Bible Strands
Jude 1:4
For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed—ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jude writes to a community he addresses as "Beloved," urging them to contend for the faith (v.3) because ungodly men have already slipped inside. The moment is diagnostic: he names what is already happening before he reminds them of the pattern (v.5).
The words — παρεισδύνειν (pareisdynō) literally means to force one's way in alongside, not through the front door; the prefix παρὰ marks lateral, covert entry rather than open confrontation. προγεγραμμένοι (progegrammenoi) is "pre-written," a term of fixed decree, not general prediction.
The thread — 2 Peter 2:1 mirrors the stealth: false teachers "secretly bring in" destructive heresies. Galatians 2:4 uses the same logic of undercover infiltration ("false brothers had come in under false pretenses").
Why it lands — The threat is not a foreign assault but an internal one that exploits the very grace meant to protect the community. The reader is asked to watch for the specific sign—grace redefined as license, lordship denied—rather than to wait for an obvious attack.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Cross-references
- 2 Peter 2:1 Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
- Galatians 2:4 This issue arose because some false brothers had come in under false pretenses to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us.
- 2 Peter 2:10 Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.
- Titus 1:15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
- 1 Peter 2:16 Live in freedom, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
- 2 Peter 2:18 With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.
- 1 John 2:22 Who is the liar, if it is not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son.
- 1 Peter 2:8 and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word—and to this they were appointed.
- 2 Peter 2:5 if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;
- Romans 6:1 What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase?