Jude, whose name means “praise,” though deeply desiring to write, had not intended at all to write as he did. It would have been a much more pleasant and precious employment to write of the common salvation, but God, who had given him the desire to write, had decided that Jude’s message was to be one of intensely serious exhortation that the saints should contend earnestly for the faith. His book has been spoken of as contemplating the decay and death of Christianity in the world. Its subject is the apostasy, the deliberate turning of the grace of God into lasciviousness through evil men creeping into the circle of professing Christendom.

Its language is strong and prophetic. He uses the history of past occasions of revolt against the gracious authority of God to illustrate the condition that would develop in Christianity in the last days. Though Israel was blessed in being delivered from Egypt, yet through unbelief many perished in the wilderness. Even angels, greatly blessed of God, were brought down to eternal darkness because of rebellion. Sodom and Gomorrah, Cain, Balaam, Korah, all provide dreadful warnings of God’s just judgment.

If all this seems somberly negative, yet Jude’s closing words, beginning with “But you, beloved” (v. 20), are a lovely positive encouragement to a faith that trusts the living God. As seen in the last two verses, praise remains the Christ-honoring attitude of the child of God in a world where God’s great name has been dishonored.