Jud 1:25 . . See above on Jud 1:4 , . God is called in Isa 45:15 , , Isa 45:21 , Sir 51:1 , , Philo, Confus. Ling. 20, 1. p. 418 fin. , (? – ); cf. Luk 1:47 , , elsewhere in N.T. only in Tit 1:3 ; Tit 2:10 ; Tit 3:4 , . . , 1Ti 1:1 , . . . . 1Ti 2:3 ; 1Ti 4:10 . The later writers of the N.T. seem to have felt it needful to insist upon the unity of God, and the saving will of the Father, in opposition to antinomian attacks on the Law.

. It seems best to take with and the following words. The glory of God is manifested through the Word, cf. 1Pe 4:11 , . . .

. The verb is often omitted in these ascriptions, cf. 2 Pet. , Rom 11:36 ; Rom 16:27 , Gal 1:5 , Luk 2:16 , . In 1Pe 4:11 it is inserted, , and, as we find no case in which is inserted, and the indicative is more subject to ellipse than the imperative, it might seem that we should supply “is” here; but the R. V. gives “be,’ and there are similar phrases expressive of a wish or prayer, as the very common , where we must supply or . De Wette maintained that the following words , referring to already existing fact, were incompatible with a prayer; but it is sufficient that the prayer has regard mainly to the present and future; the past only comes in to give it a fuller, more joyful tone, reminding us of the eternity of God, as in the psalmist’s words, “I said it is my own infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High,” and the close of our own doxology “as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be”. I do not see, however, that we need exclude either interpretation. The writer may exult in that which he believes to be already fact in the eternal world, and yet pray for its more perfect realisation in time, as in the Lord’s Prayer, . The omission of the verb allows of either or both views in varying proportion. by itself is the commonest of all ascriptions. It is joined with in 1Ti 1:17 and elsewhere, as here with . It is joined with in 1Pe 4:11 ; 1Pe 5:11 , Rev 1:6 . Fuller ascriptions are found in Rev 4:11 , , , Rev 5:13 , , Rev 7:12 , . Just before (Jud 1:10 ) we have the remarkable ascription . Compare with this the ascription of David (1Ch 29:11 ), , . For a similar expression in regard to the future blessedness of man, see Rom 2:10 , . [804] An unusual form of ascription occurs in Clem. Rom. 59:2, , , , .

[804] For a full account of the early doxologies, see Chase on the Lord’s Prayer ( Texts and Studies , i. 3, p. 68 foll.). He states that the common doxology at the end of the Lord’s Prayer ( “appears to be a conflation of two distinct forms,” and “was added to the Prayer in the ‘Syrian’ text of St. Matthew’s Gospel”.

. Only found elsewhere in N.T. in Heb 1:3 , , repeated in Heb 8:1 . Dr. Chase notes that it occurs in Enoch Jud 1:4 , , xii. 3, xiv. 16 (a house excelling) . It is coupled with , of which it may be regarded as an extension, in the doxology used by Clem. Rom. 20, 61. I am not aware of any other example of in a doxology: compare, however, Mat 28:18 , .

. cf. 1Co 2:7 ( ) , Pro 8:23 , ( i.e. ), . An equivalent expression is found in Joh 17:24 , . . . also Eph 1:4 , . . . and 1Pe 1:20 ( ) . . ., . St. Jude speaks of one past age and of several ages to come. On the other hand St. Paul speaks of many ages in the past (1Co 2:7 ), and St. John of only one age in the future.

. This precise phrase is unique in the Bible, but is common enough, as in Luk 1:33 , Rom 1:25 ; Rom 5:5 ; Rom 11:36 ; Rom 16:27 , 2Co 11:31 , etc., so in LXX, Dan 2:4 ; Dan 2:44 ; Dan 6:6 ; Dan 6:26 . The stronger phrase occurs in Gal 1:5 , Php 4:20 , 1Ti 1:17 , 2Ti 4:18 , Heb 13:21 , 1Pe 4:11 ; 1Pe 5:11 , Rev 1:6 , etc. John uses only apparently with the same meaning. Other variations are found in Eph 3:21 , . . , 2Pe 3:18 , .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Jude

