Jude cites a third witness, and the source is a surprise. The words come from 1 Enoch, a Jewish writing outside our Old Testament that circulated widely in his day. 14"Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones." The early church was uneasy about this quotation, and it slowed the acceptance of Jude in some places. The steady answer is that quoting a book does not make it Scripture, any more than Paul made pagan poets Scripture when he quoted them. The Word Biblical Commentary notes that Jude adapts the material so that it stays within the limits of Old Testament teaching, and he turns an ancient vision of God appearing into a promise of the Lord's coming.
The man he names matters. Enoch is the man of whom Genesis says he walked with God (Genesis 5:24). The one who walked with God is also the one Jude pictures announcing judgment. Nearness to God and a word about judgment belong together in his life. The judgment was announced near the beginning of human history, long before the false teachers arrived.
15"To convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way." Jude builds the sentence like a drumbeat. The root for ungodly appears four times in this one verse, in different forms, *asebeia* and its relatives, the word for lacking reverence toward God. The charge covers deeds and also words: 15"all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Nothing said in contempt of God is lost.
Then Jude applies the prophecy. 16"These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires." The word for grumblers, *gongystai*, echoes the wilderness, where Israel grumbled against the LORD until he asked how long the wicked congregation would keep it up (Numbers 14:27). The first example in Jude's letter was that same generation, and the pattern has come around again. The description follows a person through a series of postures, a complaining mouth, an appetite that decides things, a boastful tongue, and favoritism used as a tool for advantage.
Then a turn. 17"But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ." Jude began his proof with a reminder in verse 5, and he closes it with a call to remember. The apostles had said this would happen, and Peter wrote the same in 2 Peter 3:3. What is being described was predicted, and the prediction is itself a comfort. A church shaken by scoffers can remember that nobody told them it would be easy.
19"It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit." The sentence overturns an easy assumption. The people who split the church claim to be the spiritual ones, the dreamers with visions, and Jude says they lack the Spirit. The Spirit unites, and these people divide.
Ask which of the marks you catch in yourself, the complaint, the boast, or the flattery that seeks advantage.
Prayer
Father, we remember that the Lord is coming with ten thousands of his holy ones to judge the earth. Keep us from the grumbling, boasting, and flattery that mark the ungodly. Remind us of what the apostles foretold, and fill us with your Spirit, who unites. In Jesus' name, amen.