What Does Jude 1:15 Mean?
To make judgment upon all, and to expose all who lack awe among them, concerning all their works of lacking awe which they did, and all the hard words which those who miss the mark without awe have spoken against him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.THE KEY
The judgment here does not merely persuade; it exposes both the deeds people do and the words they speak against him.
THE MEANING
What is done and what is spoken against God both come into view and answer to him. The repeated language of ungodliness names a posture of irreverence running through both deeds and words. Judgment reaches the mouth as fully as the hands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief that only actions matter and hostile words vanish without consequence dissolves here: both deeds and hard speech come under judgment.
THE ROOT
ἐλέγχω
elenchō
GROWS FROM
ἐλεγ-
elench-
To expose, convict, or show something to be wrong.
“expose” in this verse is elenchō. “Convince” can sound like winning an argument, but this Greek verb carries the force of exposing or convicting. Its word family connects conviction with evidence: judgment brings deeds and speech into view for what they are.
ALSO GROWS
elenchos: proof, evidence, or conviction
ἔλεγχος
The related noun shows the link between conviction and evidence: what is brought to judgment is made visible.
elegmos: reproof or correction
ἐλεγμός
This related word carries the sense of exposing what needs to be corrected, giving “convince” a sharper edge than persuasion alone.
ἀσεβής
asebēs
GROWS FROM
σεβ- (seb-), negated by ἀ- (a-)
The base carries the sense of revering or showing awe; the prefix negates it.
“lack awe” in this verse is asebēs. The repeated “ungodly” language names more than a category of people: it points to irreverence running through their deeds and words. The verse’s repetition makes that posture impossible to miss.
ALSO GROWS
sebomai: to revere or worship
σέβομαι
This related verb reveals the reverence that the word “ungodly” negates.
eusebeia: reverence or piety
εὐσέβεια
The related word for reverence makes the contrast clear: the deeds and speeches in this verse issue from its absence.
σκληρῶν
sklērōn
GROWS FROM
σκληρ-
sklēr-
Hard, harsh, or severe.
“hard words” in this verse is sklērōn. “Hard speeches” carries the picture of words with a harsh, unyielding edge. The related language of hardness of heart connects what is said outwardly with an inward refusal to soften.
ALSO GROWS
sklērokardia: hardness of heart
σκληροκαρδία
This compound joins hardness to the heart, showing how the quality of the speeches can reflect an unyielding inward posture.
sklērotēs: hardness or stubbornness
σκληρότης
This related noun makes the harshness more than a tone: it can describe an entrenched refusal to yield.
THE PATTERN
Judgment brings both visible deeds and hidden words into account.
For God brings every making into judgment, upon every hidden thing, whether good or harm.But I say to you, every word without work that humankind speaks, they will give back an account of it in the day of judgment.In the day when God judges the covered things of humans, according to my good news, through Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
For everyone who does worthless things hates the light, and does not come to the light, so that their deeds would not be exposed.Jude’s “convince” and John’s “reproved” translate forms of the same Greek verb, ἐλέγχω (elenchō), meaning to expose or convict. John shows why exposure matters: deeds avoid the light because the light makes them visible; Jude extends that disclosure to both deeds and speech.
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