Jude 1:24

Jud_1:24-25

Now unto Him that is able to keep you.

Judes doxology

It is well to be called full often to adoring praise, and the specific statement of the reason for praise is helpful to fervour of gratitude. Our great danger is falling and faultiness. Our great safety is Divine ability and faithfulness, by which we are kept from stumbling so as to dishonour our Lord.

I. Let us adore Him who can keep us from falling.

1. We need keeping from falling, in the sense of preservation from--

(1) Error of doctrine.

(2) Error of spirit: such as want of love, or want of discernment, or unbelief, or credulity, or fanaticism, or conceit.

(3) Outward sin. Alas, how low may the best fall!

(4) Neglect of duty: ignorance, idleness, want of thought.

(5) Backsliding.

2. None but the Lord can keep us from falling.

(1) No place guarantees security: the church, the closet, the communion-table--all are invaded by temptation.

(2) No rules and regulations will secure us from stumbling. Stereotyped habits may only conceal deadly sins.

(3) No experience can eradicate evil, or protect us from it.

3. The Lord can do it. He is able to keep, and He is the only wise God, our Saviour. His wisdom is part of His ability.

(1) By teaching us so that we fall not into sins by ignorance.

(2) By warning us: this may be done by our noting the falls of others, or by inward monitions, or by the Word.

(3) By providence, affliction, etc., which remove occasions of sinning.

(4) By a bitter sense of sin, which makes us dread it as a burnt child dreads the fire.

(5) By His Holy Spirit, renewing in us desires after holiness.

4. The Lord will do it. The only God our Saviour. From final falls, and even from stumblings, His Divine power can and will keep us.

II. Let us adore Him who will present us in His courts faultless.

1. None can stand in those courts who are covered with fault.

2. None can deliver us from former guilt, or keep us from daily faultiness in the future, but the Saviour Himself.

3. He can do it as our Saviour.

4. He will do it.

III. Let us adore Him with highest ascriptions of praise.

1. Presenting our praise through Jesus, who is Himself our Lord.

2. Wishing Him glory, majesty, dominion and power.

3. Ascribing these to Him as to the past, for He is before all time.

4. Ascribing them to Him now.

5. Ascribing them to Him for ever.

6. Adding to this adoration, and to the adoration of all His saints, our own fervent Amen. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Religious perseverance

That we may persevere, diligently and yet humbly, in the path of religious obedience, it is requisite that we look, with the feelings of dependence and trust, to Him from whose power and wisdom alone we can derive ability to persevere.

I. Then, religious perseverance may be set forth under a twofold view, as the continuing free from all sin, and advancing to the perfection of righteousness. to be kept from falling denotes the one, and to be presented faultless in the presence of the Divine glory with exceeding joy intimates the other. Falling, when used with reference to the Christian course, expresses in the most alarming sense of which it is susceptible, the sin of apostasy. It then describes the rejection of all the evidences which have been provided, both in the history of the gospel and in the experience of its efficacy, to satisfy us of its Divine origin. Apart from this extreme instance, however, there are degrees to be marked on the general subject, all of which are exceedingly dangerous. There may not be the bold and unqualified rejection of Christianity. There may, on the other hand, be the retaining of its name, as the religion which we profess, and in which we believe. And yet we have fallen from its principles, if we indulge in any sinful affection, or persist in any vicious habit. Religion is abandoned whenever vice begins. Now to be preserved from these--from the sins of the unbeliever, of the insincere, of the worldly-minded, and of the careless or lukewarm--to be preserved from all these is implied in our being kept from falling. Separation from sin, however, is the prelude to advancement in the excellences of righteousness. Beginning at that point, the course of Christian perseverance is turned to the heavenly perfection. But it is not on earth that righteousness shall attain the destined height of its excellence. That world where no iniquity has entered, is in all these respects alone the scene of perfection. Not only is every corruption removed, but the inclination, yea, the remotest tendency to evil is taken away. This perfection of purity leads to the perfection of honour. The soul is introduced to the presence of the Divine glory. From these views, how naturally does there follow the conception of perfect happiness! The purity which the being presented faultless describes, and the honour which an admission to the presence of the Divine glory implies, must be the forerunners and the accompaniments of joy, yea, of an exceeding joy. This is the end of the Christian course. This is the perfection in righteousness to which the earliest separation from sin was pointing.

II. Let us ask the question, are we sufficient of ourselves to accomplish this high end? Have we the wisdom or the ability to keep ourselves from falling, and to attain to the blamelessness of celestial purity? Does our experience give us any ground to trust in the ampleness of our natural resources for accomplishing such duties? What opportunity of improvement have we ever employed, or what power have we ever exercised, in such a manner as may encourage self-confidence? On the contrary, how many and how flagrant the instances which show us, that in the course prescribed we are irresolute, ready to falter, and prone, under the direction of corrupted guides, to forsake it!

III. Hence, feeling that we have not ability sufficient to secure our own perseverance, we are prepared, humbly and gratefully to receive that aid which the gospel unfolds to us. God is able. He made us. He knows therefore our frame. Every principle of our constitution he is ultimately acquainted with. He has all channels laid open, for gaining access to the most secret spring of action that is within us. He see the motives that will best affect us, and how and when these ought to be touched. He is prepared to act in all circumstances, and to suit his dispensations to every variety of state, and peculiarity of want. God is able; yea, in the strict and full meaning of the word, He alone is able. But as power were unavailing for any good purpose without wisdom, the apostle reminds us that God is also wise. Those arrangements which Divine power carries into effect, are the results of perfect wisdom. The best means are turned to the production of the best end. When we reflect on our condition in this world of guilt and suffering, when we think how every day, every new incident, every connection we form, introduces us into untried circumstances, the full effects of which upon our welfare we have no means of anticipating; shall we not see how great the privilege, amid this state of darkness and imbecility, to be allowed to lean for direction and assistance on Him with whom is the foresight of every evil! There are circumstances of trial, however, from which it is not expedient to deliver us. A new privilege therefore is suited to this new situation. The hour of trial comes; and with it the superintendence and the aid corresponding to the emergency. Therefore the hour of trial improves, in place of injuring us;--forms us to the exercise of greater power, rather than enfeebles us;--prepares us for new conquests instead of overcoming us. We are kept from falling; and in being thus preserved, we receive the earnest pledge of being at last presented faultless in the presence of the Divine glory with exceeding joy. Are we now kept from falling? Are we hereafter to be presented faultless? Unto Him who alone is able--unto Him who only is wise--belongs the praise of our present steadfastness, and shall belong the praise of our after perfection. (W. Muir, D. D.)

The stability and perfection of true religion

I. All the saints are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation.

II. the saints are, at death, presented before the Lord in never-ending glory.

II. All the saints shall be introduced to their God in heaven, in a glorious state, holy and without blemish. They shall be presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

1. The place, in which the saints find final repose, is heaven.

2. The character of the saints in heaven is faultless. We shall never fully understand the extent of the evil consequent upon the transgression of the first covenant, until we are completely delivered from its effects.

3. The enjoyment of the saints in heaven, is complete. They enter into the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. (A. McLeod, D. D.)

Christ able to keep and save

We are in danger of falling. By falling he means sinning. The original word signifies stumbling, and may be applied to any false step we make in our Christian course, whatever its nature and termination. We are prone of ourselves to fall. What God said of His people of old, they love to wander, He might say of us. And we are assailed continually from without. As though to make His old servants feel their danger, almost all the falls which God tells us of in His Word are those of long tried men. Noah falls after six hundred years experience. Lot falls when an old man. And David, who passed so safely through the snares of youth, falls in mature age.

II. The great God our Saviour is able to keep us. Conceive of a vessel with its planks loose, its sails rent, and its pilot ignorant and half blind; and then place it among shoals and rocks, with a storm raging--there is a picture of the Christians condition in the world. That wretched vessel, you would say, is a doomed one; it will inevitably be lost. But suppose you are told that there is an invisible Being watching over it and determined to preserve it; one who can turn it about just as He will, and do what He will with those stormy winds and foaming billows, make those waves roll as He pleases, or, if He pleases, not roll at all--what should you say then? That vessel is safe. And what would you do? You would delight in looking at it amidst its perils, for you would delight in contemplating the power which is so wonderfully preserving it. So with the believer. He shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand. God is magnifying His power through that mans weakness, and that mans dangers and temptations. Again let me say, we need high thoughts of God; high thoughts of His mercy to lead us at first into His ways--our sinfulness makes that necessary; and then high thoughts of His power to lead us cheerfully on in His ways--our many dangers render this needful.

III. The Lord Jesus has high designs concerning us, which He is able to accomplish. We should have thought it a great thing to have been presented to Christ in the day of His humiliation; to have sat by His side with John, or at His feet with Mary; but He says here, I will present you to Myself in the day of My glory. To do you honour, I will welcome you in all My splendour. And we are to be faultless before His glorious presence. A thing sometimes appears pure and white, but bring it into the daylight or put it down on the new-fallen snow, it appears so no longer. Not so here. We shall bear the daylight; our whiteness shall bear the snow. Think of that, when sin is tormenting you. How complete in the end will be your deliverance from it! Every fragment and trace of it will be gone. And yet further--Christ will do this with exceeding joy. He will give us joy, you will say, as He does it. We shall shout for joy as He calls us to Himself. But this, I conceive, is not the apostles meaning. He is not thinking of our joy, but of Christs. Ours will be nothing to His.

IV. In keeping His people and accomplishing His glorious designs concerning them, God manifests His wisdom. The only wise God. Some of us rarely think of Gods wisdom as doing anything now to keep or save us. It planned the glorious scheme of our salvation, we think, and then retired, leaving mercy and grace to execute it. Or if we do carry our thoughts farther than Gods mercy and grace, we take in perhaps only His faithfulness. But all the perfections of Jehovah are at work for us. Not one of them does He suffer to be unemployed. Our hope therefore ought to rest on all His attributes. It would be a stronger hope if it did so. Mercy must ever be its mainstay, but here are two supports placed under it quite unconnected with mercy--power and wisdom. And observe how beautifully they are coupled together. Power to keep us would be nothing without wisdom to direct it--it would not know how to help us; and wisdom would be nothing without power--it might see what was needed for us, but there it must stop, it could not accomplish it. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding Joy.

The saints preserved and presented

I. Preservation implies danger. We have no need to be reminded that God is able to keep us from falling, if we are surrounded by no peril. Although we have been called from on high, although we have received spiritual gifts, a new heart and a new motive to action, we must not expect that the work is accomplished, and that we may resign ourselves to the indolent and selfish enjoyment of privilege. We are in a state of probation, and are, therefore, of necessity, exposed to adverse influences, and to numberless enemies which war against the soul. Watchfulness must be exercised, and strength must be imparted, in order to keep us in the right way. Danger to the believer may arise from three sources: from the unfriendly interposition of evil spirits; from the traitorous suggestions of his own heart; and from the allurement, or the intimidation of the outside world. To whom, then, in our peril shall we look for help? Where dwells the mind which will succour us, and the generosity which will wield the weapons of our defence? Shall we ask among the ministering hosts who watch and adore before the throne, if haply some strong angel, kind in his heavenly strength, might undertake our cause? Nay, for he never fell; he knows nothing of the plague of a nature shrunken foully from its fair original; he knows nothing of the bitterness of sin. Our deliverer must have sympathy of condition, and, in some sort, of experience. Then shall we look among our fellows for a companion? Shall we go seeking among the ages for a hero who shall combine all qualifications of fitness--strength mightier than of Hercules, beauty more winsome than of Apollo, all the eloquence of the golden mouthed, all the honeyed philosophy of the Bee of Attica, all the research that is most scholarly, and all the piety that is devoutest, and shall we bid him do battle for us, and guard us through our every life-path with his tutelary ministry? Ah! the champion comes not at our call. The ages have not found him. Our champion must have power as well as sympathy, invisible and exhaustless resources of power. We have a triple enemy--the world, and the flesh, and the devil; and Christ is able to keep us from falling, because, in the mystery of His incarnate life, He met and overcame the fiercest opposition of them all. Then comes another question, a question which it is important for us to ask ourselves, because, perhaps, some of our hearts may be doubting. He is able to keep us from falling; but will He take the trouble? Well, a comforting expectation of this willingness to keep us from falling may be gathered from His general character, and from the dealings with which He has heretofore dealt with the hapless sons of clay. That kind Master who was very tender to all His disciples, but who sent a special messenger to Peter about His resurrection, lest the poor bruised heart should be broken by the very semblance of unkindness--He is not likely to withhold His help or to give it upbraidingly. Thou mayest trust Him, timid one; He will not always chide! He knows thy flame, and remembers that thou art dust.

