Today we are going to be looking at Jude. I was originally scheduled to do Lamentations, but I believe that we will be well served by studying this little epistle at the latter end of the New Testament.
Jude is perhaps one of the most neglected books in the New Testament. Its brevity (25 verses) plays a part in this, as does its ‘weirdness’ with quotations from 1 Enoch and Assumption of Moses. We wonder how a canonical book can make such references. The message is also harsh, and something both alien and not sought after by the church today. Jude is a book that proclaims severe divine judgement on intruders into the church that seek to corrupt our faith. And who likes judgement these days in a world of love, tolerance and non-judgement. We can also say that the message of judgment is especially relevant to people today, for our churches are prone to sentimentality, suffer from moral breakdown, and too often fail to pronounce a definitive word of judgment because of an inadequate definition of love. Jude’s letter is a warning to beloved believers that errant teaching and dissolute living have dire consequences. But we do not want to paint Jude too much with a harsh brush because it contains some of the most beautiful verses in the NT about God’s secure, sustaining grace.
Today, we are going to look at who Jude was, who he was writing to, and the content of his message: which is contending for the faith.
Jude 1:1 – “A servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James”
Jude (Judas) was the brother of Jesus and James. He was one of the four brothers and lesser in age (and perhaps stature) to James. The Gospels indicate that Jude and his brothers did not believe in Jesus’ deity during His ministry on earth (Mark 3:21, John 7:5). After His resurrection, the brothers turned to the faith (Acts 1:14) and became advocates and missionaries for the gospel (1 Cor 9:5). So within the early church, they had become authoritative figures, especially James, though Jude also exudes the same stature within this letter.
Jude identifies himself as a slave of Jesus Christ. He is not keen to indicate his privilege of being the Lord’s brother but is showing his submission to His Lordship, in essence like any other believer. The term doulos (slave) is in fact a badge of honor for Jude identifying himself with other ‘slaves’ such as Abraham, Moses, David in the OT and Paul, Peter and James in the NT. As we said, James was a preeminent figure in the early church, and being his blood brother gave Jude a special status. Hence, Jude is writing authoritatively as Jesus’ slave and James’ brother.
Jude 1:2 – “May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.”
Jude wishes to see these essential attributes multiplied in his listeners. Mercy is one of the foundations of our relationship with God. Mercy and forgiveness lead to peace with God, which manifests in love toward God and those around us. Jude will keep harping on these themes as we go on, since he is not calling his listeners to be angry toward those that are perverting the faith. Contending for the faith can and needs to be done in love.
The church
Jude 1:1 – “To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ”
Jude is one of the few epistles in which we cannot conclusively identify the recipients. What we can infer from the text is that he is writing to a church or a specific group of churches in an area, and it is possible that the Christians came from a Jewish background. But what is wonderful in his greeting is his characteristics and attributes for those who belong to the church. Those who truly belong to the church are:
1) called – Believers are called to faith by God and brought to faith by the proclamation on the gospel. We read in:
Rom 1:1 - “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle,..”
Rom 1:6,7 - “including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Rom 8:28 - “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
The epistles of Paul are full of references to those who are called, called to belong to God, called to a certain purpose, called to be saints in Jesus Christ. The calling is the imperative of God and its success shows the efficacy of God’s grace. Jude is reminding his listeners that the battles they are about to fight are not going to won by human effort but by God’s grace and purposes.
2) beloved in/by God – Believers are loved by God and His love is the reason that they belong to His people. The Bible closely associates calling and love. Hos 11:1 reads “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Now those who put their trust in Jesus Christ are worthy to be called the chosen people of God.
3) kept for Jesus Christ – God’s called are loved by Him and kept by Him till the day of salvation. The sustenance of God does not negate our responsibility to be active in our pursuit of God’s holiness, as Jude himself says in the latter verses, but it is His agency that will enable the church to prevail against those who are set against it.
The faith
Jude 1:3 – “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”
Now Jude comes to the purpose of his letter. Once again using the address - God’s beloved, he lets them know that he was eager (or perhaps was in the process of writing) to write a letter about the salvation that they shared but he changed his plans and wrote this letter instead. Why? We read about the reason for his abrupt change of mind in verse 4.
Jude 1:4 – “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Certain people had intruded into the church and was corrupting the faith. This so alarmed Jude that he dropped whatever he was doing and wrote this letter to God’s beloved asking them to contend for the faith. Their faith.
So what is this faith that we need to fight for? It is important to know what exactly we are fighting for so that we can make the right preparations for battle.
1. What is faith? – The faith that Jude talks about is not the faith that refers to trust in God the way we (and Paul) denote it. He is talking about the Christian faith, the orthodox teachings, the traditional teachings that expound on the truths found in Scripture.
Lets take John 3:16 as an example. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
Faith is also concerned with what we call doctrines, the collection of fundamental beliefs that make us Christians and those that we do not compromise on. For example the nature of God, the Trinity, the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross and so on are important matters of faith.
2. What is the source of faith? – Obviously, the primary and supreme source of our faith is the Word of God. But speaking in terms of theology and doctrines, the foundation for Christian faith is the teaching of the apostles.
We read in Acts 2:42 - "And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." And also Rom 6:17 - "But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed" and also in Jude 1:17- "But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ."
And why is it important to emphasize the apostolic character of our faith? Eph 2:20 says the household (church) of God is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. So they are the foundation and underpinning of our faith.