WITHOUT STUMBLING

Jud 1:21 , Jud 1:25

I Pointed out in a recent sermon on a former verse of this Epistle that the earlier part of it is occupied with vehement denunciations of the moral corruptions that had crept into the Church, and that the writer turns away from that spectacle earnestly to exhort the Christian community to ‘keep themselves in the love of God,’ by ‘building themselves upon their most holy faith, and praying in the Holy Ghost.’ But that is not all that Jude has to say. It is wise to look round on the dangers and evils that tempt; it is wise to look inward to the weaknesses that may yield to the temptations. But every look on surrounding dangers, and every look at personal weakness, ought to end in a look upwards ‘ to Him that is able to keep’ the weakest ‘from falling’ before the assaults of the strongest foes.

The previous exhortation, which I have discussed, might seem to lay almost too much stress on our own strivings- ‘Keep yourselves in the love of God.’ Here is the complement to it: ‘Unto Him that is able to keep you from falling.’ So denunciations, exhortations, warnings, all end in the peaceful gaze upon God, and the triumphant recognition of what He is able to do for us. We have to work, but we have to remember that ‘ it is He that worketh in us both to will and to do of His own good pleasure.’

I. So I think that, looking at these great words, the first thing to be noted is the solitary, all-sufficient stay for our weakness.

‘To the only wise God our Saviour.’ Now it is to be noticed, as those of you who use the Revised Version will observe, that the word ‘wise’ seems to have crept in here by the reminiscence of another similar doxology in the Epistle to the Romans, and was probably inserted by some scribe who had not grasped the great thought of which the text is the expression. It ought to read, ‘to the only God, our Saviour.’ The writer’s idea seems to be just this-he has been massing in a dark crowd the whole multitudinous mob of corruptions and evils that were threatening the faith and righteousness of professing Christians. And he turns away from all that rabble, multitudinous as they are, to look to the One who is all-sufficient, solitary, and enough. ‘The only God’ is the refuge from the crowds of evils that dog our steps, and from the temptations and foes that assail us at every point.

This is the blessed peculiarity of the Christian faith, that it simplifies our outlook for good, that it brings everything to the one point of possessing the one Person, beyond whom there is never any need that the heart should wander seeking after love, that the mind should depart in its search for truth, or that the will should stray in its quest after authoritative commands. There is no need to seek a multitude of goodly pearls; the gift of Christianity to men’s torn and distracted hearts and lives is that all which makes them rich, and all which makes them blessed, is sphered and included in the one transcendent pearl of price, the ‘only God.”

I have been in Turkish mosques, the roofs of which are held up by a bewildering forest of slender pillars. I have been in cathedral chapter-houses, where one strong stone shaft in the centre carries all the beauty of the branching roof; and I know which is the highest work and the fairest. Why should we seek in the manifold for what we can never find, when we can find it all in the One? The mind seeks for unity in truth; the heart seeks for oneness in love; no man is at rest until he has all his heart’s treasures in one person; and no man who foolishly puts all his treasures in one creature-person but is bringing down upon his own head sorrow.

Do you remember that pathetic inscription in one of our country churches, over a little child, whose fair image is left us by the pencil of Reynolds: ‘Her parents put all their wealth in one vessel, and the shipwreck was total’? It is madness to trust to but one refuge, unless that refuge is the only God. If we, like the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, are wise, we shall lift up our eyes and ‘see no man any more, save Jesus only.’ He can be our solitary Stay, Refuge, Wealth, and Companion, because He is sufficient, and He abides for ever.

But there is another peculiarity that I would point out in these words, and that is the unusual attribution to God, the Father, of the name ‘Saviour’-’the only God our Saviour.’ The same various reading which strikes out ‘wise’ inserts here, as you will see in the Revised Version, through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ But although the phraseology is almost unique, the meaning is in full harmony with the scope of New Testament teaching. It is a fault of evangelical and orthodox people that they have too often spoken and thought as if Jesus Christ’s work modified and changed the Father’s will, and as if God loved men because Christ died for them. The fact is precisely the converse. Christ died because God loved men; and the fontal source of the salvation, of which the work of Jesus Christ is the channel, bringing it to men, is the eternal, unmotived, infinite love of God the Father. Christ is ‘the well-beloved Son,’ because He is the executor of the Divine purpose, and all which He has done is done in obedience to the Father’s will. If I might use a metaphor, the love of God is, as it were, a deep secluded lake amongst the mountains, and the work of Christ is the stream that comes from it, and brings its waters to be life to the world. Let us never forget that, however we love to turn our gratitude and our praise to Christ the Saviour, my text goes yet deeper into the councils of Eternity when it ascribes the praise ‘ to the only God our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord.’