II. But the text gives us yet a stronger reason of encouragement, because it presents a reason: it satisfies our intellect as well as warms our heart. It presents a reason why Christ will thus keep us from falling. Think of it in your moments of bitterness; Christs glory is involved in your preservation from destruction. Cleave to Him; He will not let you perish; He wants you; you are necessary to Him to swell His retinue in the great court-day of the universe, when He shall lay down the sceptre. He would like to have a grand pageant then. What! do you think the Captain of our salvation will be content with a drawn battle? Do you think that the numbers on either side shall be so nearly equal, that it will be a matter of doubt which has really gotten the victory? Not so: He shall conquer, and the universe shall see that He has conquered; for, at His side there shall be a multitude which no man can number. Nor do I imagine that this victory is to be gained by doubtful means. Some people tell us that as nearly half the human race die in infancy, the scale will be turned by these. Not so; not by stratagem, but by valour; in fair and open fight shall He save, and conquer His enemies. Christ has died, and He shall not die in vain, and an innumerable company risen to mans estate, tainted not only with hereditary but with personal transgression, and snatched in their manliness from the spoiler, shall stand with robes of purity and palms of triumph, and by Christ be presented spotless unto God, Unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory. I want you to anticipate this for yourselves. But even then many faults may cleave to you, the clouded brain, the erroneous judgment, the mourned infirmity, the faith overcast, the thousand ways in which the dull material cramps the nobler soul. But you are to be faultless then; not sinless only, but faultless; nay, get the great thought out in all its length, and breadth, and depth, and height--Faultless before the presence of His glory. The light shines upon the holiest upon earth only as a revelation of impurity; the light shines upon the meanest in heaven only to enhance his perfection of beauty. (W. M. Punshon, D. D.)

Presented faultless

When Christ presenteth the elect He will present them faultless, that is, both in respect of justification and sanctification. This was intended before the world was (Eph_1:4), but is not accomplished till then. Now we are humbled with many infirmities and sins (Col_1:22). The work is undertaken by Christ, and He will carry it on till it be complete.

1. The work must be begun here; the foundation is laid as soon as we are converted unto God (1Co_6:11).

2. This work increaseth daily more and more (1Th_5:23-24). We are not faultless; but Christ will not rest till we be faultless, He is sanctifying further and further; He will pursue the work close till it be done.

3. It is so carried on for the present that our justification and sanctification may help one another; the benefit of justification would be much lessened if our sanctification were complete, and our sanctification is carried on the more kindly because the benefit of justification needeth so often to be renewed and applied to us; if our inherent righteousness were more perfect, imputed righteousness would be less set by.

4. At the last day all is fully accomplished (Col_1:22). Well, then, let us wait upon God with encouragement, and press on to perfection upon these hopes. (T. Manton.)

Gods greatest power and praise

I. The strong grasp that is able to hold us up. The only God. There is one in whom is strength, to whom is to be the praise, and on whom ought to be fastened all our confidence. And here is the blessing of a true religious trust, that it does not need to go wandering and seeking for many supports and stays, but can concentrate all confidence on the single arm which is able to sustain. Then, further, note that in this doxology the designation Saviour is applied to God Himself, teaching us that, though Christ be indeed eminently the Saviour, He is so in full harmony with the Fathers will, and that in all the process of our redemption we are not to think of Him as more gracious, or tender, or full of saving love and power than the Father, whose will He executes, whose image He is. Then note, still further, that the words from falling might be more accurately rendered from stumbling. It is much to keep us from falling; it is more to keep us from stumbling. Mark the emphasis of the language of my text. He is able to keep you from falling. There is no absolute promise or assurance that He will, but there is the broad declaration of the ability. That is to say, something else is needed than the Divine power if I am to be kept from falling. And what is that else except my grasp of the power, my opening of my heart to its entrance, my clutching His hand with my hand? God is able, but that the possibility shall become an actuality with us, there is needed our faith.

II. The great end to which this upholding leads. Faultless--before His presence--with exceeding joy. As to the first, it indicates moral purity. Here the nature may be one field of black, broken only by narrow and short streaks of contradictory light; but yonder all the foulness may be discharged from it, and sin lie behind us, an alien power that has nothing in us. And then, as the purity makes the enjoyment of His presence possible, so the purity and the presence make the third thing possible. With exceeding joy. The joy comes from cleansing, from communion, from the leaving behind of weariness and struggles. Change and monotony, danger and fear, sin and fightings, partings and death, are all done with.

III. The eternity of the praise that comes from such an issue. All His work is the making visible and the enshrining in act of that four-sided glory of His character. Glory and majesty, dominion and power, are shown in all that He has done. But this ascription of these to God in the present connection teaches us that, upon all the rest of the manifestations of these perfections, God sets the shining summit and topstone in this--that He takes men, being such as we are, and by slow education and patient inspiration, and wise providences and merciful forbearance, moulds and cleanses and quickens, and lifts at last to perfect purity, communion, and gladness. That is the greatest thing that God has ever done. And, says my text, if in the process of redemption God has especially magnified His own majestic nature, and done a mightier thing than when He flung flaming worlds like sparks off an anvil to revolve with music in the heavens, then the first duty of all Christian men is to offer to Him in the depths of their grateful hearts, and in words and deeds of self-surrendered and God-blessed lives, the praise which such a manifestation demands. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The grand final presentation

I. That nothing lower than the infinite and exhaustless power of the Redeemer, is equal to our preservation in this world of temptation and sin.

II. That there is a certain attitude and exercise of mind which may be said to be indispensable to our insuring this sustaining and persevering power.

III. That the Saviour having preserved us here by the exercise of His Divine power, will with peculiar joy present us hereafter to His Father in the possession of a spotless and perfect nature.

IV. That our preservation here, and our presentation hereafter, bringing into view the highest manifestations of the Divine perfections and conduct, will thus lay the basis for the most sublime and seraphic ascriptions of praise. (R. Ferguson, LL. D.)

A sublime doxology

I. The danger implied. When we consider the number, power, malice, and subtlety of his foes, it is wonderful that a Christian can expect a complete victory.

1. He has to wrestle.

2. He often has to walk in slippery places.

3. He is the subject of great weakness.

4. There are many obstacles in his path.

II. The preservation of which the believer is the subject.

1. The power of God is engaged to keep His saints.

2. The promises of God abound with sacred engagements to this end.

3. The merit of the Redeemers work and the virtue of His intercession avail on this behalf.

4. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is an earnest of the inheritance.

5. Means of grace and dealings of Providence are subservient.

III. The final presentation.

1. The solemnity and grandeur of the occasion.

2. The glorious condition of each of its objects.

3. The sublime felicity of which they shall be the subjects.

4. The individual interest they shall have in these grand proceedings. (Preachers Portfolio.)

God the keeper

I can only counsel you, it is God must keep you. (J. Trapp.)

Gods help goes along with our own effort

Learn a parable of the draught-horse on a broken road; it is a parable my father taught me when I was little more than the height of his knee, and one that has served me in good stead since, as I warrant it will serve you. As the horse draws its load along the broken path, the driver walks by its side. When there is an ugly deep rut in the path, he gently turns the horse aside from it. When a large stone has fallen on the road, he removes it out of the way of the wheels. When there is a stiff bit of ascent to meet, he pats the horse and puts it to its mettle, but when the way is level and clear, he leaves the horse pretty much to its own devices. All that is useful--all that is kind--all that is helpful; but please to remember, it is the horse itself that has always got to draw the load! And it will never be any otherwise with you, as you go through this world. Parents, teachers, friends, wise counsellers may do much to guide you, may do much to help you over difficulties, or remove them out of your way, but you yourself will always have to draw the load; and if you do not qualify yourself to do that aright, then there is nothing outside yourself can help you. (J. Reid Howett.)

Gods power in salvation

Out of a sinful man to make a saint is more than to make a world out of nothing; and to keep sinful men from stumbling is more than to keep the stars in their courses. There is a free and rebellious will to be won and retained in the one case, whereas there is nothing but absolute and unresisting obedience in the other. (A. Plummer, D. D.)

Presented faultless

A criminal, condemned by our law to die, can only be spared by the Queen empowering the Home Secretary to reprieve or pardon. Even then to remove the stain that must always rest upon that persons character is utterly beyond the power of them both. How different with Jesus. His power is unlimited. He not only is able to forgive sins, but He can cleanse away every trace of guilt, and present us faultless unto God. (Hy. Thompson.)

To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty.--

Praise

1. Praising God is a work very suitable to all saints.

2. After all exertions for obtaining any good, God must be acknowledged the Author of that good.

3. It is our duty to praise God for future blessings, for what we have in hope as well as for what we have in hand.

4. Spiritual blessings principally deserve our praises.

5. In our addresses to God we should have such apprehensions and use such expressions concerning Him as may most strengthen our faith.

6. Our speeches concerning Christ must be with highest honour and reverence.

7. Praise should conclude that work which prayer began.

8. The concluding thanksgivings which are affixed to writings are only to be given to God (Rom_16:27; 2Ti_4:18; Heb_13:21) (W. Jenkyn, M. A.)

The wisdom, glory, and sovereignty of God

I. In what sense God may be said to be the only wise God. For answer to this, we may take notice, that there are some perfections of God that are incommunicable to the creature, as His independency and eternity--these God only possesseth; but there are other perfections which are communicable--as knowledge, and wisdom, and goodness, and justice, and power, and the like; yet these the Scriptures do peculiarly attribute to God, that they belong to God in such a peculiar and Divine manner as doth shut out the creature from any claim to them, in that degree and perfection wherein God possesseth them. This being premised in general, God may be said to be only wise in two respects:

1. God only is originally and independently wise. He derives it from none, and all derive it from Him (Rom_11:33-34).

2. He is eminently and transcendently so: and this follows from the former, because God is the fountain of wisdom, therefore it is most eminently in Him (Psa_94:9-10).

II. I shall prove that this perfection belongs to God.

1. From the dictates of natural reason. The contrary is an imperfection; therefore wisdom belongs to God. And the denial of this perfection to God would argue many other imperfections; it would be a universal blemish to the Divine nature, and would darken all His other perfections.

2. From Scripture, He is wise in heart (Job_9:4); He is mighty in strength and wisdom (Job_36:5); Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and might are His (Dan_2:20). Hither we may refer those texts which attribute wisdom to God in a singular and peculiar manner (Rom_16:27); and those which speak of God as the fountain of it, who communicates and bestows it upon His creatures (Dan_2:21; Jam_1:5); and those texts which speak of the wisdom of God in the creation of the world (Psa_104:24; Jer_10:12); in the providence and government of the world (Dan_2:30); and in many other places in the redemption of mankind. Therefore Christ is called the wisdom of God (1Co_1:24), and the dispensation of the gospel, the hidden wisdom of God, and the manifold wisdom of God (Eph_3:10).

If then God be only wise, the original and only fountain of it, from thence we learn--

1. To go to Him for it (Jam_1:2).

2. If God be only wise in such an eminent and transcendent degree, then let us be humble. There is no cause of boasting, seeing we have nothing but what we have received. To pride ourselves in our own wisdom, is the way to have our folly made manifest.

3. We should labour to partake of the wisdom of God, so far as it is communicable. The greatest wisdom that we are capable of is to distinguish between good and evil; to be wise to that which is good, as the apostle speaks (Rom_16:19); that is, to provide for the future in time, to make provision for eternity, to think of our latter end, to fear God and obey Him, to be pure and peaceable, to receive instruction, and to win souls.