3. There is only one faith – Jude talks about the faith, not a faith, or the faiths. There is a unity in Christian faith even if Christians are divided into churches and denominations. This unity is the result of the apostolic teaching. Christians share the core foundational doctrines and practices and there is no question of divergence on those. Our differences, our allowable differences, are those of interpretation and tradition, not on matters of substance. What do I mean by that? On matters where the apostles are silent or are not comprehensive, we can reasonably differ as long as we do not pervert the doctrines on which they are not silent.
So if a church undermines the triune nature of God, the coexistence of the three Persons, and so on, it is not a minor difference, it is a major difference. If a church denies that the only way to salvation is through the person of Jesus Christ, it is a major and unacceptable affront to the faith. As Christians, we need to recognize the difference between minor and unacceptable interpretations of the faith.
4. This faith has been handed down to us once and for all – Jude says that this faith was once for all delivered, or handed down to the saints. Makes sense, doesn’t it? You cannot re-lay the foundation without destroying the house. Heb 1:1,2 says- "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son." God has fully revealed Himself as He wishes in the person of Jesus Christ, and the gospel of Jesus Christ has received its full exposition through the teaching of the apostles. That is the cornerstone and the foundation of the church. The Scriptures and the faith. The canon of Scripture and its exposition has been closed.
This faith has been delivered or handed down to us. The Christian faith is old, it is what we call orthodox, and it has been handed down from generation to generation as the heritage of the believer. There is no need for further revelation, for the Quran or the Book of Mormon or The Shack. There is no need for modern prophets to deliver further revelation of God, something new about Him, something that we missed out the first time. We have closed the book on Christian faith and there are no new editions to come.
5. This faith needs to be contended for – So this faith is a precious heritage, a heirloom of the church and it is worth fighting for. The word ‘contend’ here means to intensely strive for, like a soldier or an athlete. To attack the faith is to attack the character of God, the truth of His Word, and the privilege of His saints. These are matters worth fighting for, and in fact, many saints in ages past have thought nothing of giving their lives in its defense.
6. This faith is under attack from without and within – We can all understand that the Christian faith is under attack from the world, which criticizes it as intolerant, inflammatory, out of touch and just plain wrong. We know that and we live in constant awareness of that reality.
However, Jude talks of intruders into the church as those that need to be guarded against.
This is not something unique to Jude. Paul says in Acts 20:29,30 - "I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them." He is talking about teachers, he is talking about prophets (and in today’s world, prophetesses), he is talking about everyone who would deny the character of God and the sanctity of His Word, the truth of the apostles’ teachings, about those who would corrupt the grace of God to be sanction for living like the world and more.
We see examples of all these throughout history (such as the Roman Catholic church and the dark ages) and just when we get complacent about our evangelical power and our Christian nations, we see such perversions on TV, the radio, the Internet, Christian culture and popular culture. Pay heed to the warning signs around you. Do not worry about whether this person is really a Christian or that person is truly saved. That is not our judgement to make and that is not a reason to pay no heed to the warnings of Scripture. All that matters is to contend for the faith. If this faith matters to you, and if it defines you, and if it is a priority for you, you will be obliged to contend for it.
How to contend for the faith So now we are all charged up and ready to fight for the faith and take on all comers who wish to corrupt the church. Hold on. Remember that Jude said that mercy, peace and love needs to be multiplied in us. If our only desire is to confront our opponents, we are not going to be devoted to the faith and grow in it. We are going to miss being in the loving presence of God. So while resistance is important, Jude identifies in verses 20 and 21 some prerequisites that we need to do in order to contend for our faith.
Jude 1:20,21 - "But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life."
Jude’s concern here is for the church to keep itself in the love of God. That comes first before anything else. And in order to keep oneself in the love of God, Jude charges the beloved to:
1) build themselves up in the faith – We cannot defend the faith if we do not grow in it. Believers have to build upon the faith’s foundation. Jude expressed a similar idea to Paul in Eph 2:20 and in 1 Cor 3:10 - "According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it." 1 Cor 3:11- "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Similarly, believers are to build upon the foundation of faith by increasing their understanding of the gospel, the orthodox doctrines, and the teachings of the church. The most holy faith will illuminate the path of Christian growth, first in the mind, and as our understanding increases, so will our experience of God’s love.
2) praying in the Holy Spirit – This is not a call to speak in tongues, but as Paul says in Eph 6:18 - "believers are to keep praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication." Prayer shows dependence of God; it is the sole privilege of those who are in a relationship with Him. Prayer nurtures our relationship with God and sustains our love for Him.
3) waiting for the coming of the Lord – The phrase ‘waiting for the mercy of the Lord’ is looking to the future, towards the hope of our Lord’s return. How do we wait? By living a life that longs for His return, when we will be granted eternal life. That means that we cannot afford to be immersed in the things of this world and neglect the faith. Our lives will show if we truly love God, or if our real love is for the present.
So when we build ourselves up in the faith, and continue in sustained regular prayer, and wait eagerly towards the Lord’s coming, we will be able to keep ourselves in God’s love. I have to confess that I am not sure what that means. In verse 1, Jude says believers are loved and kept by God. But here, he exhorts believers to keep themselves in God’s love. I believe Jude brilliantly captures the tension between God’s loving sovereignty and our human responsibility. God promises us that we will be kept till the end due to His grace but He gives us the opportunity to exert our efforts to remain in His love till that day, growing in and contending for the faith that He has blessed us with.
Let us strive to keep ourselves in the love of God who has called us to be His beloved, who keeps us for Jesus Christ, and let us contend for the faith that He has blessed us with.