Today's verse by verse study is in book of Jude. Those epistle is generally regarded as being written by Jude who is the younger brother of James, who is the younger brother of Jesus.
Yet, like James and depending on the interpretation of the old word for brother, both the brothers James and Jude could be cousins of Jesus. Anyway, like James, Jude is a close relative of Jesus and possibly grew up with Jesus.
This letter, Jude wanted to warn those who follow of Jesus. Here's the verse by verse.
Jude 1
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:
2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
[Like most epistles, this first part, introduces who is writing and to whom it is being written. And it includes greetings and blessings.]
4 For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
[Now very early on this letter, Jude goes to its heart and his purpose in writing it. It is a warning that certain people have slippes into their group and they were teaching a wrong teaching among them.]
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.
[Continuing with his warning, Jude reminded his audience of what happened to Moses and his group when they left Egypt.]
6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home--these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.
[Jude added that even certain angels lost their position in heaven when they rebelled against God. Here he is referring to the fallen angel, we know as Satan and the other angels who followed him.]
7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
[Scriptures record the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah during the time of Abraham.]
8 In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings.
[Jude likens these with the people who got into their group but were there only to teach wrong teachings and mislead unsuspecting people.]
9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
[This is probably among the most hard to explain verses in the New Testament, mainly because there was no prior Scriptural reference to Michael and the devil fighting over the body of Moses. And many students of the Word have explained that this verse does not really refer to the literal body of Moses. For me, I would not even dare to say that this verse refers to the actual body of Moses or it was just a metaphor for something else. You know why? Because I do not know.]
10 Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals--these are the very things that destroy them.
11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.
[Jude continues with his analogies, this time comparing these people with Cain and Balaam and Korah.]
12 These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm--shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted--twice dead.
13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
[With these two verses Jude continued to compare them with these things that anyone reading could understand or relate with if not mentally see in their minds.]
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones
15 to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
[Here Jude adds a prophecy by Enoch.]
16 These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.
18 They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires."
19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
[Jude continues to define who these people are like.]
20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
21 Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt;
23 snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
[So after explaining who these people are, Jude turns to his readers and encourages them to instead do these things, aside from the obvious of not being like the people he was warning them against.]
24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy--
25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
[In closing his letter, Jude acknowledges God and gives Him praise.]
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