Jude 1:4 (DRB)

Passage

For certain men are secretly entered in (who were written of long ago unto this judgment), ungodly men, turning the grace of our Lord God into riotousness and denying the only sovereign Ruler and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Nearby Context

Jude 1:2 Mercy unto you and peace: and charity be fulfilled.

Jude 1:3 Dearly beloved, taking all care to write unto you concerning your common salvation, I was under a necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.

Jude 1:4 For certain men are secretly entered in (who were written of long ago unto this judgment), ungodly men, turning the grace of our Lord God into riotousness and denying the only sovereign Ruler and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude 1:5 I will therefore admonish you, though ye once knew all things, that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, did afterwards destroy them that believed not.

Jude 1:6 And the angels who kept not their principality but forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness in everlasting chains, unto the judgment of the great day.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "grace", "certain", "secretly", "entered", "written", "long", "judgment", and "ungodly". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "grace" and "certain", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "Dearly beloved taking all care to write..." into verse 5's "I will therefore admonish you though ye...", so "grace" and "certain" belong inside that flow. In Jude context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "grace" and "certain" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.