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Jud_1:20-21. Exhortation to the readers respecting themselves.
ὑμεῖς δὲ , ἀγαπητοί ] as in Jud_1:17, in contrast to the persons and conduct of those mentioned in the last verse.
ἐποικοδομοῦντες κ . τ . λ .] The chief thought is contained in the exhortation ἑαυτοὺς ἐν ἀγάπῃ Θεοῦ τηρήσατε , to which the preceding ἐποικοδομοῦντες … προσευχόμενοι is subordinate, specifying by what the fulfilment of that exhortation is conditioned. Yet it is asked, whether προσευχόμενοι is connected with ἐποικοδομοῦντες , or is annexed as an independent sentence to the following imperative; and whether ἐν πν . ἁγίῳ is to be united with ἐποικοδ . or with προσευχόμενοι . These questions are difficult to decide with perfect certainty. Wiesinger and Schott apparently correctly unite ἐν πν . ἁγ . with προσευχόμενοι , and these taken together with what follows. Hofmann, on the other hand, unites ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ with what goes before, and προσευχόμενοι with what follows. In this construction, however, the structure of the participial clause becomes too clumsy; also ἐν πν . ἁγ . becomes superfluous, as ἐποκοδομεῖν ἑαυτούς cannot take place otherwise than ἐν πνεύματι ἁγ . It is true, Hofmann observes that ἐν πν . ἁγ . is superfluous with προσευχόμενοι , and that Jude could not intend to say how they should pray, but that they should pray. But this is erroneous, for τηρεῖν ἑαυτούς here mentioned depends not only on this, that one should pray, but that one should pray rightly, that is, ἐν πν . ἁγ . Wiesinger correctly observes, that the first clause gives the general presupposition; the second, on the other hand, the more precise statement how τηρήσατε has to be brought about.
τῇ ἁγιωτάτῃ ὑμῶν πίστει ] Both the adjective and the verb show that πίστις is here meant not in a subjective (the demeanour of faith, Schott), but in an objective sense (Wiesinger: “appropriated by them indeed as their personal possession, yet according to its contents as παραδοθεῖσα ;” so similarly Hofmann).
ἐποικοδομοῦντες ἑαυτούς ] When verbs compounded with ἐπί are joined with the dative, as here, this for the most part is used for ἐπί τι , more rarely for ἐπί τινι (see Winer, p. 400 f. [E. T. 535]). If the first is here the case, then ἐποικοδομεῖν τῇ πίστει is to be interpreted, with Wiesinger: “building on πίστις , so that πίστις is the foundation which supports their whole personal life, the soul of all their thinking, willing, and doing” (so also hitherto in this commentary);[46] comp. 1Co_3:12 : ἐποικοδομεῖν ἐπὶ τὸν θεμέλιον τοῦτον . If, on the other hand, the second is here the case, then it is to he explained, with Hofmann, “their faith is the foundation which supports their life; and accordingly, in the further development of their life it should ever be their care that their life rests upon this foundation;” comp. Eph_2:20 : ἐποικοδομηθέντες ἐπὶ τῷ θεμελίῳ τῶν ἀποστόλων . The first is, however, to be preferred, because, as already remarked, with these verbs the dative mostly stands for ἐπί τι . Both explanations come essentially to the same thing.
ἑαυτούς is not here = ἀλλήλους ; the discourse is indeed of a general, but not precisely of a mutual activity; ἑαυτούς with the second person creates no difficulty; comp. Php_2:12.
ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ προσευχόμενοι ] The expression προσευχ . ἐν πν . ἁγ ., it is true, does not elsewhere occur, but similar combinations are not rare ( λαλεῖν ἐν πν . ἁγ ., 1Co_12:3; see Meyer in loc.); it means so to pray that the Holy Spirit is the moving and guiding power (Jachmann, unsatisfactorily: “praying in consciousness of the Holy Ghost”); comp. Rom_8:26.
ἑαυτοὺς ἐν ἀγάπῃ Θεοῦ τηρήσατε ] Θεοῦ may either be the objective genitive (Vorstius: charitas Dei passiva i. e. qua nos Deum diligimus; so also Jachmann, Arnaud, Hofmann, and others), or the subjective genitive, “the love of God to us” (so de Wette, Schott, Wiesinger, Fronmüller); in the latter case the thought is the same as in Joh_15:9-10; this agreement is in favour of that interpretation, nor is the want of the article opposed to it (against Hofmann). This keeping themselves in the love of God is combined with the hope of the future mercy of Christ, which has its ground, not in our love to God, but in God’s love to us; comp. Rom_5:8 ff.
προσδεχόμενοι τὸ ἔλεος τοῦ κυρίου κ . τ . λ .] On προσδεχ ., Tit_2:15.
τὸ ἔλεος τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν is the mercy which Christ will show to His own at His coming. Usually the idea ἔλεος is predicated not of the dealings of Christ, but of God; in the superscriptions of the Pastoral Epistles and of the Second Epistle of John, it is referred to God and Christ.
εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον ] may be joined either with ἔλεος (de Wette), or with προσδεχόμενοι (Schott), or with τηρήσατε (Stier, Hofmann); since the imperative clause forms the main point, the last-mentioned combination deserves the preference, especially as both in προσδέχεσθαι and in ἔλεος Ἰησ . Χρ . the reference to ζωὴ αἰώνιος is already contained. The prominence here given to the Trinity, πνεῦμα ἅγιον , Θεός , Ἰησοῦς Χριστός , as frequently in the N. T., is to be observed. With the exhortation contained in Jud_1:20-21, Jude has accomplished what he in Jud_1:3 stated to be the object of his writing.
[46] πίστις is the foundation, the θεμέλιος on which Christians should build themselves (more and more), by which the representation at the bottom is that they are not yet on all sides of their life on this foundation.