II. And now notice the possibility of firm standing in the slippery present.

‘To Him that is able to keep us from falling.’ Now the word that I rendered ‘from falling’ is even more emphatic, and carries a larger promise. For it literally means’ without stumbling,’ and stumbling is that which precedes falling. We are not only kept from falling, we are kept even from stumbling over the stumblingstones that are in the way. The metaphor, perhaps, was suggested by the words of Isaiah, who, in one of his lovely images, describes God as ‘leading Israel e 3 through the depths as a horse in the desert, that they stumble not.’ Do you not see the picture? The nervous, susceptible animal, slipping and sliding over the smooth rock, in a sweat of terror, and the owner laying a kindly hand and a firm one on the bridle-rein, and speaking soothing words of encouragement, and leading it safely, that it stumble not. So God is able to lay hold of us when we are in perilous places, and when we cry, ‘My foot slippeth,’ His mercy will hold us up.

Is that rhetoric? Is that merely pulpit talk? Brethren, unless we lay firm hold of this faith, that God can and does touch and influence hearts that wait upon Him, so as by His Spirit and by His Word, which is the sword of the Spirit, to strengthen their feeble good, and to weaken their strong evil, to raise what is low, to illumine what is dark, and to support what is weak, we have not come to understand the whole wealth of possible good and blessedness which lies in the Gospel. This generation has forgotten far too much the place which the work of God’s Holy Spirit on men’s spirits fills in the whole proportioned scheme of New Testament revelation. It is because we believe that so little, in comparison with the clearness and strength of our faith in the work of Jesus Christ, the atoning sacrifice, that so many of us find it so foreign to our experience that any effluences from God come into our hearts, and that our spirits are conscious of being quickened and lifted by His Spirit! Ah! we might feel, far more than any of us do, His hand on the bridle-rein. We might feel, far more than any of us do, His strong upholding, keeping our feet from slipping as well as ‘falling.’ And if we believed and expected a Divine Spirit to enter into our spirits and to touch our hearts, the expectation would not be in vain.

I beseech you; believe that a solid experience and meaning lies in that word ‘able to keep us from stumbling.’ If we have that Divine Spirit moving in our spirits, molding our desires, lifting our thoughts, confirming our wills, then the things that were stumblingstones-that is to say, that appealed to our worst selves, and tempted us to evil-will cease to be so. The higher desires will kill the lower ones, as the sunshine is popularly supposed to put out household fires. If we have God’s upholding help, the stumbling-stone will no more be a stumbling-stone, but a stepping-stone to something higher and better; or like one of those erections that we see outside old-fashioned houses of entertainment, where three or four steps are piled together, in order to enable a man the more easily to mount his horse and go on his way. For every temptation overcome brings strength to the overcomer.

Only let us remember ‘Him that is able to keep.’ Able! What is wanted that the ability may be brought into exercise; that the possibility of which I have spoken, of firm standing amongst those slippery places, shall become a reality? What is wanted? It is of no use to have a stay unless you lean on it. You may have an engine of ever so many horse-power in the engine-house, but unless the power is transmitted by shafts and belting, and brought to the machinery, not a spindle will revolve. He is able to keep us from stumbling, and if you trust Him, the ability will become actuality, and you will be kept from falling. If you do not trust Him, all the ability will lie in the engine house, and the looms and the spindles will stand idle. So the reason why-and the only reason why-with such an abundant, and over-abundant, provision for never falling, Christian men do stumble and fall, is their own lack of faith.