4. If God be only wise, then put your trust and confidence in Him.

5. Let us adore the wisdom of God, and say with St. Paul (1Ti_1:17), To the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen; and with Daniel, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. Having premised thus much for the clearing of these words, I shall briefly consider, first, Gods glory and majesty, and then His dominion and sovereignty. First, Gods glory and majesty. By majesty, we may understand the greatness, or eminent excellency of the Divine nature, which results from His perfections, and whereby the Divine nature is set and placed infinitely above all other beings; I say, the eminent excellency of the Divine nature, which results from His perfections, more especially from those great perfections, His goodness, and wisdom, and power, and holiness. And His glory is a manifestation of this excellency, and a just acknowledgment and due opinion of it. Hence it is, that in Scripture, God is said to be glorious in power, and glorious in holiness, and His goodness is called His glory; and here, in the text, glory and majesty are ascribed to Him upon the account of His wisdom and goodness.

That these belong to God, I shall prove--

1. From the acknowledgment of natural light. The heathens did constantly ascribe greatness to God, and that as resulting chiefly from His goodness, as appears by their frequent conjunction of these two attributes, goodness and greatness.

2. From Scripture. It were endless to produce all those texts wherein greatness and glory are ascribed to God. I shall mention two or three: The Lord is a great God (Deu_10:17); He is called the King of glory (Psa_24:10); He is said to be clothed with majesty and honour (Psa_104:1). The whole earth is full of His glory. Hither belong all those doxologies in the Old and New Testament wherein greatness, and glory, and majesty are ascribed to God.

From all which we may learn--

1. What it is that makes a person great and glorious, and what is the way to majesty, viz., real worth and excellency, and particularly that kind of excellency which creatures are capable of in a very eminent degree, and that is goodness; this is that which advanceth a person, and gives him a pre-eminence above all others; this casts a lustre upon him, and makes his face to shine.

2. Let us give God the glory which is due to His name: Ascribe ye greatness to our God (Deu_32:3). Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and power (Psa_29:1). The glory and majesty of God call for our esteem and honour, our fear and reverence of Him. Thus we should glorify God in our spirits, by an inward esteem and reverence of His majesty.

3. We should take heed of robbing God of His glory, by giving it to any creature, by ascribing those titles, or that worship, to any creature, which is due to God alone. I come now to speak of the sovereignty and dominion of God: in which I shall show what we are to understand by the sovereignty and dominion of God. By these we mean the full and absolute right, and title, and authority which God hath to and over all His creatures, as His creatures, and made by Him. And this right results from the effects of that goodness, and power, and wisdom, whereby all things are and were made; from whence there doth accrue to God a sovereign right and title to all His creatures, and a full and absolute authority over them; that is, such a right and authority which doth not depend upon any superior, nor is subject and accountable to any, for anything that He does to any of His creatures.

I. Wherein it doth not consist.

1. Not in a right to gratify and delight Himself in the extreme misery of innocent and undeserving creatures: I say, not in a right; for the right that God hath in His creatures is founded in the benefits He hath conferred upon them, and the obligations they have to Him upon that account.

2. The sovereignty of God doth not consist in imposing laws upon His creatures which are impossible either to be understood or observed by them. For this would not only be contrary to the dignity of the Divine nature, but contradict the nature of a reasonable creature, which, in reason, cannot be obliged by any power to impossibilities.

3. The sovereignty of God doth not consist in a liberty to tempt men to evil, or by any inevitable decree to necessitate them to sin, or effectually to procure the sins of men, and to punish them for them. For as this would be contrary to the holiness, and justice, and goodness of God, so to the nature of a reasonable creature, who cannot be guilty or deserve punishment for what it cannot help.

II. Wherein the sovereignty of God doth consist.

1. In a right to dispose of, and deal with, His creatures in any way that doth not contradict the essential perfections of God, and the natural conditions of the creature.

2. In a right to impose what laws He pleaseth upon His creatures, whether natural and reasonable; or positive, of trial of obedience, provided they contradict not the nature of God, or of the creature.

3. In a right to inflict due and deserved punishment in a case of provocation.

4. In a right to afflict any of His creatures, so the evil He inflicts be short of the benefits He hath conferred on them. This is universally acknowledged by the heathens, that God is the Lord and Sovereign of the world, and of all creatures, and this the Scripture doth everywhere attribute to Him, calling Him Lord of all, King of kings, and Lord of lords; to which we may refer all those doxologies in which power, and dominion, and authority are ascribed to God. I infer, first, negatively: We cannot, from the sovereignty of God, infer a right to do anything that is unsuitable to the perfection of His nature; and consequently, that we are to rest satisfied with such a notion of dominion and sovereignty in God as doth not plainly and directly contradict all the notions that we have of justice and goodness.

Secondly, positively: We may infer from the sovereignty and dominion of God--

1. That we ought to own and acknowledge God for our lord and sovereign, who, by creating us, and giving us all that we have, did create to Himself a right in us.

2. That we owe to Him the utmost possibility of our love, to love Him with all our heart, and soul, and strength; because the souls that we have He gave us; and when we render these to Him, we do but give Him of His own.

3. We owe to Him all imaginable subjection, and observance, and obedience; and are with all diligence, to the utmost of our endeavours, to conform ourselves to His will, and to those laws which He hath imposed upon us.

4. In case of offence and disobedience, we are, without murmuring, to submit to what He shall inflict upon us, to accept of the punishment of our iniquity, and patiently to bear the indignation of the Lord, because we have sinned against Him, who is our Lord and Sovereign. (Abp. Tillotson.)

The only wise God our Saviour

1. Wisdom is ascribed to God. Gods wisdom is a distinct notion from His knowledge. He doth not only know all things, but hath ordered and disposed them with much counsel.

(1) Much of His wisdom is seen in creation. There His wisdom is discovered in the excellent order of all His works (Psa_104:24; 1Co_1:21). Their mutual correspondence and fitness for the several ends and services for which they were appointed.

(2) Gods wisdom is much seen in the sustentation and governing of all things (Eph_1:11). There is nothing so confused but if you look upon it in its results and final tendency, there is beauty and order in it; the tumults of the world, the prosperity of the wicked, carnal men think them the disgrace and blemish of providence, whereas they are the ornament of it (Psa_92:5).

(3) In the methods of His grace; so I call all the transactions of God about the salvation of sinners from first to last; the rejection of the Jews, and calling of the Gentiles (Rom_11:33). The various dispensations used in the Church, before the law, under the law, and time of the gospel, these are called the manifold wisdom of God (Eph_3:10), the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, and without controversy a great mystery (1Ti_3:16). Again, the various acts of love whereby God subdueth sinners to Himself. Once more, the overruling of all events to further the eternal blessedness of the saints (Rom_8:28).

2. God is only wise (1Ti_1:17; Rom_16:27).

(1) Originally and independently wise, not by communication from another, but of Himself.

(2) God is essentially wise, and so only wise. The perfections of the creature are like the gilding which may be laid on upon vessels of wood or stone, the matter is one thing and the varnish or ornament is another; but the perfections of God are like a vessel made of pure beaten gold, where the matter and the splendour or adorning is the same.

(3) God is infinitely wise, and so only wise. As the candle giveth no light when the sun shineth, our wisdom is bounded within narrow limits, and extendeth but to a few things, but Gods to all things.

3. Christ Jesus our Saviour is worthy to be accounted the only wise God. Christ is wise as He is God, and as He is man.

(1) As He is God, so is He called the wisdom of the Father (1Co_1:24), and represented to the ancient Church under this title; as Pro_1:20. Wisdom is there spoken of as a person, and the descriptions there used are proper to Jesus Christ.

(2) As He is man, He received the habits of all created knowledge and wisdom, as all other graces, without measure (Joh_3:1-36.); and so it is said (Col_2:3), In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Well, then, since Christ hath brought down wisdom to us in our own nature, let us be more studious to get it into our hearts. As Mediator, He is fitted to make us wise to salvation, and appointed by God to be wisdom to us (1Co_1:30).

4. Once more note, from the other title that is here given to Christ, our Saviour. Those that have had any benefit by Christ will be very much affected with His praise. There is a double ground of exalting Christ--a sight of His excellency, and a sense of His benefits; and there is a double notion by which our honouring of Christ is set forth--praise and blessing. Praise hath respect to His excellency, and blessing to His benefits (Eph_1:3). (T. Manton.)

The ascription of praise to God

1. Can we bestow anything upon God? or wish any real worth and excellency to be superadded to Him? I answer--No. The meaning is, that those which are in God already may be--

(1) More sensibly manifested (Isa_64:2). It is a great satisfaction to Gods people when anything of God is discovered; they value it above their own benefit and safety (Psa_115:1.). They prefer the glory of mercy and truth before their deliverance.

(2) More seriously and frequently acknowledged. It is a great pleasure to the saints to see others praise God (Psa_107:8).

(3) More deeply esteemed, that God may be more in request, more in the hearts of men and angels. Good men are loath to go to heaven alone, they would travel thither by troops and in company.

2. But let us more particularly take a view of this ascription; and so first what is ascribed, glory, majesty, dominion, and power. Glory is excellency discovered with praise and approbation, and noteth that high honour and esteem that is due to Christ. Majesty implieth such greatness and excellency as maketh one honoured and preferred above all, therefore a style usually given to kings; but to none so due as unto Christ, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords. Dominion implieth the sovereignty of Christ over all things, especially over the people whom He hath purchased with His blood. Power signifieth that all-sufficiency in God whereby He is able to do all things according to the good pleasure of His will.

(1) A gracious heart hath such a sense of Gods worth and perfection, that it would have all things that are honourable and glorious ascribed to Him; therefore are divers words here used. When we have done our utmost we come short; for Gods name is exalted above all blessing, and above all praise (Neh_9:5). Yet it is good to do as much as we can.

(2) When we think of God, it is a relief to the soul to consider of His glory, majesty, dominion, and power; for this is that which the apostle would have to be manifested, acknowledged, and esteemed in God, as the ground of our respect to Him. It encourageth us in our service. We need not think shame of His service, to whom glory, and power, and majesty, and dominion belongeth. It hearteneth us against dangers. Surely the great and glorious God will bear us out in His work. It increaseth our awe and reverence. Shall we serve God in such slight fashion as we would not serve the governor? (Mal_1:8). It inviteth our prayers. To whom should we go in our necessities but to Him that hath dominion over all things, and power to dispose of them for the glory of His majesty? It increaseth our dependence. God is glorious, and will maintain the honour of His name, and truth of His promises.

3. The next consideration in this ascription is the duration, now and ever. Thence note: The saints have such large desires for Gods glory, that they would have Him glorified everlastingly, and without ceasing. They desire the present age may not only glorify God, but the future. When they are dead and gone the Lord remaineth; and they would not have Him remain without honour. They do not take death so bitterly, if there be any hopes that God will have a people to praise Him. And their great comfort now is the expectation of a great congregation, gathered from the four winds, united to Christ, presented to God, that they may remain with Him, and glorify Him for evermore. They prize their own salvation upon this ground, that they shall live for ever to glorify God for ever (Eph_3:21; Psa_41:13; Psa_106:48). Now this they do, partly from their love to Gods glory, which they prize above their own salvation (Rom_9:3); partly in thankfulness to God for His everlasting love to them.

4. The last thing in this inscription is the particle, amen, which signifieth a hearty consent to Gods promise, and a steady belief that it will continue to all generations. This word is often put at the end of prayers and doxologies in Scripture (Rev_5:13-14; Rom_16:27; Php_4:20, etc.); and sometimes it is doubled for the greater vehemency (Psa_51:13; Psa_72:19; Psa_89:52); and anciently it was audibly pronounced by the people in public assemblies at the conclusion of prayers (1Co_14:16), and since that Jerome telleth us that the amen was so heartily sounded out by the church, that it seemed like a crack of thunder.

(1) Certainly it is good to conclude holy exercises with some vigour and warmth. Natural motion is swifter in the end and close; so should our spiritual affections be more vehement as we draw to a conclusion, and when the prayer is done, put out the efficacy of our faith and holy desires in a strong Amen, that it may be to you according to the requests of your hearts, and you may come away from the throne of grace as those that have had some feeling of Gods love in your consciences, and are persuaded that He will accept you, and do you good in Jesus Christ.

