Jude 1:24-25 meaning

Jude praises God, for it is God who can keep us from falling away from His fellowship, so that we can stand before Him one day without blame and with deep happiness, rather than shame. It is God who has saved us, through His Son Jesus. He deserves all glory forever, He is sovereign over all things throughout all of time. This we believe is so.

The concluding two verses of the epistle of Jude furnish a doxology, a formulation of praise towards God who is the object of the faith for which Jude exhorts the letter’s recipients to contend.

Verse 24 extols God’s ability to preserve the believers: Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy (v 24).

Jude just warned believers who try to shore up the faith of those who stumbled to do so “with fear” (Jude 1:23) lest they themselves stumble. But the thing they can lean on is not their own strength. Rather it is God, who is able to keep them from stumbling. This is a great comfort, that

this great endeavor of contending for the faith is not something we do alone. Rather it is something we do in the power of God.

When we walk in His power, we can look forward to a glorious result: stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy. Every believer will be judged for the deeds they do while living on earth (2 Corinthians 5:10). There will be great joy associated with hearing “well done” (Matthew 25:21) and seeing that our deeds were “gold, silver, precious stones” that are refined and preserved in the fire of God’s judgment (1 Corinthians 3:12-13). We do not want to be of those who miss out on this great joy.

Jude ends with a dedication: to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen (v 25).

This benediction elevates God as our Savior. It is God who has redeemed us from the penalty of sin, sin which separates us from relationship with God. God reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord. Every sin was nailed to the cross with Jesus (Colossians 2:14). Jesus bore the sins of the world for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jude ends in recognition that it is God and Jesus Christ that deserve all glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. The bedrock of our faith is the belief that God is over all, commands all, and has our best interest in mind. It is not that this is something new. Rather it has been this way before all time. The eternally existent “I AM” is outside of time, and existed before time.

Not only that, God is over all things now and will be forever. Satan’s temptation of both Eve and Jesus was for them to rely on their own strength and knowledge apart from dependence on their Creator. Jude desires the opposite, and asserts that in relying upon God’s sovereign care over creation, we as humans are actually seeking our greatest joy (Jude 1:24).

For further insight on this topic, the commentaries on Hebrews 2 and Psalm 8 explore how God has appointed humans to share with Jesus in having dominion over the earth, which restores humanity to its original design, to reign over the earth in harmony with God, creation, and one another.

Jude ends with a simple Amen. In our modern era, we tend to think of “amen” as “the prayer is ended.” Amen translates the Greek word “amen,” so “amen” is a transliteration. It means “so be it” or “it is surely true.” By adding “amen” to his comment about going to Jesus’s heavenly kingdom, Jude is likely saying “It is true, and I look forward to it.” Interestingly, the Hebrew word for “amen” comes from the Hebrew root “aman” which means “believe,” “faith,” or “trust.” So in ancient Hebrew society when Amen was said at the end, it seems to have meant “I have faith/trust in what was spoken.”

So this ending transcends Jewish and Gentile culture, and is a fitting end to Jude’s admonition for believers to contend for the faith, trusting in God to provide the strength, and trusting that His ways are for our best.

Biblical Text

24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

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Additional Resources

Book Theme

Jude, the servant and half-brother of Jesus (and the full brother of James, who wrote the epistle of James and was an elder of the Jerusalem church), greets his readers, who are also believers in Jesus, loved by God the Father, called to live a life of faith. Jude extends a blessing of mercy, peace, and love to his audience.

Jude felt this letter was necessary to write to encourage his readers to fight for the faith. There are certain unnamed false teachers who have come into their assembly who are using God’s forgiveness as an excuse to sin and to reject Jesus as Lord.

Jude appeals to examples from the Old Testament as proof to what he is writing about. God saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, but He did not allow the unbelieving Israelites to receive the reward of the Promise Land. Likewise, He punished demons by chaining them in darkness until the Judgment at the end of time. Further, He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sinfulness. These are each examples that God judges sin, disobedience, and faithlessness.

Just as the examples of sin and faithlessness previously described, the men who are corrupting Jude’s readers will be judged by God. The false teachers will be punished for their deceptions, and to follow them will only lead to loss of reward and fellowship with God.

Jude quotes a prophecy from Enoch, detailing how God will judge the ungodly for their sinful deeds. Sins like grumbling, fault-finding, acting upon lust, arrogance, manipulating people to gain power over them—God will punish such behaviors.

Bearing in mind that God will punish sin, Jude urges his readers to remember what the apostles teach. It is not unexpected that mocking, lustful men will come to cause divisions in the church. This is something the apostles have warned about. But believers can stand firm in the faith, pray under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and thus can maintain their fellowship with God. In doing so, believers can help other stumbling believers avoid losing their rewards and right themselves in their faith-walk with God.