularly distinctive, not helpful toward identifying or locating him; the latter, however, making his person as definite as that of his brother. It is usually assumed, with good reason, that this James is the author of the epistle that bears his name- -the renowned pastor of the church at Jerusalem. The fact that James was so well known made it quite sufficient for Jude to describe himself as his brother. Whatever doubt remains as to the identity of James will therefore equally affect Judethe main one being whether they were of the original twelve, or of the group of "brethren of the Lord," brought into the church and into Christian service about the time of the Lord's resurrection. This question has been treated in my introduction to the epistle of James, and need not be re-opened.

So far as can be learned from the introduction to this epistle, the people addressed may have lived anywhere, and may have been either Jews or Gentiles. They are defined only as being the friends and followers of Christ. The epistle is therefore what is called catholic;—not in the modern sense, opposed to Protestant, but in the more ancient sense, universal, unrestricted, designed and adapted for all the people of God.-It should be added, however, that the strong resemblance between this epistle and 2 Peter 2, coupled with the allusions in v. 17, 18, seems to show that the people addressed here are the same whom Peter addresses there.

The main purpose of the epistle is indicated clearly, and suffices to place this by the side of 2 Peter in the one noble

aim of admonishing the saints to stand for the defense of gospel truths against false teachers and their perversions of the true gospel doctrine. With this he pertinently couples exhortations to high Christian attainment and a steadfast life in all godliness.-The close similarity of this epistle with 2 Peter 2 will be very obvious. His allusions in v. 17, 18, may be regarded as probably having reference to Peter among other apostles; and if so, will place the date of this epistle somewhat later than that of Peter.

THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JUDE.

1. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:

2. Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

The older manuscripts concur in making the text beloved (nyaπnuevo) instead of "sanctified.” Instead of supplying "and," as in our English version, without authority, it seems better to read the whole clause-"To the called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ." Thus, as Bengel remarks, "the beginning and the consummation of salvation are pointed out"-the agency from which it takes its rise, and that also which crowns it with victory in the end. So salvation from first to last is of God through his dear Son.

Each apostle seems to have his own form of benediction. Peter in both his epistles this: "Grace and peace be multiplied to you" (1 Pet. 1: 2, and 2 Pet. 1: 2)—which is varied in Jude to this: "To you may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied." It is delightful to think how deep and warm were the outgushings of an apostle's sympathy and prayer which sought expression in these rich words.

3. 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 ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

In the first clause, "using" (literally making) "all diligence to write unto you about our common salvation," some critics find an intimation that Jude once had it in mind to write more extensively than here in this short epistle-a purpose which may or may not have been carried into effect. If so, it is unfortunately lost. If not, then, by some means unknown to us, he may have been diverted or otherwise prevented from its execution. These are only conjectures; for the clause may indicate nothing beyond reflection, desire, or purpose to write in a more general way than here, during which reflection he became impressed with the necessity of writing to the brethren for the special purpose named here. "I held it (saw and felt it) a necessity to write to you, exhorting that ye contend earnestly (agonize, Greek) for the faith once delivered to the saints."-"The faith' here is the system of revealed truth; not faith subjectively considered; not "faith"

in the sense of intellectual belief or even of heart-trust, but in the sense of the things believed, because revealed from God to his holy apostles and prophets. No doubt, faith in the mind and the heart should be diligently cultivated both by personal effort upon ourselves and by social effort upon others; but this is not the point of Jude's exhortation here. He is thinking of the glorious gospel truth, then brought into peril by certain men whom he proceeds to describe, whose influence he implores his brethren to withstand at the start and to the utmost! This earnest exhortation bears witness to his sense of the inestimable value of gospel truth and of the imperative demands upon all right-thinking men to stand for its defense with wise and most determined, constant endeavor. Let no cry against bigotry alarm or deter them; let no artful effort to decry doctrine (or even "dogma") have any other influence than to gird their loins to mightier endeavor. The faith [truth] that once came down from God is too precious to be sacrificed, too noble to be vilified, too vital to be toned down or in the least modified. Let it abide and live on in the keeping of the church of God through the light and power of the Holy Ghost till its glory as it shines on earth shall fade into the richer, sublimer light of heaven!

4. 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.

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For certain men have cunningly insinuated themselves into your church communion-men not springing up to the surprise of God, but fore-written (Greek) of old, well known long beforehand; Godless men.' -That they "turned the grace of God into lasciviousness means only that they abused, perverted it for poses of lasciviousness, self-indulgence in their own base passions, and not by any means that they changed its essential nat ure. What they in fact did is further described by going back to the root and primary cause of their lasciviousness-viz., the mutilation and perversion of God's regenerating truth; they "denied the only Monarch (dɛσπоτηy), and our Lord Jesus Christ." Probably this is essentially what Peter (2 Eps. 2: 1) has expressed in the words, "denying the Lord that bought them." If so, it shows that fatal error in regard to the person and work of Christ sprang up before the death of the latest apostles-a fact to which John's epistles bear most abundant and painful attestation (1 John 2: 18-22 and 4: 1-3, and 2 John 7, 11). No blow could possibly strike the gospel system nearer to its heart than this. It matters comparatively little whether this false teaching smote at his true divinity, his real humanity, or his atoning sacrifice; the mischievous results would be essentially the same. No one of the great facts pertaining to Christ's nature and redemptive work can be spared. Not one can be mutilated without damage, not to say ruin, to the whole.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Even Sodom and Gomorrah, 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.

The underlying logic of this epistle-the points assumed as the basis for its line of thought should be noticed.The great present fact which stirs the solicitude of this apostle is that vital gospel truth is imperiled by the perversions of ungodly, lascivious men. The facts assumed in Jude's presentation of their sin and doom are, that ungodly lasciviousness naturally begets unbelief in God's revealed truth; that God has, therefore, brought down his most stern and fearful judgments on unbelieving men for their great sin, leveling these judgments especially against those bold manifestations of unbelief, rebellion, lust, crime, which the history of guilty men and devils brings to our view. -Hence he would remind them of what the ancient Scriptures so fully teach-that "the Lord having saved his Israel out of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not." The unbelief developed upon the report of the spies (Num. 13 and 14) is specially referred to a developed unbelief at once most unreasonable, very extensive, for it pervaded the masses of men of mature years, and most offensive to God. It virtually paralyzed the moral stamina of the whole nation and thoroughly unfitted them to enter Canaan.

Next, "the angels who kept not their first estate [of holy obedience], "but left their own habitation [as being no longer fit for the realms of purity and bliss], "God had bound over in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.' Peter testifies to the same points of their destiny.

Next, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities adjacent are described in the points of their sin and of their doom. Unrestrained and unnatural lust was their damning sin; fire, the emblem of the eternal doom of the lost, became the means of their punishment. They stand before the ages as the example of what it is to "endure the vengeance of eternal fire." It can not be supposed that Jude meant to say that the fire which consumed Sodom was itself eternal. But he did mean to say that it was the symbol of it—that their case stands before the world, lying upon the pages of the world's history, as the example, the illustration, of "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."