(2) There should be an amen to our praises as well as to our prayers, that we may express our zeal and affection to Gods glory as well as to our own profit. Our hallelujahs should sound as loud as our supplications, and we should as heartily consent to Gods praises as to our own requests.

(3) In desiring the glory of God to all ages, we should express both our faith and love--faith in determining that it shall be, and love in desiring that it may be so with all our hearts. Both are implied in the word amen; it will be so whatever changes happen in the world. God will be glorious. The scene is often shifted, and furnished with new actors, but still God hath those that praise Him, and will have to all eternity. Well, then, let your faith subscribe, and put to its seal, To the glory of God in Christ; and let earnest love interpose, Lord, let it be so; yea, Lord, let it be so. Heartily desire it, and with the whole strength of your souls; set to your seals without fear, it is a request that cannot miscarry, and follow it with your hearty acclamations. (T. Manton.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jdg 1:24-25. Now unto him who alone is able to keep you from falling — Into any of these errors or sins, or from stumbling, as απταιστους literally signifies, rugged and dangerous as the ways of life are, and feeble as you know yourselves to be; and at length to present you faultless — Fully sanctified and conformed to the image of God’s Son; see on Col 1:22; before the presence of his glory — That is, in his own presence, when he shall be revealed in all his glory; with exceeding joy — With joy, great and unutterable. To the only wise God, now become our Saviour — That is, our Deliverer from the guilt and power of sin and its consequences, our Restorer to the enjoyment of the blessings lost by the fall, and our Preserver to eternal life. Or, as Macknight reads the clause, To the wise God alone. See on Rom 16:27. Be glory, &c. — That is, the glory of infinite perfection; and the majesty — Of empire absolutely universal; dominion — Or strength, as κρατος may be properly rendered, namely, to govern that empire; and power — Εξουσια, authority, or right to do whatever seemeth to himself good; both now and ever — Εις παντας τους αιωνας, throughout all ages, or both now and throughout all eternity. “From the appellation here used, our Saviour, it is argued by some that this doxology is addressed to the Lord Jesus, whose proper title is our Saviour, and who is called God in other passages of Scripture, particularly Rom 9:5, where he is styled, God blessed for ever. Nevertheless, as in some passages of Scripture, particularly Luk 1:47; 1Ti 1:1; Tit 1:3, the Father is styled our Saviour, this argument is doubtful. They who contend that the doxology in this passage belongs to the Father, observe that the same doxology is unambiguously addressed to God the Father, Rom 16:27,” to which passage we have just referred the reader.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Jud_1:24. Able to keep you.—Whatever may be said about your self-efforts, the supreme truth is that God can keep, and your supreme hope should rest on the assurance that He is keeping. Falling.—Better stumbling, or the mistakes that may lead to a fall. Of His glory.—That associated with His second coming.

Jud_1:25. Only wise God.—Better “to the wise God alone.” R.V. “to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Both now and ever.—R.V. “before all time, and now, and for evermore” “Before all time” is exactly “before the whole æon,” “for ever” is literally “unto all the ages or æons.”

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jud_1:24-25

God’s Work in Souls.—This beautiful doxology breathes of the apostolic spirit seen in others. See Rom_16:27; Eph_5:27; Col_1:22; and 1Ti_3:3. The additional words, διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν, are not contained in many MSS., although most recent editors have included them in their text. We are inclined to omit them, but not on strong grounds, principally on the ground that their presence in the text does not well agree with the incisive style of this apostle. We have placed σοφῷ in brackets, because internal evidence is against it. We think that σωτῆρ here, as at 1Ti_2:3 and Tit_1:3; Tit_3:4, refers to God the Father, and not to Jesus Christ, whose name probably was not in the original, but inserted in the margin, and later incorporated with the text.

I. Supplication.—“Now unto Him who is able to guard you from stumbling, and to place you before His glorious presence with exceeding joy.” The fervent desire contained in this word starts as if with the consciousness of the presence of the seductive teaching of the false teachers.

1. God is able to guide His people. “He will give His angels charge over thee, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” It is the Spirit that guides into all truth, and prevents stumbling against error. “Lead us not into temptation,” is one of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, because the faithful are liable to commit sin under pressure. “I will guide thee with Mine eye,” is a promise to those who walk in the narrow path.

2. God is able to consummate the work of grace. The end will be glorious, because the saints will be perfect. The presentation at court will be made with greeting. The congratulations of heaven will be with “exceeding joy.” There are many sources of joy, but redemption will exceed all others in degree and duration. The words of the parable are identical—“Well done, thou good and faithful servant; … enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

II. The ascription.—“To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and through all the ages.” That is, let the God of glory and majesty be revered and praised in time and in eternity.

1. Praise the being of God. He dwells in light, and in Him is no darkness. The effulgence of the Divine presence is “light inaccessible.” In creation and redemption there is a reflexion of that glory—“The heavens declare the glory of God,” etc. His greatness—majesty—is unsearchable. He is incomprehensible. A sense of His greatness mingles reverence with praise—“My soul doth magnify the Lord.”

2. Praise His government. His dominion is from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. The idea is that His kingdom is co-extensive with all creation. His power or authority is paramount. Rebellion is temporary; He must rule until all enemies are under His feet. Even the last enemy—death—will be vanquished. The Christian is never without joyous strains when he meditates upon the works of Jehovah. See the concluding paragraph of Psalms 103—W. P.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Jud_1:24. The Steadying Power of Christ.—The work that Christ does in souls that are exposed to malign influences, and even to active temptations, is sometimes misconceived, and even misrepresented. It is thought that Christ is with us in the temptation, to guard us from it, to defend us from its evil influence. It is altogether truer, and it is certainly deeper and more searching to say, that Christ is in us, the inspiration and the help in our battling with and overcoming the temptation. A doctor may actually deal with a disease which afflicts us; but it is altogether a higher type of doctor who deals with us, and so nourishes our vitality that we can successfully throw off the disease. It is something on a slippery day to cling to a friend’s arm, and be kept from stumbling. But it is a much greater thing to be made so steady in limb, and so self-controlled in movement, that we can walk the slippery highways without fear. Christ keeps from falling by His grace in us steadying us.

The Aim and Hope of Christ.—“To present you faultless.” R.V. “To set you before the presence of His glory without blemish.” St. Jude’s precise point is usually missed. It is when the continuous sanctifying work of Christ is thought of. It is true that when “sanctified wholly” we may be presented faultless. But St. Jude means that Christ wants to present His people as those who have not fallen, under the enticements of the world, the flesh, the devil. Christ makes us clean when we come to Him, and He is willing to give such grace that we may step into heaven clad in unstained garments. His grace is sufficient for that; and that is what He wants. Should not that be what we want—that Christ should present us as virgin souls, kept pure, always pure, through His abounding grace?

Moral Purity: what it is, and what it gains.—Notice how we have here the great end to which this upholding leads—“Able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” To Jude, then, that future had three salient points. The great range of mountains, as it were, towered up into three peaks, each of them smitten by the sunlight, and so made visible across the waste. And these three are, after all speculation and revelation, the sum of what we really know about that blessed heaven to which we aspire—“faultless before His presence—with exceeding joy.” As to the first, it indicates moral purity. The word is the same as is used to describe the physical perfection of the sacrificial lamb, which was to be “without blemish,” and is thence transferred to describe the immaculate holiness of Christ’s manhood and of His servants, who are one day to be “holy and without blame before Him in love.” The unspotted and unblemished lamb was the type—Christ Himself. So not only may we be kept without stumbling here; but the foulest and the darkest of us, in whose nature sin may seem to be most deeply engrained, may humbly expect to stand in His presence “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” Here the nature may be one field of black, broken only by narrow and short streaks of contradictory light; but yonder all the foulness may be discharged from it, and sin lie behind us, an alien power that has nothing in us. That is the first of the mountain summits, up to which the good hand of the Lord our God may lead us, devious and tottering though our steps be there. And the second of them lies by the side of the first, equal in altitude, equal in radiance—“before His presence.” If we are to connect that clause directly with the one which precedes it, it is intended to heighten the conception of the purity. If it is without blemish when it is submitted to the searching of that fierce light, it must be unblemished indeed. But if we take the words not to be thus connected, but to present a separate though cognate thought, they present the hope of a complete immersion in, and illumination by, the glorious presence in which we shall walk. Purity is the condition of that. We must be blameless in order to stand in the presence of God. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”—A. Maclaren, D.D.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jud_1:24-25

Contents:—Conclusion and Doxology

24Now64 unto him that is able to keep you65 from falling, and to present66 you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25To the only wise67 God our Saviour,68 be glory and69 majesty, dominion and power,70 both now and ever,71 Amen.72

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Jud_1:24. But to Him that is able, etc.—The praise of God blends with the comfortable assurance that God can and will keep them even to His throne.

τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ this conclusion greatly resembles that in Rom_16:25. Jud_1:21 might suggest the doubt “Shall we succeed to keep ourselves in the love of God?” This doubt Jude solves by his reference to the power of God.

To keep you; ὑμᾶς φυλάξαι. Protect you from the perils of seduction, and preserve you in love, Jud_1:21; cf. 2Th_3:3. [Alford: “The occurrence of αὐτούς (which is almost beyond doubt the true reading instead of ὑμᾶς of Rec. or ἡμᾶς of A), can only be accounted for by the supposition that St. Jude writes here, as of all to whom he has been addressing himself, in the third person, as if he was praying to God for them. His reason for not using ὑμᾶς may have been his desire to include also in the term those who might be convicted, rescued from the fire, and compassionated, as well as his more immediate reader. But it is hardly likely, in the solemn close of his Epistle, that he should mean by αὐτούς those only.”—M.]

From falling; ἅπταιστος, found only here, from πταίω, to stumble or strike against, cf. 2Pe_1:10; Jam_3:2; Jam_2:10. Stier: “Who does not make or has not made a false step in his walk.”

In the presence of His glory; cf. 2Pe_1:17. A special manifestation of it will take place at Christ’s coming to judgment.

Set; in that decisive day He will set them on His right hand and own them as His own, 2Th_1:7; 2Th_1:10; Mat_25:33; 1Co_6:2-3; Rev_1:5-6; Rev_3:21; Rev_5:10.

Faultless; ἄμωμος, Eph_1:4; Eph_5:27; Col_1:22; Heb_9:14; 1Pe_1:19; Rev_14:5. Without the stains of sin, so that even the devil, the arch-blamer, cannot reproach them with any thing, after they have been cleansed and washed, cf. 2Pe_3:14; Php_2:15.

With exceeding joy.—ἐν ἀγιαλλιάσει, cf. 1Pe_4:13; 1Pe_1:6-9; 2Ti_2:10; Rev_19:7.

Jud_1:25. To the only (wise) God, etc.—Amen.

μόνῳ, cf. 1Ti_1:17; Rom_16:27; applies to God the Father, cf. Joh_17:3; Rev. 15:14.

Our Saviour.—A predicate of God the Father, as the above-mentioned clause διὰ Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ κυριόυ ἡμων is probably genuine, as in 1Ti_2:3, and as the Father is called in the Old Testament Saviour and Redeemer, 1Sa_14:39; Psa_106:21; 2Sa_22:3; 1 Chron. 17:35. He is our Saviour through the mediation of the Son, for διά belongs to σωτῆρι, not to the sequel, cf. Tit_1:3; Tit_2:10; Tit_3:4. [See Appar. Crit., Jud_1:25, note 5.—M.]

Glory (and) majesty.—[See Appar. Crit., Jud_1:25; Jud_1:6.—M.], cf. 2Pe_3:18; Rom_11:36; Rom_16:27; Rev_1:6; μεγαλωσύνη, cf. Deu_32:3, 70 =גֹּדֶל, Heb_1:3; Heb_8:1. His wonderful greatness, as He is called in Scripture the Highest and Most High.

κράτος (German: power), strength. According to Roos, the essential, immovable strength of the Divine Being, which fainteth not, neither grows weary (Isa_40:28).

ἐξουσία [German: might), authority. His sovereignty, lordship and rule of all things. δόξα and κράτος are also found close together, 1Pe_4:11; 1Pe_5:11; Rev_1:6; Rev_5:13. Each of these attributes occurs in connection with one related to it. Stier defines the sense as follows: “The glorious majesty and the greatness of the love of God is praised for the good out of His fulness given, restored and preserved to His own; His mighty power is praised for the conquest of evil unto the victory of salvation attending the former.” We have probably to supply ἔστω, as 1Pe_4:11.

