Jude 1:12

Autumnal trees, fruitless, twice dead, uprooted. A tree is dead which does not bear good fruit; but one that has also produced the fruit of evil work is called a twice-dead tree. And if he who refuses to bear the fruit of good work is …

The apostle's words about these men who will not be pardoned have to be understood metaphorically. For he is not talking about stars and clouds, waves and trees, though he uses them as examples, because what they have they have by nature, whereas these men …

These are spots in your feasts of charity,.... Or "love". The Jews speak סעודתיה דמהימנותא, "of a feast of faith" (b).

Observe, It is a great reproach, though unjust and accidental, to religion, when those who profess it, and join in the most solemn institution of it, are in heart and life unsuitable and even contrary to it: These are spots. Yet how common in all Christian societies here on earth, the very best not excepted, are such blemishes!

Spots in your feasts of charity - It appears that these persons, unholy and impure as they were, still continued to have outward fellowship with the Church!

spots--So 2Pe 2:13, Greek, "spiloi"; but here the Greek is spilades, which elsewhere, in secular writers, means rocks, namely, on which the Christian love-feasts were in danger of being shipwrecked.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

WHEN the Church of God is extending her bounds rapidly, it is of the utmost importance that the growth should be real and permanent. If the walls of Zion are being built quickly, the master builders should keep an anxious eye upon the workmanship lest the stones should be put together with untempered mortar and the whole erection should, by-and-by, come to the ground. We desire not to grow up in a night, as the gourd, lest we also perish in a night.

WHEN the Church of God is extending her bounds rapidly, it is of the utmost importance that the growth should be real and permanent. If the walls of Zion are being built quickly, the master builders should keep an anxious eye upon the workmanship lest the stones should be put together with untempered mortar and the whole erection should, by-and-by, come to the ground. We desire not to grow up in a night, as the gourd, lest we also perish in a night. Our Lord Jesus, who is the great Shepherd of the sheep, sends to His Churches, at times when they are most prospering, sad reminders of human frailty by which He warns them to, "take heed that they be not deceived; but see to it that they make sure work, and build substantially, with gold, silver, and precious stones, and not with wood, and hay, and stubble." It is a very doleful season for the Church of God when everything is asleep, but there are dangers connected even with activity. When a man is under the intense excitement of earnest endeavor for Christ, it is possible that much within him may be spurious—a mere fungus growth forced out by heat—and hence it is deeply necessary, as Jude says, to write unto the saints and to speak unto Believers concerning this thing, that they be sound, true, real, sincere and approved in the sight of God. Jude tells us in the text, and indeed in his whole Epistle, that many who make a high profession are not what they profess to be, and that in the Church of God, in her best estate, many are clouds without rain, trees without fruit and wandering stars reserved for eternal darkness. I. To come to the text at once, we have to remark from it that WE MUST EXPECT TO FIND UNGODLY MEN IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. They ought not to be there—the Church is bound to use her most earnest endeavors to keep them out—and, being in and being discovered, she should not be slow to cast them forth.

These are spots - See the notes at 2Pe 2:13. The word used by Peter, however, is not exactly the same as that used here. Peter uses the word, σπἶλοι spiloi; Jude, σπιλάδες spilades. The word used by Jude means, properly, “a rock” by or in the sea; a cliff, etc. It may either be a rock by the sea, against which vessels may be wrecked, or a hidden rock “in” the sea, on which they may be stranded at an unexpected moment. See Hesyehius and Pollux, as quoted by Wetstein, “in loc.” The idea here seems to be, not that they were “spots and blemishes” in their sacred feasts, but that they were like hidden rocks to the mariner. As those rocks were the cause of shipwreck, so these false teachers caused others to make shipwreck of their faith. They were as dangerous in the church as hidden rocks are in the ocean. In your feasts of charity - Your feasts of love. The reference is probably to the Lord’s Supper, called a feast or festival of love, because: (1) It revealed the love of Christ to the world; (2) It was the means of strengthening the mutual love of the disciples: a festival which love originated, and where love reigned. It has been supposed by many, that the reference here is to festivals which were subsequently called “Agapae,” and which are now known as “love-feasts” - meaning a festival immediately “preceding” the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. But there are strong objections to the supposition that there is reference here to such a festival. (1) There is no evidence, unless it be found in this passage, that such celebrations had the sanction of the apostles. They are nowhere else mentioned in the New Testament, or alluded to, unless it is in 1Co. […]