Matthew Henry Commentary Jude 1:5-7

"Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire." — Jude 1:5-7 (ASV)

Outward privileges, profession, and apparent conversion could not protect those from the vengeance of God who turned away in unbelief and disobedience. The destruction of the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness shows that no one should presume on their privileges. They had miracles as their daily bread; yet even they perished in unbelief.

A great number of the angels were not pleased with the stations God allotted to them; pride was the main and direct cause or occasion of their fall. The fallen angels are kept for the judgment of the great day; and will fallen humanity escape it? Surely not.

Consider this in due time. The destruction of Sodom is a loud warning to all, to take heed of, and flee from fleshly lusts that war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11). God is the same holy, just, pure Being now, as then. Stand in awe, therefore, and sin not (Psalms 4:4). Let us not rest in anything that does not make the soul subject to the obedience of Christ; for nothing but the renewal of our souls to the divine image by the Holy Spirit can keep us from being destroyed among the enemies of God.

Consider this instance of the angels, and see that no dignity or worth of the creature avails. How then should mortals tremble, who drinketh iniquity like water! (Job 15:16).