Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Jude 1:23

"and some save, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." — Jude 1:23 (ASV)

Three groups are mentioned here and an instruction is given for each one. (1) The first command is to show mercy to those who are doubting (or hesitating). The teaching and example of the false teachers have caused them to be uncertain about the truth of Christianity. They must be dealt with patiently and mercifully by showing them Christian love. (2) The next group needs to be dealt with directly and vigorously. Salvation is God’s work, and here Christians are portrayed as God’s instruments for snatching brands out of the fire (cf. Zechariah 3:3). Jude pictures a person slipping into the eternal fire but being rescued from error by the grace and truth of God. (3) The final group of people appears to be deep in the immorality of the false teachers. Their very clothing is “stained by corrupted flesh.” Perhaps the figure is that their depravity has made them infectious. Christians are to show mercy as in the first case, but now they are do so “with fear,” lest the infection spread to them. Yet even here God’s wondrous grace can exchange the excrement-covered garments (cf. Zechariah 3:3) for festive garments of righteousness. For no one, not even the most defiled sinner, is beyond salvation through faith in Christ’s redeeming work.