Book of Jude
Part 1
May 5, 2013
The Book of Jude is one that is neglected by most pastors and Bible teachers. That’s very sad because Jude has much to tell us. It seems pastors/teachers find Paul more relevant for the church today, but I assure you, Jude will feed us. It might stomp our toes, but we will survive: And we will be enriched for having met Jude.
Jude and II Peter are similar in content. It’s not known which of these Books was written first. Since Jude and Peter were contemporaries who lived at the same time and faced the same difficulties in the churches, it could be they both wrote addressing the same topics at the same time. No matter, both Books give us good information for the church then and most definitely for the church now.
Pastors and teachers use three verses of Jude and leave the rest alone. Those verses are 3 and 24, 25. As we go along we’ll find out why they use them, but also why they don’t teach us the rest.
Pastor Richard T. Ritenbaugh said of the Book of Jude, “One of the things that almost kept it out of the canon was that Jude quotes two passages from Apocryphal books, The Assumption of Moses and The Book of Enoch, both of which were written between the time Malachi was finished and the time the New Testament books were written. They were apocryphal. They were unacceptable. Jude has no problem quoting passages out of it.”
“Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied” (Jude 1:1, 2). In his greeting, Jude introduced himself as “the servant of Christ” which covers him spiritually. As a blood relation to the Savior, Jude could have used Jesus’ name to his benefit. Humility kept him from such a thing. Undoubtedly, Jude cherished his physical relationship with Jesus, but his spiritual relationship was far above anything human. The same blood ran in his veins as in Jesus’, but it’s the blood of the cross that Jude esteemed. I pray we will all develop the same mindset Jude had that allows us to declare before the world that we are bondservants of the Most High God. When we become overwhelmed with love for Jesus, and when our main concern is to serve Him, then we will have the strength of faith to “stand.” (Ephesians 6:13)
Neither Jude nor his brothers and sisters believed in the deity of Jesus when He was alive. They grew up with Jesus, yet didn’t understand His mission here on earth. It wasn’t until after the Resurrection of Jesus that Jude and his brothers believed Jesus truly was Messiah. Acts 1:14 gives us a glimpse of this change of heart when it says, “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”
Remember; these men saw Jesus, their brother, tortured and hanged. They saw Him lay down His own life for the world, and they thought He was nuts. Then the Resurrection happened, and they realized they had been blind. Now they knew the truth and they would live the remainder of their lives sharing the gospel of Jesus the Christ.
Jude also made his heritage known as he named himself the brother of James. The church at that time would have understood and made the connection that Jude and James were brothers and half-brothers of Jesus. Calling himself the brother of James also distinguishes him from the five other Judas’ mentioned in the New Testament. We see the connection made between the brothers in other places in Scripture, too, such as Matthew 13:55. Jesus was preaching in His hometown of Nazareth and the people asked, “Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?” The people of Jude’s time linked these three men together as physical brothers: Jesus, James and Judas.
Jesus had four half-brothers, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas (Jude). James was an important figure, a strong leader, in the church at Jerusalem. This is the same man who wrote the Book of James. Jesus also had at least two female siblings as the verse refers to His sisters rather than sister. I don’t know why they remained un-named and un-numbered, but it doesn’t matter here.
Jude wrote this letter “to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ.” Now there is controversy about to whom this letter was written. Some believe it was written to the same group of believers as the Book of II Peter was. Others believe it was to a group of Jewish believers. I believe Jude wrote this letter to every believer of his time and the believers throughout the ages just as Jesus prayed for Himself, His disciples and all those who would be saved in future generations. It’s my belief that Jude, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in him, wrote this in that same way. Jude is a prophetic Book that speaks to church right now.
As was the Jewish tradition, part of Jude’s greeting included a blessing for those who would read the message he sent. He blessed them with peace (shalom) and abundant love.
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (verse 3). “Beloved” means precious, treasured and favorite. Jude was speaking to those who had accepted Jesus in their hearts and made life changing commitment to Him.
