This is the ninth lesson in a series of lessons on the book of Jude. In this lesson I do an exposition of Jude 1:6.
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Transcript:
Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. This is the ninth lesson in a series of lessons on the book of Jude. In this lesson I'm going to talk about verse six.
In the first lesson in this series I talked about why Jude was written and why it's in the Bible. Essentially, Jude recognized that people had secretly crept into the church who were turning the grace of God into sensuality and denying Jesus. He wrote to address those issues.
For the purposes of this series of lessons, I've divided Jude into five sections. The first section is the introduction. The second section reminds us that Jesus is a judge. The third section describes the problem. The fourth section states how Christians should respond to the problem. The fifth section is the conclusion. In this lesson I'm going to look at verse six, which is part of the second section reminding us that Jesus is a judge.
Before we get into that, let's talk about why Jude reminded us that Jesus is a judge. In verse four we see why Jude wrote the book of Jude. He recognized that people had crept into the church who were turning the grace of God into sensuality.
Jude 1:4 For certain people crept in secretly, those who were long ago designated into this judgment, ungodly people turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude wrote to refute that. The way he did that is in verses five, six, and seven he talked about Jesus being a judge. He reminded us that Jesus is not only gracious, but He is also a judge. He reminded us with three illustrations. He talked about the Exodus. He talked about angels. And he talked about Sodom and Gomorrah. In this lesson we are looking at verse six where he talked about angels.
With that as some background, let’s get started in verse three. We'll read verses three and four which tell us why Jude wrote this book. Then we'll read verse five which is the first example of Jesus being a judge. Then we'll get into verse six which is the subject of this lesson, where Jude uses the example of angels to remind us that Jesus is a judge.
Jude 1:3 Beloveds, making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you urging you to contend for the faith which has been delivered over once for all to the saints.
Jude 1:4 For certain people crept in secretly, those who were long ago designated into this judgment, ungodly people turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:5 Now I want to remind you, you who know all things once for all, that Jesus, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.
Jude 1:6 And angels, the ones not keeping their own realm but having left their own dwelling, He kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
We see in verse six that Jude was talking about angels. He was talking about the angels who did not keep their own realm and who left their own dwelling. Then he stated that those angels were kept in eternal bonds for the judgment of the great day. Let's take a closer look at this.
Let's talk about the word angels. That's a translation of the Greek word aggelous. Let's look at some usages of that word in the New Testament.
Luke 7:24 When the messengers of John had left, He began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
In this verse the Greek word aggelous is translated messenger. An angel is a messenger. In this case it's referring to the messengers of John the Baptist.
Mark 13:32 “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
This usage is more like what we typically think of when we think of angels: angels in heaven. The meaning of the word is messenger, so we can also think of angels as being messengers from heaven.
Luke 22:43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.
This repeats the idea of angels being spiritual beings.
I believe that's what Jude was referring to in Jude 1:6. He was talking about angels or messengers from the spiritual realm.
Jude 1:6 And angels, the ones not keeping their own realm but having left their own dwelling, He kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
Jude was specifically talking about angels, or messengers, who did not keep their own realm and who left their own dwelling. Let's take a closer look at that concept.
Let's look at the word realm. That word comes from the Greek word archen. Let’s look at some examples of that word being used in the New Testament.
Rev. 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Here, the Greek word archen is translated beginning.
Titus 3:1 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed,
Here, the Greek word archen is translated rulers.
When Jude wrote about angels who did not keep their own realm, he was referring to angels who did not keep to the place they had from the beginning, or the place where they were supposed to rule.
Jude 1:6 And angels, the ones not keeping their own realm but having left their own dwelling, He kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
We also see that these angels left their own dwelling. The word dwelling comes from the Greek word oiketerion. Let’s look at that word.
2Cor. 5:2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven,
Here, oiketerion is also translated dwelling. Jude was referring to angels, or messengers, who left their own realm, they left the area that they had been assigned to from the very beginning, and they left the place where they were supposed to be dwelling. In other words, Jude was referring to angels who left their proper place and left their proper function.
Because of that, they were kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
Jude 1:6 And angels, the ones not keeping their own realm but having left their own dwelling, He kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
Let's look closer at this. They were kept. That means that God was keeping these angels somewhere. He was keeping them under bonds. The word bonds is the idea of being in prison. Notice that these are eternal bonds, so this is an eternal imprisonment. They will never be released from this. This imprisonment is described as being dark. We see that the reason they’re being kept is they're being kept for a judgement. It specifically talks about the judgment of the great day. Let’s look at the concept of the judgment of the great day.
Matt. 10:15 “Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
In the New Testament time period, there was this concept of a future day, which would be a day of judgment. We're not told when that will be. We don’t have a lot of details about it other than we know that at some point in the future, there's going to be this big thing called the Day of Judgment. We see this in Matthew 12.
Matt. 12:41 “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
2Pet. 2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
Again, there's this concept in the New Testament about a future day which will be a day of judgment.
That's what Jude was referring to in his letter.
Jude 1:6 And angels, the ones not keeping their own realm but having left their own dwelling, He kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
These angels who did not keep to their proper abode and who did not keep to their proper function that they had had from the beginning were being kept in bonds for the judgment of the great day.
This concept of angels having left their proper function and being kept for judgment is a concept we see in other verses in the New Testament.
2Pet. 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
Rev. 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Again, we see this concept of angels who had followed Satan and they will be punished for following Satan.
Let's talk again about why Jude referred to these angels, Jude pointed out that there were some angels who had left their proper function and they were being kept for the Day of Judgment. Why did Jude mention that?
The reason Jude wrote the book of Jude is there were people in the church who were turning the grace of God into sensuality. They were abusing grace. They had this idea that since God is gracious, then there are not consequences for sin. Therefore, sin is not serious. Jude wrote to refute that.
One of the arguments Jude used to refute that is the reality that there are angels who left their proper abode and they are being kept by God in bonds for the judgment of the great day. That's a reminder to us that Jesus is not only gracious, He is also a judge, and we should live our lives accordingly.
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Scripture quotations from Jude taken from a translation by Bible Mountain.
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