What is the meaning of Jude 1:7? In like manner • Jude has just warned about angels who left their appointed domain (Jude 1:6). In that same pattern, the next illustration comes “in like manner,” linking rebellious angels with rebellious people. • 2 Peter 2:4-6 echoes the same connection, setting fallen angels beside Sodom and Gomorrah to show that God judges sin consistently. • This opening phrase reminds us that God’s moral standards never shift; disobedience—whether angelic or human—meets certain judgment (Malachi 3:6). Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them • The spotlight falls on the five “cities of the plain” (Genesis 13:12; 14:2). Scripture repeatedly points back to their destruction as a sober warning (Deuteronomy 29:23; Isaiah 13:19). • Their story is historical, not mythical. Genesis 19:24-25 records: “Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah…so that the vegetation of the land also perished.” • These cities once flourished (Genesis 13:10) yet became ruins—a vivid reminder that prosperity is no shield against divine justice. Who indulged in sexual immorality • The core charge is clear: they gave themselves over to unrestrained sexual sin. Genesis 19:4-5 describes men of Sodom surrounding Lot’s house and demanding to “have relations” with his visitors. • Scripture consistently names such conduct as sin (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). • By highlighting immorality, Jude underscores that God’s design for sexuality—one man and one woman in covenant marriage (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6)—is non-negotiable. And pursued strange flesh • “Strange” points to desires that cross God-drawn boundaries. Romans 1:26-27 speaks of passions that are “unnatural,” illustrating how sin distorts God’s good gifts. • Sodom’s men sought sexual union with angelic visitors (Genesis 19:1-5), combining homosexuality with an attempt to violate heavenly beings—rebellion on multiple fronts. • The phrase also warns that any pursuit outside God’s order—heterosexual or homosexual—invites judgment (Hebrews 13:4). Are on display as an example • God did not hide this judgment; He “turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them to extinction, making them an example” (2 Peter 2:6). • That visible ruin by the Dead Sea still testifies to future generations (Zephaniah 2:9). • The lesson: divine wrath is not theoretical; it has been publicly demonstrated. Of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire • The temporal fire that fell in Genesis prefigures the eternal fire Jesus described: “Depart from Me…into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). • Revelation 20:14-15 pictures the “lake of fire” as the final destination for the unrepentant. • Jude’s wording shows continuity between earthly judgment and everlasting consequence—what happened once in time previews what will happen for eternity (Mark 9:48). summary Jude 1:7 uses the well-known fate of Sodom and Gomorrah to affirm that God judges persistent, unrepentant sexual sin—and all rebellion—both now and forever. Their ashes stand as a real-world exhibit warning that rejecting God’s design leads to eternal fire, while obedience grounded in faith leads to life (John 3:36). |
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