Amen, similar to the conclusion of other doxologies, Rom_1:25; 2Pe_3:18; so it is; it is assuredly true.

[The clauses διὰ Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν and πρὸ παντὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος have an important bearing, the first being “directed against heretics who separated Jesus from Christ, and did not acknowledge Him as the Giver of all grace from God;” the second as “asserting the eternal pre-existence of Christ against the false teachers.” (Wordsworth); from the latter, says Lillie, may be derived the liturgical formula: “As it was in the beginning.”—M.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Rieger:—“That which is impossible with men, is possible with God, who gladly uses His Divine power both in the first wakening of faith, Eph_1:19, and in keeping us to the end, Joh_10:28.” “For the good wrought in and by the accomplishment of His purpose of grace, honour and majesty are due to Him; for the evil conquered in and by the same power and might be ascribed to Him. Faith ascribes this doxology now, and hope is assured that there will be abundant cause for it throughout eternity.”

Starke:—God can do all things by His grace; this is the consolation of His elect and servants, Php_4:13.—O, eagerly-desired sight of the glory of Christ! Moses desired to see it in this life, and I cherish the same desire; but a sinful, guilty, mortal man may not see it, but in eternity I shall see it and not another, 1Jn_3:2; Psa_42:3, [cf. Job_19:27.—M.].—All the doings of men are evil, if they aim not at the spread of the honour and glory of God, 1Co_10:31.

Footnotes:

[64]Jud_1:24. [δέ, but, better than now; δέ here introduces an important thought, and is tantamount to: “False teachers may seek for glory elsewhere, but you will ascribe it all to God through Christ.” Wordsworth.—M.]

[65]Jud_1:24. Tischendorf reads αὐτοὺς applying to the deceived. De Wette says that this difficult reading ought to be preferred. He thinks that the author, soaring in devotion, turns, as it were, away from the readers, and yet means them. Untenable. If αὐτοὺς is genuine, it would confirm the view that Jud_1:22-23 refer to deceived believers. [ύμᾶς is the reading of C. G., Rec., Elz., Lachm., Vulg., Syr., Arab., Æthiop., al.—M.]

[66]Jud_1:24. [στῆσαι, German: stellen, to set. “The only instance, out of 19, in which a transitive form of ἵστημι is translated present in E. V.” Lillie.—M.]

[67]Jud_1:25. σόφῷ, omitted in A. B. C. Sin., and rejected by Griesb., Scholz., Lachm., Tischend., al.; it has probably crept in from 1Ti_1:17; Rom_16:27. [German retains it.—M.].

[68]Jud_1:25. Griesbach and other reliable authorities add: διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν. So Tischendorf. [It is found in A. B. C., Sin., G., al., and is therefore the authentic reading.—M.]

[69]Jud_1:25. [καὶ after δοξά cancelled by Lachm., Tischend., Meyer, Peyle, Wordsworth, al. It is wanting in Cod. Sin.—M.]

[70]Jud_1:25. Griesbach and others add after ἐξουσία, πρὸ παντὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος. Comprehensive description of eternity. Tischendorf pronounces the reading well-authenticated. [It is found in A. B. C., Cod. Sin., G., received by Scholz, Lachm., Tischend., Alford, Wordsworth, al., but not adopted by Fronmüller; it is the most authentic reading—M.]

[71] Jud_1:25. [εἰς πάντας τοὺς αἰῶνας, literally, “unto all the ages,” Germ.: “unto all eternities.” The Italian, tutti i secoli, and the French, ‘tous les siècles,’ are the most literal versions.

[German of both verses:—“But to Him that is able to keep you inoffensively, and to set you before the face of His glorious majesty unblamable with exceeding joy, to the only wise God be glory and highness, strength and power both now and in all eternities. Amen.”

[Translate:—“But to Him that is able to keep you from falling and to set you in the presence of His glory faultless with exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, strength and authority, before all eternity, and now and unto all the ages. Amen.”—M.

[72]Jud_1:25. [The Subscription:—Ιουδα επιστολη καθολικη.. C. al.: του αγιου αποστολου ιουδα επιστολη. L. al.: ετελειωθη συν θεω και η του ιουδα καθολικη επιστολη. δοξα σοι ο Θεος, οΘεος, ο Θεος, ο μακροθυμων επ’ εμοι τω αναξιω δουλω σου. K.: Ιουδα επιστολη. A.: Ιουδα B., Sin. Omitted by many Cursives.—M.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 38

THE FINAL DOXOLOGY: PRAISE TO GOD, THE PROTECTOR OF HIS SERVANTS.

Jud_1:24-25

FROM his severe and somber warnings and exhortations St. Jude turns in joyous and exulting confidence to Him who alone can make them effectual. He has spoken with sternness and horror of great wickedness which has been manifested both in the past and in the present, and of Gods terrible judgments upon it. He has exhorted his readers to beware of it, and not to let their abhorrence of it grow less when they are engaged in the merciful work of rescuing others from it. Now, in conclusion, he offers a fervent tribute of praise to Him who is a God of love as well as of justice, and who is as able and ready to protect those who cling to Him and serve Him as to punish those who murmur and rebel against Him.

The doxologies at the end of the Epistle to the Romans and at the beginning of the First Epistle to Timothy should be compared with this one. The former is nearest to it in form; and it is from the doxology in Romans that the epithet "wise," which the Authorized Version wrongly inserts both here and in 1Ti_1:17, probably comes. Doxologies, modeled on those in the New Testament, became elastic in some respects, and stereotyped in others. The formula "to the only wise God" was a common one, and hence scribes inserted the epithet perhaps almost mechanically, in places where it was not found in the original. It is quite possible that St. Jude knew the Epistle to the Romans, and his doxology, especially in its opening words, may be a conscious or unconscious imitation of it; for the Epistle to the Romans was written some years before the earliest date that can with any probability be assigned to this Epistle.

"To guard you from stumbling"; which in two respects is more than "to keep you from falling" Firstly, a guard preserves the idea of protection against perils, both manifest, and secret, more decidedly than "keep"; and secondly, one may have many stumbles without any falls, and therefore to be preserved from even stumbling implies a larger measure of care on the part of the protector. But even "to guard you from stumbling" does not quite do justice to the Greek (φυλαξαι υμας απταιστους), nor is it easy to do so. "Guard you so that you are exempt from stumbling and never trip or make false step" is the full meaning of the expression. The verb which is here negatived is used by St. James: {Jam_2:10} "Whosoever" shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble (πταιση) in one point, he is become guilty of all. The Vulgate lets go the metaphor of stumbling, and translates simply "to preserve you without sin" (conservare sine peccato). That which is impossible with men is possible with God, and the Divine grace can protect Christians against their own frailty. Christ says of His sheep that they shall assuredly never perish, and that no one, whether powers of evil or human seducers, can snatch them out of His hand. {Joh_10:28} Their wills are free, and they may will to leave Him; but if they determine to abide with Him they will be safe.

"And to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish." This is the blessed result of His protecting them from stumbling. The revised translation, "without blemish" (αμωμους), at first sight looks like a needless and vexatious change from the "faultless" of the Authorized Version, and a clumsy one, because it gives two English words for one Greek word. But the change is a real improvement, for the Greek word is a sacrificial term, which "faultless" is not. It is frequently used of victims, which must be "without blemish," in order to be suitable for offerings. It is not common in Classical Greek, but frequent in the LXX {Lev_1:3; Lev_1:10; Lev_22:21-24; Num_6:14; Num_19:2} In I Macc. 4:42 it is used of the priests, and so also in Philo ("De Merc. Met." 1.; "De Agric.," 29.: see Lightfoot on μωμοσκοπηθεν: Clem. Ro 41). In the New Testament it is used sometimes of the sinlessness of Christ, {Heb_9:14; 1Pe_1:19} sometimes of the ideal perfection of Christians. {Eph_1:4; Eph_5:27; Php_2:15} In the Epistle to the Colossians St. Paul has almost the same idea as St. Jude "to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him"; {Col_1:22} and again in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians-"to the end He may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His Saints". {1Th_3:13} "Before the presence of His glory" refers to the glory of God which shall be revealed at the last day.

"In exceeding joy" is a further consequence from the second point, as the second from the first. To be protected against stumbling leads to being presented without blemish before the judgment-seat, and this is an occasion of intense delight. As St. Peter puts it, "Inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings, rejoice; that at the revelation of His glory also ye may rejoice with exceeding joy". {1Pe_4:13}

"To the only God our Savior." St. Paul, like St. Jude, speaks of God the Father as our Savior. He is "an Apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior," {1Ti_1:1} and he says that intercession and thanksgiving for others" is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior". {1Ti_2:3} Still more fully he says that "God our Savior saved us through Jesus Christ our Savior" (Tit_3:4-6 : comp. Tit_1:3; Tit_2:10). The work of the Son is the work of the Father; and so in the Old Testament we have Jehovah spoken of as the Savior and Redeemer of His people. {Psa_106:21; Isa_41:15; Isa_41:21; Isa_49:26; Isa_60:16} And this is the meaning of the clause which textual criticism has restored to us in this passage. God is our Savior "through Jesus Christ our Lord." Some take these words with what follows. "To the only God be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, through Jesus Christ our Lord"; which makes excellent sense, and is in harmony with the doxology in 1Pe_4:11, "that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ." It is no strong objection to this to urge that in that case St. Jude would have reversed the order of the clauses (δοξα μεγαλωσυνη κρατος καια διαου ημων). In the doxology at the end of the Epistle to the Romans (which St. Jude may have in his mind) "through Jesus Christ" precedes "be the glory," and yet cannot easily be taken with anything else (omitting ω as a probable corruption). The combination "glory and dominion" occurs in other doxologies {Rev_1:6; Rev_5:13} majesty and power do not occur in any. "Majesty" in the New-Testament is found in Heb_1:3 and Heb_8:1 only; but it occurs in the LXX and in Clement of Rome (16:1). The doxology in 1Ch_29:11 is specially worthy of notice. The word seems to have been used almost exclusively of the majesty of God, and the four words together sum up the Divine glory and omnipotence. It is a little remarkable that in this case St. Jude abandons his favorite triplets, and gives four attributes rather than three. But he returns in a still more remarkable way to his favorite arrangement in the concluding words.

"Before all time, and now, and for evermore." Thus, in a very comprehensive phrase, eternity is described. Throughout all time, and throughout the ages which precede and follow it, these attributes belong to God. Evil men in their dreamings may "set at naught dominion and rail at glories," and their mouth may "speak great swelling words" about their own superior knowledge and greater liberty, and may mock and scoff at those who will not follow them in "walking after their own ungodly lusts." Nevertheless, ages before they were born, and ages after they shall have vanished from the world which they are troubling by their presence, glory, majesty, dominion, and power belong to Him who saves us, and would save even them, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

They belong to Him. This seems to be the meaning rather than that they are ascribed to Him. No verb is given in the Greek; neither "is," as in 1Pe_4:11 (εστιξατοτος), nor "be" (εστω), which in most doxologies may be understood. "To Him be glory before all time" is scarcely sense, for our wishes cannot influence the past. "To Him belongs glory before all time" is the statement of a simple fact.

It is those who know their own frailty and liability to sin; who know the manifold temptations which surround them, and the terrible attractiveness which many of them can present; who know from past experience what frequent and grievous falls are possible; that can best understand the statement of fact which this doxology contains, and the significance of it. He who can guard such creatures as we are from stumbling, in such a world as this, must be the only God; must be He who was, and is, and is to come; must possess throughout all time and all eternity the highest powers and glories which the heart of man can conceive. The wonders of the material universe impress us in our more solemn moments with feelings of awe, and reverence, and love for Him who is the Author of them all. How much more should the wonders of the kingdom of heaven do so. Out of sinful man to make a saint is more than to make a world out of nothing; and to keep sinful men from stumbling is more than to keep the stars in their courses. There is a free and rebellious will to be won and retained in the one case, whereas there is nothing but absolute and unresisting obedience in the other. The difference is that which is so beautifully expressed in the 103d and 104th Psalms. In the latter of these two exquisite songs of praise and thanksgiving Jehovah is praised as the Creator and Regulator of the world, in the former as the Pardoner and Preserver of His Servants. In the one case blessing and praise is offered to the Lord-

"Who laid the foundations of the earth,

That it should not be moved forever.

Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a vesture;

The waters stood above the mountains.

They went up by the mountains,

They went down by the valleys,

"Unto the place which Thou hadst founded for them.

Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over;

That they turn not again to cover the earth.

O Lord, how manifold are Thy works

In wisdom hast Thou made them all;

The earth is full of Thy riches.

Let the glory of the Lord endure forever;

Let the Lord rejoice in His works:

Who looketh on the earth, and it trembleth;

He toucheth the mountains, and they smoke."

Psa_104:5-6; Psa_104:8-9; Psa_104:34; Psa_104:31-32

But in the other song the Lord is praised, not so much in relation to the glorious universe which He creates and controls, but in relation to the spirits of men, whom He restores, and of angels, whom He retains, to willing obedience and service.

"Bless the Lord, O my Soul,

And forget not all His benefits;

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;

Who healeth all thy diseases;

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;

Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.

He hath not dealt with us after our sins,

Nor rewarded us after our iniquities.

For as the heaven is high above the earth,

So great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west,

So far hath He removed our transgressions from us.

Bless the Lord, ye angels of His;

Ye mighty in strength, that fulfill His word,

Hearkening unto the voice of His word,

Bless the Lord, all ye His hosts;

Ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure."

Psa_103:2-4; Psa_103:10-12; Psa_103:20-21

It is quite in harmony with such a strain as this that the joyous doxology with which St. Judes stern letter suddenly ends is written. Its clauses lend themselves to that parallelism which distinguishes Hebrew poetry, and they have not only the spirit, but the form, of a concluding strophe of praise.

"Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling,

And to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy,

To the only God our Savior,

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Glory, majesty, dominion and power,

Before all time, and now, and forevermore. Amen."

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

1:24 To have mercy (Hebrew khesed) has the overtones of making a covenant (see also 8:35, “loyalty”).

1:24-25 Jude concludes his letter with one of the most stirring doxologies in Scripture, and one quoted very often in liturgical settings. Jude’s wording makes it especially appropriate for his readers: They needed a renewed vision of God who could keep them from falling away, from succumbing to the enticing doctrine of false teachers. He has the glory, majesty, power, and authority to bring them safely into his glorious presence forever.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jud 1:24. Φυλάξαι αὐτοὺς ἀπταίστους, to keep you[11] free from stumbling) in contradistinction to those ungodly men. Αὐτοὺς, for ὑμᾶς, refers to the preceding announcements, as Mat 23:37.—κατενώπιον τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ, before the presence of His glory) before the presence of Himself, when He shall he revealed most gloriously.—ἀμώμους, without fault) in your own selves. This is antithetical to, free from stumbling.

[11] Why it is that both here and in the Germ. Vers. the pronoun αὐτοὺς has been translated by you (“euch”), this very note of the Gnomon indicates: to wit, the reading ὑμᾶς does not seem a probable one according to the decision of both Greek Ed.—E. B.

Αὐτοὺς is the reading of B (according to Tisch.) and Stephens’ Rec. Text. Ὑμᾶς, in C Vulg. and Elezev. Rec. Text. A has ἡμᾶς.—E.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jud_1:24-25. CONCLUSION OF THE EPISTLE BY A DOXOLOGY.

Τῷ ΔῈ ΔΥΝΑΜΈΝῼ] THE SAME COMMENCEMENT OF THE DOXOLOGY IN Rom_16:27.

ὙΜᾶς] WERE ΑὐΤΟΎς THE CORRECT READING, WE COULD HARDLY DO OTHERWISE THAN REFER IT TO THE LAST-MENTIONED ΟὛς ΔΈ, TO WHICH IT IS UNSUITABLE, AS THEY ARE NOT ἌΠΤΑΙΣΤΟΙ, WHO, AS SUCH, REQUIRE ONLY ΦΥΛΆΣΣΕΙΝ. THAT JUDE ACTUALLY WROTE ΑὐΤΟΎς: IN THE FLIGHT OF DEVOTION MAY HAVE TURNED FROM HIS READERS, AND SPOKE OF THEM IN THE THIRD PERSON (DE WETTE), IS HIGHLY IMPROBABLE.

ἈΠΤΑΊΣΤΟΥς] ἍΠ. ΛΕΓ., LITERALLY, WHO STRIKES NOT AGAINST; THEN FIGURATIVELY, WHO STUMBLES NOT, DOES NOT OFFEND; HERE IN THE MORAL SENSE AS ΠΤΑΊΩ, Jam_2:10; Jam_3:2; VULGATE: SINE PECCATO.

ΚΑῚ ΣΤῆΣΑΙ ΚΑΤΕΝΏΠΙΟΝ Τῆς ΔΌΞΗς ΑὙΤΟῦ ἈΜῶΜΟΥς] SCHOTT CORRECTLY REMARKS ON ΚΑΊ: THE SECOND EFFECT IS THE ULTIMATE RESULT OF THE FIRST, SO THAT ΚΑΊ MIGHT BE RENDERED BY AND SO, AND ACCORDINGLY. ΔΌΞΑ IS HERE THE GLORY OF GOD, AS IT WILL BE MANIFESTED AT THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. ON ΣΤῆΣΑΙ ἈΜΏΜΟΥς, COMP. 1Co_1:8; Col_1:22; 1Th_3:13. THE MEANING IS: WHO CAN EFFECT IT THAT YE MAY APPEAR AS ἌΜΩΜΟΙ BEFORE HIS JUDGMENT-SEAT.

ἘΝ ἈΓΑΛΛΙΆΣΕΙ] MENTIONS THE CONDITION IN WHICH CHRISTIANS WILL THEN BE FOUND; COMP. 1Pe_4:13.

Jud_1:25. ΜΌΝῼ ΘΕῷ] SEE Jud_1:4; Joh_5:44; Rom_16:27; 1Ti_1:17.

ΣΩΤῆΡΙ ἩΜῶΝ] MARKS, IN CONNECTION WITH ΔΙᾺ ἸΗΣΟῦ ΧΡ., THE ESSENTIAL CHRISTIAN ELEMENT IN THE IDEA OF GOD; ON ΣΩΤΉΡ AS A DESIGNATION OF GOD, COMP. 1Ti_1:1. SCHOTT INCORRECTLY JOINS ΜΌΝῼ ΘΕῷ WITH ΣΩΤῆΡΙ ἩΜῶΝ, AS IF IT MEANT: TO HIM WHO ALONE IS GOD, IN SUCH A MANNER THAT HE IS OUR SAVIOUR; AND THE REASON WHICH HE ASSIGNS: BECAUSE ΜΌΝΟς ΘΕΌς IS NEVER USED BY ITSELF, BUT ALWAYS OCCURS AS A DESIGNATION OF GOD RELATIVE TO OTHER ATTRIBUTES, IS CONTRADICTED BY Joh_5:44; ALSO BY 1Ti_1:17 AND JUDE Jud_1:4.

ΔΙᾺ ἸΗΣ. ΧΡΙΣΤΟῦ] BELONGS TO ΣΩΤῆΡΙ ἩΜῶΝ (SCHOTT), NOT TO ΔΌΞΑ Κ.Τ.Λ. (WIESINGER); IN THIS LATTER CASE IT WOULD BE PUT AFTER ἘΞΟΥΣΊΑ.

ΔΌΞΑ, ΜΕΓΑΛΩΣΎΝΗ Κ.Τ.Λ.] ΔΌΞΑ AND ΚΡΆΤΟς OCCUR FREQUENTLY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT DOXOLOGIES (SEE 1Pe_4:11); ΜΕΓΑΛΩΣΎΝΗ AND ἘΞΟΥΣΊΑ ONLY HERE; ΜΕΓΑΛΩΣΎΝΗ CORRESPONDS TO THE HEBREW גֹּדֶל, COMP. Deu_32:3, LXX.: ΔΌΤΕ ΜΕΓΑΛΩΣΎΝΗΝ Τῷ ΘΕῷ ἩΜῶΝ.

ΠΡῸ ΠΑΝΤῸς ΤΟῦ ΑἸῶΝΟς] BY THESE WORDS, WANTING IN THE REC., THE IDEA OF ETERNITY IS EXPRESSED IN THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE MANNER. NOT ἜΣΤΩ, BUT ἘΣΤΊ (DE WETTE, SCHOTT), IS TO BE SUPPLIED; COMP. 1Pe_4:11.

ἈΜΉΝ] THE USUAL CONCLUSION OF DOXOLOGIES, AS IN Rom_1:15; 1Pe_4:11, ETC.; IT STANDS IN THE EPISTLES TO THE GALATIANS AND HEBREWS, PROBABLY ALSO IN 2 PETER, AS HERE, AT THE END OF THE EPISTLE.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jud 1:24-25 . Final Benediction and Ascription . I have bidden you to keep yourselves in the love of God; I have warned you against all impiety and impurity. But do not think that you can attain to the one, or guard yourselves from the other, in your own strength. You must receive power from above; and that it may be so, I offer up my prayer to Him, who alone is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you before the throne of His glory, pure and spotless in exceeding joy. To Him, the only God and Saviour, belong glory, greatness, might, and authority throughout all ages.

Jud 1:24 . τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ φυλάξαι ὑμᾶς ἀπταίστους . Apparently a reminiscence [801] of Rom 16:25 f., τῷ δὲδυναμένῳ ὑμᾶς στηρίξαι … μόνῳ σοφῷ Θεῷ διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ , ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώ , ων . Similarly the noble doxology in Eph 3:20 , commences τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ . The reading ὑμᾶς is confirmed by the evidence of [802] and [803] , which was unknown to Alford when he endeavoured to defend the reading αὐτούς , found in KP and some inferior MSS.

[801] For the position and genuineness of this doxology see the Introduction and notes in Sanday and Headlam’s commentary, and the dissertations by Lightfoot and Hort in the former’s Biblical Essays , pp. 287 374.

[802] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[803] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

ἄπταιστος . Occurs in 3Ma 6:39 , μεγαλοδόξως ἐπιφάνας τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ ὁ τῶν ὅλων δυνάστης ἀπταίστους αὐτοὺς ἐρρύσατο : used here only in the N.T. The verb πταίω has the same figurative sense in Jas 2:10 ; Jas 3:2 , εἴ τις ἐν λόγῳ οὐ πταίει , οὗτος τέλειος ἀνήρ , 2Pe 1:10 , ταῦτα ποιοῦντες οὐ μὴ πταίσητέ ποτε .

στῆσαι κατενώπιον τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ ἀμώμους ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει . Cf. Mat 25:31-33 , ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ … στήσει τὰ μὲν πρόβατα ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ , Act 6:6 , οὓς ἔστησαν ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀποστόλων , Col 1:22 , παραστῆσαι ὑμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους καὶ ἀνεγκλήτους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ (which Lightfoot refers to present approbation rather than to the future judgment of God, comparing Rom 14:22 , 1Co 1:29 , 2Co 2:17 ; 2Co 4:2 ; 2Co 7:12 ; 2Co 12:19 ). In the present passage the addition of the words τῆς δόξης shows that the final judgment, the goal of φυλάξαι , is spoken of. Hort, in his interesting note on 1Pe 1:19 , τιμίῳ αἵματι ὡς ἀμνοῦ ἀμώμου καὶ ἀσπίλου Χριστοῦ , traces the way in which the words μῶμος “blame,” and ἄμωμος “blameless,” come to be used (in “the Apocrypha, the N.T., and other books which presuppose the LXX”) in the entirely unclassical sense of “blemish” and “unblemished” cf. Eph 1:4 ; Eph 5:27 , Heb 9:14 . In 2Pe 3:14 , ἀμώμητος seems to be used in the same sense. The word κατενώπιον is apparently confined to the Bible, where it occurs in Jos 1:5 ; Jos 21:42 , Lev 4:17 , Eph 1:4 , ἀμώμητος κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ ἐν ἀγάπῃ , κατένωπα is found in Hom. Il. 15:320. For ἀγαλλίασις see Hort’s note on 1Pe 1:6 , ἐν ᾧ ἀγαλλιασθε , “in whom ye exult”. The verb with its cognate substantives “is unknown except in the LXX and the N.T. and the literature derived from them, and in the N.T. it is confined to books much influenced by O.T. diction (Matt., Luke, Acts, 1 Pet., Jude, John, including Apoc.), being absent from the more Greek writers, St. Paul, and (except in quot.) Heb.… It apparently denotes a proud exulting joy, being probably connected closely with ἀγάλλομαι , properly ‘to be proud of,’ but often combined with ἥδομαι and such words.”