Jude began his letter as one of encouragement and love for the brethren. He wanted to write them about their “common salvation.” “Common” here doesn’t mean cheap. It means mutual and shared. They all had the same salvation in Christ and Jude wanted to encourage them to grow in faith. As he wrote, the Holy Spirit gave him a new assignment and the letter turned to a sermon of exhortation to the people, that is, he wrote to urge them to “contend” or fight, for the faith they had received when they accepted Jesus as Savior. Jude used this letter to the believers to urge them to keep the doctrine of faith that had been preached to them and that they had obeyed so faithfully. Jude exhorted the people to fight for the truth of the Word to keep it pure. This was the faith they would pass down to their children and it should be kept wholly holy in its commandments, doctrine, and duties. Believers should not listen to, and should certainly not partake of other doctrines of false teachings.
We must not be like the woman who is a friend of mine. On any given day she sends me Catholic posts, then she posts things of the faith, and then she sends me an invitation to try the horoscope stuff in there. She is one of those people Ephesians 4:14 speaks of. She is tossed by every wind of doctrine. THIS is exactly what Jude was writing against.
“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” (verse 4). “Certain men” doesn’t exclude women. In this verse, “men” is a generic term for all living humans.
These people “crept” or tiptoed, or as Marvin R. Vincent said, “slipped in the side door” of the church by pretending to be saints of God knowing the truth and teaching it. The people accepted their teaching. II Peter 2:1 declares these are people “who privily shall bring in damnable heresies.” Privily means secretly. They have entered the church to subvert the gospel. These people are there deliberately, knowing what they are there to accomplish. One thing I noticed in the several churches I have attended is that, there is never just one troublemaker. There are always at least two so that one can lie and the other swears to it. But there are more often several people who disrupt things.
“Who were before of old ordained to this condemnation” means that these are the men and women that Scriptures have warned the church about. The word ordained here is prographo which means “to write beforehand.” Even Jesus cautioned the church that false prophets would infiltrate them. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). Paul also warned of “false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ” (II Corinthians 11:13) and, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears” (Acts 20:29, 31). In other words, Jude wasn’t giving them a new revelation. They had all been sufficiently prepared for false prophets and false teachers, the “ungodly” who would come with lies to lead the sheep astray. Although Paul stressed this truth to the Ephesians, they ended up falling for the lies and it became their new truth.
“Turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness” means they perverted the Word. J Vernon McGee said, “I suppose the best synonym is wantonness because wantonness has in it the thought of lawlessness and arrogance – doing as you please even if it offends the sensibilities of others.” The false teachers turned the “grace of God” into immoral practices that allowed them to live as they wished. A perfect example of this from the church today is the homosexual lifestyle. There are denominations now, and ordained ministers who practice homosexuality that preach it’s perfectly fine to live this perverted lifestyle because GOD loves everyone and will not condemn anyone for something they were born to do and can’t help doing. Bunk and hogwash! This perversion is condemned in the Old and the New Testaments.
This immorality was also taking place in Jude’s day. Then name of it then in those particular churches, was Gnosticism which is the belief that the flesh of man is dirty and sinful but his spirit is pure and holy. It’s a false belief that the body can satisfy all its evil desire, even out in the public like the gay pride parades, etc… without affecting the spirit or soul. This is not truth and is a perversion of “the grace of God!” Today it’s called the “new morality”. Only ungodly men and women would teach such things. Paul said of these people, “Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof: From such, turn away” (II Timothy 3:5).
These people also denied that God is the only real God. That is not to say they boldly spoke the words, “There is no such thing as God!” It means their attitudes, their lifestyles, and everything they say and do conflicts with the truth of God and who He is. It’s like the former pastor, Rob Bell who denied Jesus by saying that no one will face eternity in hell. He declared boisterously in word and in his book God Wins that God would never leave anyone in hell, that hell isn’t made for people, and that God’s love will eventually bring each one to heaven to live with Him. Jesus said of the unregenerate man, "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25:46).
God is real. The gospel of Jesus the Christ is real. And hell is real and eternal. God does love us too much to want us in hell, and He sent Jesus to save us from it, yet many choose to deny Jesus and salvation. They will suffer eternal torment.
