Doxology: Jude 24 & 25

Songs in the New Testament, part 10

They say all good things come to an end. This is the end of the songs in the New Testament Epistles/letters. Except for the repeats. What better way to end than with a doxology?

²⁴ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.

Jude 24-25

There are still two sets of New Testament poetry to go. First is the various songs in the birth of Jesus story in Luke’s Gospel, which is my project for Advent this year, and the other is the poetic passages in Revelation, for which there seems to be no agreement as to which parts are the poems. That should be fun when I do it, but I haven’t decided what I’m writing in 2027, except that I’ll continue my slow look at John’s Gospel and regular posts on autism,

Jude’s letter is a strange one. It looks like he started to write about salvation when he found out that immoral teachers were not talking about the grace of God. So the letter takes a strange turn, talking about Jesus being the one who led the Israelites out of Egypt, and Archangel Michael and the Devil fighting for the body of Moses. Strange indeed.

The doxology comes after advice on how to avoid falling for those who spread discord. My Bible (English Standard Version Anglicised) has a subtitle here, “A Call to Persevere”. That is a note here from the translators saying this is not going to be easy. Giving in to sexual temptation is the easy option; this is the problem at the beginning of the letter, and here it is widened to include anyone who causes divisions because they do not have, or are not following, the Holy Spirit.

To overcome, says Jude, start by praying in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the answer. Following the Holy Spirit does not lead to heresy. After that start, and prayer in the Holy Spirit is always the start, there are a few other things too, keeping yourself in the love of God, which I find both a broad and also vague term, and the clear instruction to have mercy on those who doubt. We should forgive others as Christ has forgiven us, as Paul said in both Ephesians and Colossians. Jude is saying the same thing, only using different words.

Now, about the doxology. There are similarities between this doxology and the one at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, even though the oldest versions of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels do not have the Doxology. However, the Didache from the late first or second century AD shows that in liturgy the words, “For yours is the power and the glory forever,” were already being added in Christian services. Kingdom is a later addition. It is believed that the Lord’s Prayer doxology is based on one prayed by David in 1 Chronicles 29:11, “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord.” Doxologies have a long history in Jewish and Christian prayers.

The doxology in the Lord’s prayer works as a mirror to the beginning of the prayer. In the same way, the doxology in Jude acts as a mirror to the rest of the letter. Let’s break it down:

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling

The letter is about those who were leading Christians away using sex as a lure. The answer is praying in the Holy Spirit. My belief is that if Jude meant praying in tongues, he would have said so, but neither does he prevent us from doing so. So I say that if tongues are in your gifting, use it. But whatever you do, make space for God to guide your prayers, including asking forgiveness from God and from those you have hurt if you were weak and gave in.

and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

The context here is sexual sin, but I believe it applies to all ways we are drawn away from God. God is a forgiving god. He does not offer cheap grace; it is not OK that you have sinned, it never is, but God is like a loving father. Human parentswill warn their teenage children away from things because they don’t want them to be hurt, then when that child has disobeyed, been hurt and come home crying, instead of being stern and saying, “Why did you not listen to what I said,” they will get them home and show them that they are loved no matter what they do. God is like that and more. Ready to forgive those who return. Cuddling your children is being like God.

At this point, I realise that I am preaching to myself and that the person who needs to respond is me,

to the only God, our Saviour

A lot is said in church circles about Jesus saving us from sin, the devil and death, including by me on this website. That’s all true, but there can be things buried that are in the text, but are not mentioned in commentaries and sermons because of preconceived ideas of what God has done. Whatever your preconceived ideas, God has done more than that.

What is a saviour? It’s the person who saves you. If you get into trouble at sea, the coastguard or the lifeboat is your saviour. In Jude, the subject is being saved from sins if taken generally, but specifically it is about being saved from ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (v. 4). But it is also about being saved from yourself and your sexual urges. The answer is not good for the ego; it is that you cannot do it on your own. You need help. The book is very Trinitarian; it shows the role of the Holy Spirit is necessary, and it is done through Jesus Christ our Lord. In this passage, then, when it speaks about God, it is talking about the Father.

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Mentioning Jesus Christ here brings the teaching full circle and completes the Trinitarian nature of the letter. But it has another function; adding the word Lord to anyone’s name is highly politicised. In the Roman culture of the times, Caesar is Lord was an acclamation made throughout the empire, and saying Jesus is Lord means that Caesar was not Lord. It goes further, the subject of this short letter is a sexual problem, the same one that Balaam had enticed the Israelites to perform.

As the Israelites travelled from Sinai to the Promised land they came to Moab. King Balak of Moab hired Balaam to curse the Israelites, who were camped near the Moabite border. Because God prevented Balaam from cursing them directly, Balaam blessed them instead. Realising he could not curse Israel from the outside, Balaam devised a strategy to make them curse themselves through moral compromise. He advised Balak and the Midianite/Moabite leaders to send foreign women into the Israelite camp to invite the men to pagan sacrificial feasts.

But even without the pagan element of temple prostitution, adultery, or visiting prostitutes is still idolatry because we are not putting Jesus in the position of Lord. Jesus has to be the one in charge.

The final part of this doxology is an echo of the Old Testament. It is taking the blessings due to God and saying these can be ours through Jesus.

be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen

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