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He commendeth them to the grace of God, declaring sufficiently that it is God only that can give us that constancy which he requireth of us.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Concluding doxology.

Now--Greek, "But."

you--ALFORD, on inferior authority, reads, "them." You is in contradistinction to those ungodly men mentioned above.

keep . . . from falling--rather, "guard . . . (so as to be) without falling," or stumbling.

faultless--Greek, "blameless."

before the presence of his glory--that is, before Himself, when He shall be revealed in glory.

with exceeding joy--literally, "with exultation" as of those who leap for joy.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 24. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling] Who alone can preserve you from the contagion of sin, and preserve you from falling into any kind of error that might be prejudicial to the interests of your souls; and thus to present you faultless, or, as many others read, ασπιλους, without spot, alluding to the spotted garment mentioned above.

Before the presence of his glory] Where nothing can stand that does not resemble himself, with exceeding great joy, in finding yourselves eternally out of the reach of the possibility of falling, and for having now arrived at an eternity of happiness.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

24 Now unto him that is able to keep you. He closes the Epistle with praise to God; by which he shews that our exhortations and labors can do nothing except through the power of God accompanying them.

Some copies have “them” instead of “you.” If we receive this reading, the sense will be, “It is, indeed, your duty to endeavor to save them; but it is God alone who can do this” However, the other reading is what I prefer; in which there is an allusion to the preceding verse; for after having exhorted the faithful to save what was perishing, that they might understand that all their efforts would be vain except God worked with them, he testifies that they could not be otherwise saved than through the power of God. In the latter clause there is indeed a different verb, φυλάξαι, which means to guard; so the allusion is to a remoter clause, when he said, Keep yourselves

END OF THE EPISTLE OF JUDE

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(24, 25) Concluding Doxology.

(24) Now unto him that is able.—Comp. the conclusion Rom_16:25. It would be rash to infer from the similarity that St. Jude must have known the Epistle to the Romans; although there is nothing incredible in the supposition that he was acquainted with it. The Epistle had been in circulation probably for some ten years before St. Jude wrote. Doxologies no doubt became elastic formulas almost from the first.

To keep you from falling.—Better, to keep you unfallen. From his own warnings, denunciations, and exhortations, which have been severe and sombre throughout, St. Jude turns in joyous, exulting confidence to Him who alone can make them effectual. “Keep you,” or, guard you: not the more general word translated “preserved” in Jud_1:1, but another more in harmony with the present context, as indicating protection against the great perils just pointed out. A reading of much authority has “them” for “you”—to keep them unfallen. If it be correct, it may be explained as being in thought, though not in form, addressed to God, so that those to whom he is writing are spoken of in the third person.

Before the presence of his glory.—The glory that shall be revealed at the day of judgment. The meaning is, “Who can bring it to pass that you stand blameless before the judgment-seat” (Col_1:22; 1Th_3:13).

(25) To the only wise God our Saviour.—The coupling of “Saviour” with “God” is common in the Pastoral Epistles (1Ti_1:1; 1Ti_2:3; Tit_1:3; Tit_2:10; Tit_3:4). “Wise” must be omitted as wanting in authority. (See Note on Rom_16:27.) Doxologies became well-known forms with many variations: changes to something more familiar to the copyist might easily be made in transcribing.

After “Saviour” must be inserted, on the highest MS. authority, “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Wiclif and the Rhemish have the missing clause.

Glory and majesty, dominion and power. Omit the first “and.” “Glory” and “dominion” are frequent in the New Testament doxologies: the Greek words represented by “majesty” and “power” occur here only. After “power” we must supply, on overwhelming authority, “before all time.” Consequently “is” may be substituted for “be” before “glory;” but no verb is needed.

Both now and ever.—Better, and now and to all the ages; so that the whole will run thus: To the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, glory, majesty, dominion, and power, before all time, and now, and to all the ages. Thus we have a most comprehensive phrase for eternity—before time, time, after time—and thus the three-fold arrangement runs through to the very end.

Amen.—Common ending of a doxology. (Rom_1:25; 1Pe_4:11; 2Pe_3:18.) These ungodly men may “despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities,” may utter “great swelling words” about their own knowledge and liberty, and scoff at those who walk not with them; but still, ages before they were born, and ages after they have ceased to be, glory, majesty, dominion, and power belong to Him who saves us, and would save even them, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling] Better, able to keep you from stumbling. See note on the difference between “stumbling” and “falling,” on 2Pe_1:10. The form of the concluding doxology is determined naturally by the thoughts that have led up to it. The writer had been dwelling on the various ways in which men had stumbled and fallen. He now directs their thoughts to God as alone able to preserve them from a like disastrous issue.

to present you faultless before the presence of his glory] The adjective is a favourite one with St Paul (Eph_1:4; Eph_5:27; Php_2:15; Col_1:22) as describing the character of believers. In Heb_9:14 and 1Pe_1:19 it is used of the stainless purity of Christ. The “glory” spoken of is that which is to be manifested at the coming of Christ “in his own glory, and that of the Father, and of the Holy Angels” (Luk_9:26). Comp. also Tit_2:13.

with exceeding joy] Both adjective and substantive are expressed in Greek by the one word for “exulting joy” in Luk_1:14; Luk_1:44; Act_2:46.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling,.... The people of God are liable to falling into temptation, into sin, into errors and mistakes, from an exercise of grace, or from a degree of steadfastness in Gospel truths, and even into a final and total apostasy, were it not for divine power; and they are not able to keep themselves. Adam, in his state of innocence, could not keep himself from falling; nor could the angels, many of whom fell, and the rest are preserved by the grace of God; wherefore, much less can imperfect sinful men keep themselves, they want both skill and power to do it; nor can any, short of Christ, keep them, and it is his work and office to preserve them; they were given to him with this view, and he undertook to do it; and sensible sinners commit themselves to him, as being appointed for that purpose; and this is a work Christ has been, and is, employed in, and he is every way qualified for it: he is "able" to do it, for he is the mighty God, the Creator and upholder of all things; and as Mediator, he has all power in heaven and in earth; instances of persons kept by him prove it; and there is such evidence of it, that believers may be, and are persuaded of it: and he is as willing as he is able; it is his Father's will he should keep them, and in that he delights; and as he has undertook to keep them, he is accountable for them; besides, he has an interest in them, and the greatest love and affection for them; to which may be added, that the glory of the Father, Son, and Spirit, in man's salvation, depends on the keeping of them: and what he keeps them from is, from falling by temptations, not from being tempted by Satan, but from sinking under his temptations, and from being devoured by him; and from falling by sin, not from the being or commission of sin, but from the dominion of it, and from the falling into it, so as to perish by it; and from falling into damnable heresies; and from the true grace of God, and into final impenitence, unbelief, and total apostasy. Instead of "you", the Alexandrian copy reads "us", and some copies "them":

and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to himself, in this present state of things, as washed in his blood, and justified by his righteousness, and hereafter in the millennium state, and in the ultimate glory; and also to his Father, and this he died to do, and in some sense did it at his death, even in the body of his flesh, through death, and now as the representative of his people in heaven; and will at the last day, when he will deliver them up complete and perfect; all which is in consequence of his suretyship engagements: and this presentation is made "before the presence of his glory"; either before the glorious presence of Christ, or Christ himself, who is glorious, and will appear in glory, in his own, and in his Father's, and in his holy angels; or else before the glorious presence of God the Father, and who is glory itself: and the condition in which the saints are, and will be presented, is "faultless"; though they have sinned in Adam, and were so wretchedly guilty and filthy in their nature state, so prone to backslidings, and guilty of so many after conversion, and though a body of sin and death is carried by them to the grave; yet they will at last be presented by Christ in perfect holiness, in complete righteousness, and in the shining robes of immortality and, glory. The manner in which they will be presented is "with exceeding joy"; in themselves, for what they shall be delivered from, from sin and sorrow, and every enemy, and for the glory and happiness they shall then enjoy; and also in the ministers of the Gospel, who will then bring their sheaves with joy, and then will their converts be their joy and crown of rejoicing; and likewise this presentation will be with the joy of angels, for if they rejoice at the conversion of men, much more at their glorification; and even with the joy of Father, Son, and Spirit.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling - This ascription to one who was able to keep them from falling is made in view of the facts adverted to in the Epistle - the dangers of being led away by the arts and the example of these teachers of error. Compare Jud 1:3. On the ascription itself, compare the notes at Rom 16:25-27. The phrase “to keep from falling” means here to preserve from falling into sin, from yielding to temptation, and dishonoring their religion. The word used (ἀπταιστους aptaistous) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means properly, “not stumbling” as of a horse; then “without falling into sin, blameless.” It is God only who, amidst the temptations of the world, can keep us from falling; but, blessed be his name, he can do it, and if we trust in him he will.

And to present you faultless - The word here rendered “faultless” is the same which is rendered “unblamable” in Col 1:22. See the sentiment here expressed explained in the notes at that passage.

Before the presence of his glory - In his own glorious presence; before himself encompassed with glory in heaven. The saints are to be presented there as redeemed and sanctified, and as made worthy by grace to dwell there forever.

With exceeding joy - With the abounding joy that they are redeemed; that they are rescued from sorrow, sin, and death, and that heaven is to be their eternal home. Who now can form an adequate idea of the happiness of that hour?

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Now to him, &c. St. Jude concludes his epistle with this doxology of praising God, and praying to the only God, our Saviour, which may either signify God the Father, or God as equally agreeing to all the Three Persons [of the blessed Trinity], who are equally the cause of Christ’s incarnation and man’s salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who being God from eternity, took upon him our human nature, that he might become our Redeemer. (Witham) --- To whom, O Lord, can we give the glory of our salvation, unless to thee, to whom all is due? To whom can we consecrate our hearts, but to him who has redeemed them with his blood, sanctified them by his Spirit, and who is to make them happy by his glory? Reign there, O Lord, as on thy throne, now by thy love; that you may reign there hereafter with glory, magnificence, and sovereignty in heaven.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Able to keep you from falling; from stumbling in your spiritual course, and so able to make you persevere to the end.

Before the presence of his glory; or, his glorious presence, i.e. before himself, Eph 5:27. Having exhorted these saints to perseverance in the faith, he now tells them in whose strength they must stand, and to whom they are to give the glory of it.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

24. Closing doxology.

Now—Literally, but. The now impresses the reader as announcing the close of the train of thought and the starting of a liturgical conclusion, which is here applicable, but not the true thought of the word. The purpose is to contrast the perseverance and blamelessness of the beloved with the secession and impurity of the errorists. This doxology is in the spirit and style of Rom_16:25.

Keep you—Assuming it to be your purpose to be kept. For you many copies have them; and then it is a sort of closing prayer of the writer, apart, for them, his readers, his beloved brethren. But Tischendorf has you, which is far more natural.

From falling—Into the corruptions and apostasies of these separatists.

Faultless—Unstained from the spots of Jud_1:23.

Before… his glory— Presence of, might here be omitted, and his glory is almost a name for the divine Being. But the antithesis between keep and present suggests that the keeping is to be during our probation, and the presenting faultless is to be before the judgment throne.

