Each of these examples of the judgment of God against false teachers must be viewed in light of the grace statements Jude makes at the beginning and end of the letter. He is in no way promoting the idea that his readers can lose their eternal salvation. He is simply reminding them how much God hates sin and will punish those who commit these acts or teach others to do so. With that in mind, Jude is basically saying, “Why would you want to follow people who will be condemned by God?”

Unbelief

“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 5)

Jude is not telling them something they have never heard before. He is reminding them of God’s displeasure with the acts of unbelievers. God had been very merciful to Israel even though they were slow to leave Egypt. After great deliverance, they doubted, they murmured, and they rejected God’s leadership. Therefore, the Lord kept them in the desert for forty years until all the doubters had died.

Jude’s inclusion of this event, while it is one of the most notable acts of unthankfulness in history, is also a perfect example to show what Jude intends to bring across to his readers. Included in those who did not enter the promised land was Moses himself! This does not mean that Moses did not go to heaven, but he was refused the joys of a life in Canaan’s land.

Pride

“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.” (Jude 6)

Jude is not referring to the heresy that some hold where angels had children with men. He mentions the pride of the fallen angels who had a place in glory but refused to to be subject to God and especially His Son Jesus. They attempted to rise higher than the position God had placed them. God immediately cast them out of heaven and they will be judged along with the devil and wicked men at the end of time.

Sexual Immorality

“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” (Jude 7)

Jude gives us a clear reason why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha. It was for the sin of fornication and in particular homosexuality. The phrase “strange flesh” means that the people had left off the God designed purpose of men and women in the marriage bond. This is where the name of the sin “sodomy” comes from. Jude reminds the reader that sexual purity is required of a disciple of Christ. Again, Jude reminds us of God’s utter hatred for this sin by saying that they are burning in eternal fire.