Now remember that this text of mine follows on the heels of that former text which bade us ‘build ourselves,’ and ‘keep ourselves in the love of God.’ So you get the peculiarity of Christian ethics, and the blessedness of Christian effort, that it is not effort only, but effort rising from, and accompanied with, confidence – in God’s keeping hand. There is all the difference between toiling without trust and toiling because we do trust. And whilst, on the one hand, we have to exhort to earnest faith in the upholding hand of God, we have to say on the other, ‘Let that faith lead you to obey the apostolic command, “Stand fast in the evil day . . . taking unto you the whole armour of God.”‘

III. Further, we have here the possible final perfecting in the future.

‘To Him that is able … to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.’ Now that word rendered ‘faultless’ has a very beautiful meaning. It is originally applied to the requirement that the sacrificial offerings shall be without blemish. It is then applied more than once to our Lord Himself, as expressive of His perfect, immaculate sinlessness. And it is here applied to the future condition of those who have been kept without stumbling; suggesting at once that they are, as it were, presented before God at last, stainless as the sacrificial lamb; and that they are conformed to the image of the Lamb of God ‘without blemish and without spot.’ Moral perfectness, absolute and complete; va standing ‘ before the presence of His glory,’ the realization and the vision of that illustrious light, too dazzling for eyes veiled by flesh to look upon, but of which hereafter the purified souls will be capable, in accordance with that great promise, ‘ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’ *’ with exceeding joy,’ which refers not to the joy of Him that presents, though that is great, but to the joy of them who are presented. So these three things are the possibilities held out before such poor creatures as we. And miraculous as it is, that all stains should melt away from our characters- though I suppose not the remembrance of them from our consciousness-and be shaken off as completely as the foul water of some stagnant pond drops from the white swan-plumage, and leaves no stain; that perfecting is the natural issue of the present being kept from stumbling.

You have seen sometimes in a picture-dealer’s shop window a canvas on which a face is painted, one half of which has been cleaned, and the other half is still covered with some varnish or filth. That is like the Christian character here. But the restoration and the cleansing are going to be finished up yonder; and the great Artist’s ideal will be realized, and each redeemed soul will be perfected in holiness.

But as I said about the former point, so I say about this, He is able to do it. What is wanted to make the ability an actuality? Brethren, if we are to stand perfect, at last, and be without fault before the Throne of God, we must begin by letting Him keep us from stumbling here. Then, and only then, may we expect that issue.

Now I was going to have said a word, in the last place, about the Divine praise which comes from all these dealings, but your time will not allow me to dwell upon it. Only let me remind you that all these things, which in my text are ascribed to God,’ glory and majesty, dominion and power,’ are ascribed to Him because He is our Saviour, and able to keep us from stumbling, and to ‘present us faultless before His glory.’ That is to say, the Divine manifestation of Himself in the work of redemption is the highest of His self-revealing works. Men are not presumptuous when they feel that they are greater than sun and stars; and that there is more in the narrow room of a human heart than in all the immeasurable spaces of the universe, if these are empty of beings who can love and inquire and adore. And we are not wrong when we say that the only evil in the universe is sin. Therefore, we are right when we say that high above all other works of which we have experience is that miracle of love and Divine power which can not only keep such feeble creatures as we are from stumbling, but can present us stainless and faultless before the Throne of God.

So our highest praise, and our deepest thankfulness, ought to arise, and will arise-if the possibility has become, in any measure, an actuality, in ourselves-to Him, because our experience will be that of the Psalmist who sang, ‘When I said, my foot slippeth, Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.’ Let us take the comfort of believing, ‘He shall not fall, for the Lord is able to make him stand’; and lot us remember the expansion which another Apostle gives us when, with precision, he discriminates and says, ‘Kept by the power of God through faith, unto salvation.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

wise. All the texts omit. Compare 1Ti 1:17.

majesty. Greek. megalosune. See Heb 1:3.

dominion. App-172.

power. App-172.

now, &c. The texts read “before every age and now and unto all the ages”.

ever. App-151.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Jud 1:25.[12] , glory and majesty) This refers to the only God.- , might and power) This refers to, who is able.[13]

[12] The words, , which immediately precede, have been received into the Germ. Version with the sanction of Ed. 2.-E. B. ABC Vulg. support the words. Rec. Text with modern MSS. omit them.-E.

[13] Bengel, J. A. (1866). Vol. 5: Gnomon of the New Testament (M. E. Bengel & J. C. F. Steudel, Ed.) (W. Fletcher, Trans.) (162-171). Edinburgh: T&T Clark.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Reciprocal: 1Ch 29:11 – is the greatness Job 9:4 – wise in heart Job 25:2 – Dominion Job 28:23 – General Job 37:22 – with Job 40:10 – majesty Psa 45:3 – glory Psa 72:15 – daily Psa 96:7 – Give Isa 31:2 – he also Isa 43:3 – the Holy One Isa 43:11 – General Isa 63:1 – mighty Isa 63:8 – so he Luk 12:8 – confess Act 5:31 – a Saviour Act 13:23 – raised Act 20:32 – I commend Rom 11:36 – to whom Rom 16:25 – to him Rom 16:27 – only 1Co 1:8 – blameless 1Co 8:4 – there is Gal 1:5 – whom Eph 1:8 – in Eph 3:21 – throughout Phi 4:1 – so Phi 4:20 – unto Col 1:11 – his 1Ti 1:1 – God 1Ti 1:17 – the only 1Ti 6:16 – to whom 2Ti 4:18 – to whom Heb 1:3 – Majesty Heb 13:21 – to whom 1Pe 4:11 – to whom 2Pe 3:18 – To him Rev 1:6 – to him Rev 5:13 – blessing Rev 7:12 – Amen

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Jud 1:25. Transferring the praise to God directly Jude says He is only wise. That means that God is the First Cause of wisdom as He is of all things. Glory means grandeur and majesty means greatness. Dominion means domain and power means authority. Jude ascribes these dignities to God to last now and ever.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Our apostle shuts up his epistle (as is usual) with a doxology; where observe, 1. The person to whom the praise is given, to God, the wise God, the only wise God, so called because he is infinitely and transcendantly wise; all the wisdom of the wisest of men is nothing in opposition to his wisdom, nor in comparison with it.

Observe, 2. That Jesus Christ our Saviour is worthy to be accounted the only wise God; as he is God, he is called the wisdom of the Father; and in the book of the Proverbs, he is represented under that title, and spoken of as a person, Proverbs 8. As he was man, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were found in him, he received the habits of all created knowledge and wisdom, together with all other graces without measure.

Observe, 3. As the person described to whom the praise is given, so the description of the praise which is given to this person, Glory and majesty, dominion and power; by which understand, the greatness and eminent excellency of the divine nature, which results from his perfections, and whereby the divine nature is infinitely exalted above all other beings.

Learn hence, That we ought to have such a sense of God’s transcendant excellences and perfections as may oblige us to ascribe all things that are honourable and glorious to him, therefore are so many words here used.

Observe, 4. The duration, now and ever. Learn thence, That believers have such large and vast desires for the exaltation of God’s glory, that they would have him glorified everlastingly, and without ceasing, not only in the present, but to eternal ages. To him be glory now and ever. Amen.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

25. To God our only Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, government and power before every age and every name, and to all ages. Amen. Judes benediction is very beautiful, and should be used interchangeably with all the others which are found at the conclusion of all the Epistles. It is a great mistake to use 2Co 13:14 till it becomes monotonous. The Holy Ghost gave us all of these benedictions for our edification in the kingdom of God.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Jude returned to his idea that the false teachers distorted the truth about God and Jesus Christ (Jud 1:4). "Glory" is the effulgent radiance of God, "majesty" His transcendence, "dominion" His absolute power, and "authority" His freedom of action. These characteristics of God belong to Him eternally. In view of God’s changeless character, we should remain faithful as well.

"Words could hardly express more clearly Jude’s belief in the pre-existence and eternity of Christ." [Note: Bigg, p. 344.]

"Jude . . . is a troubled pastor, anxious to shake the shoulders of his community to wake them up to the threats in their very midst. Some of Jude’s scorching language can be tempered by realizing that in the ancient Mediterranean world such rhetoric in religious matters was common. But not all of Jude’s passion can be explained away; for him, as for most of the early Church, faith in Jesus was a matter of life and death, and anyone or anything that threatened that life of faith was indeed a mortal enemy." [Note: Donald Senior, "The Letters of Jude and Second Peter," The Bible Today 25:4 (July 1987):211.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)