Exceeding joy—Literally, a leaping for joy; an exultant jubilation over an accomplished work.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 24, 25. The Epistle closes with a doxology of a high and solemn strain, resembling in some respects that with which the Epistle to the Romans concludes, and couched in terms befitting what has just been said of danger and duty. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling. The writer has counseled the readers to keep themselves in the love of God. He has also set before them the attitude they ought to adopt toward different classes, and has not concealed the peril to themselves which the discharge of Christian duty to others may involve. Recognizing how short the way is that brotherly counsel or personal effort can carry one in these solemn and arduous obligations, he now reminds his readers of a higher power that is available for their help and protection, and commends them to that as their best, their only security. The risk of falling or stumbling, as it rather means, is great. Only the omnipotence of God can "keep" them from it or protect them against it, the word for "keeping" being one which expresses the idea of "guarding." And to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. The terms here again are exceedingly vivid, the one which is rendered "present" meaning to "set one up" or "make one stand," and the "faultless" being the adjective "without blemish" which is applied to the Levitical offerings in the Old Testament, and to Christ himself in 1Pe_1:19. The "glory" here in view is that of the last day, when he to whom all judgment is committed returns to execute that judgment in his own glory and that of his Father. (Tit_2:13) The "exceeding joy" expresses the feeling with which it shall be given to the faithful to meet that day. The Revised Version, therefore, more correctly renders it, "And to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy." Weak and vulnerable as they are, God"s grace is mighty to do these two things for them to protect them through time, and at the end of time to make them stand the scrutiny of the Judge like men in whom no blemish is discovered, and to whom that day brings exultant joy. To the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore (or, unto all the ages). So the Revised Version renders it, in accordance with the best-authenticated text. Documentary evidence renders it necessary to omit the "wise" in the "only wise God" of the Authorized Version, to insert the clause, "through our Lord Jesus Christ," to omit the "and" before the "majesty," and to adopt the extended expression of duration in the closing sentence. Thus the largest possible ascription of praise is made to God. It is the ascription of an honour which is confessed to belong to him eternally, before the world was, as well as in the present, and on to the eternity which is yet to enter. This is his in his character of Saviour Preserver of them that are tending to fall, Redeemer of the weak and sinful; and, therefore, it is "through Jesus Christ.

Vers. 24, 25. The grace of God the believer"s first and last dependence.

"Now unto him that is able to keep you," etc. Only his power can protect us from our own weakness and sin and error, and make us capable of standing, and purify us for the manifestation of the great day. But that grace is sufficient, and it is at hand to give success to our own efforts in keeping ourselves in the asylum of God"s love. "Full of consolation," says the writer immediately quoted, "must have been the thought in days when danger pressed on every side, and ungodly men, bringing with them all error of doctrine and viciousness of life, had crept into the very fold whither the faithful had turned for safety. Equally comforting must it prove m an age when the name of Christ is made the cloak for strange oppositions to his teaching and his example, and when in the wide wilderness of error it is difficult to discern the narrow pathway of truth.

Vers. 24, 25. The doxology.

I THE PERSON TO WHOM PRAISE IS ASCRIBED. "Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

1. It is God our Saviour presented under a double aspect.

(1) As he who alone can keep us from stumbling or falling. The allusion is appropriate to an Epistle so full of warnings and denunciations and exhortations, and which began with an address to saints as those "preserved for Christ Jesus." We stand by faith, and we can only stand strong "in the Lord, and in the power of his might." "He that hath begun a good work in us will perform it till the day of Christ Jesus". (Php_1:6)

(2) As he who will present us in final glory.

(a) "Without blemish;" for the Church will then be "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.

(b) "In exceeding joy," where there is fullness of joy; for he "who is self-sufficient, all-sufficient, must needs be soul-sufficient.

2. The final glory comes through Jesus Christ. The salvation, in its beginning, progress, and end, is the Lord"s.

II THE PRAISE ASCRIBED TO GOD. "Be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen." These men who despised dominion, and spoke evil of dignities, are told that all dominion and glory belonged to God ages before they were born, as they do still in the ages of time, and will do for ever through eternity, Mark the threefold phrase for "eternity," as if to carry the threefold idea of everything out to the very end. T.C.

Vers. 24, 25. The sublime character of Christian prayer, it is permitted us to pray for temporal supplies and all things which are necessary for the life of the body; but the general current of petitions recorded in the New Testament has regard to the worth of spiritual advantages, and the enduring blessedness of the life to come. Jude teaches us to pray for ourselves and for others, that when our Lord shall appear the second time there may be acceptance and welcome. It is an immense privilege to be kept "from falling" or stumbling, from the prevalence of doubts, trust in ceremonies, and from being surprised by grievous sins. This precious safety must flow from him who has power over the external conditions of our life, and over the inward processes of thought and meditation, and can strengthen us by his Spirit "in the inner man." The desire expressed by Jude includes the continuance and completeness of the process of sanctification; the attainment, through the mighty power of Christ, of a glorified body on the day of the resurrection; and entrance into the inheritance of the saints in light. Notice

I THE WISDOM OF SOLICITING THE COOPERATION OF DIVINE POWER TO ESTABLISH AND PRESERVE CHRISTIAN WORK. It is instructive to observe the pains and care with which inspired apostles marshaled their arguments when they wrote to the Churches. It is impossible not to admire the fervour and urgency with which they exhort believers to avoid inconstancy, worldliness, and evil associations; and at the same time, they wisely introduce promises, encouragements, and cheering prospects to prompt them to make their "calling and election sure." They then supplicate grace to give effect to their work, and to fulfill the desire of their hearts. The seed which is sown needs the rain and sunshine of heaven to make it prosper, that he who has sown in tears may come back "with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." This truth is illustrated by a very cheering passage which describes the happy experience of Paul and Apollos, in which we find the zeal and power of the apostle of the Gentiles, and the learning and eloquence of Apollos, applied to the work of the ministry, and the happy success with which the Divine blessing crowned their labours; for said Paul, "I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase". (1Co_3:6)

II THE HAPPINESS OF CONCLUDING OUR WORK WITH GRATITUDE TO THE SOURCE OF ALL GOOD. Jude reached the close of the Epistle with the conviction that the Divine love seen in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit should awaken feelings of fervent thanksgiving. The Father is the Fountain of salvation; the Son, the Medium of grace to us, and the Way of our approach to God; the Holy Spirit enables us to realize and enjoy the blessings of the covenant of grace. It is right to ascribe to God the "glory," which is the manifestation of his excellence in the past, the present, and wondrous future; "majesty," which consists in royal state; "dominion," which is supreme over all things and beings; "power," whereby he can realize the counsels of his own will, and his right to our eternal adoration and service. Such is the close of the Epistle, and such should be the close of our life-work. In this way David ended his career, and said, "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as Head above all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious Name". (1Ch_29:11-13) Amen. J.S.B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now to him who alone is able to keep them from falling - Into any of these errors or sins. And to present them faultless in the presence of his glory - That is, in his own presence, when he shall be revealed in all his glory. Please see Notes at Matt. i, 1

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Concluding doxology:

v. 24. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,

v. 25. to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Here is both praise of God and wonderful comfort for the believers: But to Him that is able to preserve you from slipping and to set you before His glory blameless in exultation, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, strength, and authority before all ages and now and unto all ages. Amen. Where human strength and ability are insufficient, where all our power falls short of the goal, there the almighty, gracious power of our heavenly Father comes to our assistance. He is able to keep us so that our feet do not slip, that we do not stumble and fall. It is through His everlasting mercy that we shall be set before Him on the last day faultless, not in our own righteousness, but in that of our great Champion, and therefore filled with unspeakable joy and happiness. 1Th 5:23-24; Col 1:22; 1Pe 4:13. He it is to whom our praises rise now and in eternity, the one and only God, who is truly our Savior, both because He was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, and because He gave His only Son as a sacrifice for the sin and guilt of the whole world. To Him we therefore ascribe, in our prayer of praise and thanksgiving, all glory, majesty, strength, and authority, as it was in the beginning, before the beginning of time, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Rom 16:27; 1Ti 1:17. Amen, Amen, that is: Yea, yea, it shall be so.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. How our apostle shuts up his exhortation with prayer; having exhorted them to duty, he commends them to the divine grace, intimating, that the fruit of all must be expected from God, without whose blessing all exhortations and endeavours will nothing avail.

Observe, 2. The person who is the object of prayer and praise, Christ, described by his power.

1. He is able to keep us from falling; that is, from apostasy: he speaks not of his absolute power, so Christ is able to keep us from all sin, but of such a power as is engaged by promise and office; all believers are Christ’s charge, and he will preserve them from final destruction.

2. He is able to present us faultless. It is Christ’s office to preserve his church until he presents it spotless to the Father, before the presence of his glory that is, at his glorious appearance, when he shall come to judge the world with exceeding joy; on both sides, no doubt, both on Christ’s part and ours.

O sweet interview betwixt Christ and believers! he will joy to see us, as well as we rejoice to see him.

Learn, That Christ will one day make a solemn presentation of his people unto God.

2. That when he doth present them, he will present them faultless.

3. That the day in which he does present them, will be a very glorious day in itself, and a very joyful day to all his people; when the impenitent world howl, they shall triumph.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24. “And unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and enable you to stand in the presence of His glory, blameless, with rejoicing.” This is Jude’s beautiful benediction. This refers to the Lord’s coming in His glory to receive His ready Bride (for which I am on the constant outlook). “Blameless” is the better translation, as we will not be faultless till transfigured. Sanctification, which is as far as we can go till the Lord comes, does not make us faultless, but leaves us encumbered with infirmities so long as we are in the fallen bodies. Justification makes us innocent. Sanctification makes us blameless, but glorification sweeping

away all the collateral infirmities of mind and body makes faultless like the angels. Entire sanctification prepares us to meet our Lord descending in His glory. Then after the resurrection of “the dead in Christ” (1Th 4:17), the living members of the Bridehood will be changed, i.e., transfigured, and made faultless and “caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and be ever with the Lord.”

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24, 25. Now unto him. God. Who is able. To work out our full salvation. Before the presence of his glory. In his glorious presence.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

24, 25. The beautiful ending of the Epistle grows naturally out of the preceding words. The thought of the fate that attends those who have gone astray leads to a prayer that the faithful may be preserved in their faith. Compare the opening words with Rom 16:25.

ἀπταίστους only here in N.T., but the verb πταίω occurs in 2Pe 1:10 οὐ μὴ πταίσητέ ποτε in a very similar connexion: also in Jas 2:10; Jas 3:2.

στῆσαι κατενώπιον κ.τ.λ. The thought of Col 1:22 is very like this: παραστῆσαι ὑμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους καὶ ἀνεγκλήτους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ, εἴ γε ἐπιμένετε τῇ πίστει. Compare also Eph 1:4 εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ ἐν ἀγάπῃ. These two passages—certainly the last—refer to the present life. Jude is speaking of the future.

ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει. The substantive occurs in the Greek fragment of Enoch, Jud 1:2 “the years of their joy πληθυνθήσεται ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει.”

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24. τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ … ἀγαλλιάσει. “Now to him that is able to guard you without stumbling, and to make you stand before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy.” The dative depends upon the attribution implied in δόξα, κ.τ.λ., in ver. 25; but as the attribution refers at once to past, present, and future, it is not possible to supply any definite verb. The doxology in Rom 16:25 begins with the same words, τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ: cf. also Eph 3:20. Ἀπταίστους, “surefooted,” is used of a horse which does not stumble, Xen. Eq. i. 6, and of a good man who does not make moral stumbles, Epictetus, Frag. 62; M. Antoninus, v. 9. The word is probably suggested here by οὐ μὴ πταίσητέ ποτε, 2Pe 1:10. Στῆσαι, “to make you stand,” is probably more than “to present,” though we may compare παραστῆσαι ὑμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους καὶ ἀνεγκλήτους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ, Col 1:22, or Act 6:6, οὓς ἔστησαν ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀποστόλων. But we seem to have here the notion of standing in the judgment, cf. Eph 6:13. For δόξης and ἀγαλλιάσει, see 1Pe 4:13.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To keep you from falling [φυλαξαι υμας απταιστους] . Lit., " to keep you without stumbling. Only here in New Testament. See the kindred word offend. Rev., stumble, Jas 2:10; Jas 3:2.

Exceeding joy [αγαλλιασει] . See on 1Pe 1:6.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.