Jude 1:4 (KJV)

Passage

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.

Nearby Context

Jude 1:2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Jude 1:4 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.

Jude 1:5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

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

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "condemn", "grace", "certain", "crept", "unawares", "before", "ordained", and "condemnation". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "condemn" and "grace", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "Beloved when I gave all diligence to..." into verse 5's "I will therefore put you in remembrance...", so "condemn" and "grace" 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 "condemn" and "grace" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.