EPISTLE OF JUDE

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The EPISTLE OF JUDE was directed against a body of licentious errorists who had crept into the Church, and were corrupting it by their doctrines and practice. These were evil men, and there was no room to entertain doubts respecting their character. The apostle accordingly appeals, by way of warning, to some terrible instances of judgment recorded in Scripture—to the Israelites who were destroyed in their unbelief after coming out of Egypt (ver. 5); to the angels who kept not their first estate (ver. 6); to Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbouring cities (ver. 7). Two references are made to the Holy Spirit within the compass of this small Epistle,—the one alluding to the errorists, the other to the Christians whom he exhorts.

1. “These are they who separate themselves, sensual (yucikoi), having not the Spirit” (ver. 19). The adjective rendered sensual here and in the Epistle of James (iii. 15) is elsewhere rendered natural, or the natural man (1 Cor. ii. 14). The expression means simply one in a state of nature, or unregenerate, and without the Spirit. This cannot be doubtful to any one who considers the antithesis in which it is placed by three apostles. Expositors have brought more superfluous learning to the elucidation of the term (yucikoi) than was necessary. What a natural man denotes is easily discerned by the antithesis in which it stands to the spiritual man, who is one that has received the Spirit. The natural man is one who has merely natural reason, not the Spirit,—that is, is the animal man, as Melanchthon expounds it,—one living according to reason, like Zeno or Saul, though not necessarily in gross vices. As to the next phrase: having not the Spirit, it conveys the idea that the natural man has not the Spirit, and is the antithesis to what is said, that the true Christian HAS the Spirit. On the contrary, he who has not the Spirit is not Christ’s (Rom. viii. 9). We must understand the Holy Spirit, and the apostle pronounces it an indisputable truth that natural men, whether addicted to the grosser vices, like those errorists, or practically exempt from them, have not the Spirit—that is, do not possess the Holy Spirit, who, as a divine inhabitant, occupies the heart of all believers, and sanctifies and renews them after the divine image.

2. The second reference to the Spirit in this Epistle, interwoven with other essential elements of the spiritual life, is: “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (vers. 20, 21). This implies a life in the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, a life of prayer resulting from that fellowship. The Christians to whom the apostle wrote are exhorted to build themselves up on their faith, which implies all the objects of faith as a foundation. They are taught that they are not simply to be passive, but to some extent active in the process, and especially taught to pray in the Holy Ghost, who prompts the matter of all true prayer,—opening men’s eyes to discover their poverty, and showing them the value of spiritual things,—exciting true faith,—and imbuing them with right affections. All true prayer is shown to be prayer in the Holy Ghost as well as in the name of Christ (John xiv. 13).