Jude 1:4
“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Jude explains the urgency: ungodly men have slipped quietly into the community, twisting God's grace into license and denying their Lord.
What Does Jude 1:4 Mean?
Now Jude names the danger. Certain men have crept in unawares, entering the fellowship without open declaration of who they are. Long ago their condemnation was written down, Jude says, meaning their judgment is no surprise to God. They are marked by ungodliness, by lives set against the God they claim to know.
Their error has two faces. They turn grace into lasciviousness, treating God's free favor as permission to indulge every appetite. And they deny the Master, refusing in life and teaching the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Grace was never a license to sin; it is the power to be made new. When mercy is twisted into an excuse, it betrays the One who gave it. Jude sounds the alarm so the church will recognize what true grace looks like.
In the Original Language
aselgeia (ἀσέλγεια), "lasciviousness" — unrestrained indulgence that has lost all shame.