What Does Jude 1:4 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Jude’s sharpest charge is that God’s favor is reassigned as permission for the very life that denies its Master.
THE MEANING
The warning is alive now: people can enter unnoticed and turn God’s favor into shameless excess while denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude calls this ungodly and says its condemnation has been written beforehand.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that favor makes every desire permissible breaks here: Jude names that claim as a distortion joined to denial of the Lord.
THE ROOT
μετατιθέντες
metatithentes
GROWS FROM
τίθημι (tithēmi), with μετά (meta-)
τίθημι means to put, set, or place; μετά marks change or transfer.
“turning” in this verse is metatithentes. The charge is that favor is repositioned and assigned another use: permission for shameless excess. The word’s placing-root makes the question vivid: what is favor made to serve?
ALSO GROWS
metatithēmi: transfer, change, or alter
μετατίθημι
This is the verb behind “turning”; it presents the distortion as a change in what favor is made to mean.
paratithēmi: set beside, entrust, or commend
παρατίθημι
It shares the placing-root and highlights that something can be placed in another’s care or assigned a role.
χάρις
charis
GROWS FROM
χαρ-
char-
The word-family carries the sense of favor and a freely granted gift.
“grace” in this verse is charis. The word-family keeps the sense of favor as something given audible. Jude’s charge is that this received favor is made to authorize a life that disowns its Lord.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: grant freely or show favor
χαρίζομαι
This branch makes the giving quality of favor visible in the same word-family.
charisma: a gift freely granted
χάρισμα
It shows favor as something received, sharpening the force of turning it into permission.
THE PATTERN
When God’s favor or deliverance is used as permission to violate the authority it comes from, the gift becomes a cover for denial.
And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;THE THREAD
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,Titus uses the same Greek word, χάρις (charis), rendered “grace” here and in Jude. Titus names this favor as bringing deliverance; the next verse shows it teaching a life that turns from ungodliness, making Jude’s distortion clear.
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