Jude

Jude

1-2 Salutation

• From Jude - servant of Christ, brother of James. This James, a recognized leader in the early church and author of the book of James, is referred to by Paul as "the brother of the Lord" in Galatians 1:19. Like Jude, he prefers to refer to himself as a servant of Christ rather than as his brother.
• To those who are called, beloved, and kept safe
• Mercy, peace and love to you.

3-4 Occasion of the Letter

• Jude has started this letter with the intention of writing about their shared salvation, but now finds it necessary to urge them to contend (Greek agōnizomai) for the faith they originally received.
• People whom Jude calls "intruders" have become part of the church. This indicates they look like everyone else – they are, or have been, believers – but they have an evil agenda.
• These people 1) were designated long ago as ungodly; 2) change God's grace into licentiousness; 3) deny Christ. The ASV translates the first item as "they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation..." Verse 7 compares them to the evil men of Sodom and Gomorah. These men are worse, in that they should know better. Yet they use the grace of God has a license to practice sexual immorality.

Note: Regarding the word "ungodly" that Jude uses here. Burton Coffman points out that the "Greek word [asebeia] (ungodly) "is found 4 times in Romans, 3 times in Timothy and Titus, 1 time in 1 Peter, 2 times in 2 Peter, and 6 times in Jude."

5-16 Judgment on False Teachers

• Three examples of punishment: 1) The Israelites were delivered from Egypt but later condemned for disobedience; 2) angels who left their positions are chained in a dark place, waiting for judgment; 3) Sodom and Gomorrah and surrounding cities were condemned for their immorality. Look at these examples of those who God condemned: 1) those were were once saved; 2) those in high positions; and 3) those who engaged in sexual immorality.
• Yet these "dreamers" also "defile the flesh, reject authority and slander the glorious ones." Michael the archangel didn't treat even the devil with this contempt. Jude is condemning the intruders not only for their immorality but for their arrogance, which leads them to think they can engage in whatever practices they choose.
• Jude calls them 1) irrational animals, who just follow their instincts; 2) blemishes on the Christians' lovefeasts; 2) waterless clouds; 3) fruitless autumn trees; 4) wild waves of the sea; 5) wandering stars. They are mindless, destructive, predatory, shallow, empty, shameful, condemned.
• Enoch (7th from Adam) prophesied that God will come with his thousands and execute judgment on the ungodly: 1) grumblers and the malcontent; 2) lustful; 3) bombastic; 4) flatterers. Few of us would put ourselves in categories 2, 3, and 4. Sadly, the first describes a tendency that often grows into a habit.

17-23 Warnings and Exhortations

• Remember how the apostles warned you against these ungodly, lustful scoffers – devoid of the Spirit and causing divisions.
• What do you do? 1) Increase your faith; 2) pray; 3) keep yourselves in God's love; 4) look to the mercy of Jesus; 5) have mercy on those who waver; 6) snatch others from the fire; 7) have mercy on others with fear, "hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies." An injunction to keep ourselves unspotted from the world while having mercy on those who are caught up in sin. In common parlance, "Love the sinner, hate the sin." Mercy does not mean we overlook sin. You can't help an alcoholic by being so sympathetic you join him in a drink.

24-25 Benediction

• To him who 1) can keep you from falling; 2) can make you stand without blemish in his presence
• To God (through Jesus) "be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time now and forever."