Jude
Jude, called Judah in Hebrew and Judas in Greek, is one of
the four half-brothers of Christ (Matt. 13L55; Mark 6:3). We really know very
little about Jesus’ relatives, other than the fact that they, during the life of their brother, rejected Him as the
Messiah (John 7:1-9). It was not until after the Resurrection that James, Jude
and the other brothers, Joses, and Simon were saved (Acts 1:14). As with the
letters of Peter and John, as well as Paul, their eyewitness accounts lend
authority to their teaching.
Written around 67 to 80 A.D., the letter confronts the heretical teaching of certain apostates (people who profess
to believe in the Lord, but were never really regenerated). These false teachers
may have been baptized and participated in local churches, but eventually their true nature surfaced as they denied the deity of Christ and renounced Him as their Savior. They renounced His redemptive work at Calvary, His bodily resurrection, and
other fundamental doctrines. The letter addresses some of the same problems as
2 Peter, but is different because Peter was looking forward to the future
apostasy of the faith, while Jude addresses apostates already in the church.
1. Jude, who once thought Jesus to be insane, now considers himself a willing slave,
a bondservant, of the same Jesus. He writes to those who are “called to the love of the Father and the care of Jesus Christ.” As always in the epistles,
this refers not to a general invitation to salvation (“that all might come”),
but to God’s irresistible,
elective call to salvation (Rom.
1:7; 1 Cor. 1:21-24; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Thess. 2:13,14). As you can see, we have
covered this many times, however, there remains doubt in some believers minds. What
effect does the call have? 1) It gives us fellowship with Christ (1Cor.
1:9); 2) peace (1 Cor. 7:15); 3) freedom (Gal. 5:13); 4) A worthy walk (Eph. 4:1); 5) hope (Eph. 4:4); 6) holiness
(1 Pet. 1:15); 7) blessing (1 Pet. 3:9); and 8) eternal glory (1 Pet. 5:10); to fulfill God’s purpose
(Rom.8: 28-30). The NKJV reads, “To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ.” The Greek translates it
as “the beloved” which shows the unending love from God to the believer.
It is this love that “sanctifies,” sets us apart from sin to God, who set the plan of salvation
in motion through Jesus long ago and set as it’s fulfillment, eternal life through Jesus Christ, His Son. This is the Gospel!
2. Jude understands the struggles in the faith that his readers are encountering
through persecution and false teaching. He asks for mercy, peace and love to
be multiplied to the saints. Mercy so that God in His compassion, brings
comfort and care for the suffering. Peace, this tranquility comes from relying
on God’s Word. Love is God’s grace given to His chosen and
which covers and satisfies all of His commandments.
3. Jude originally planned to write of the salvation shared by all believers. The HS urged him to change his message from a simple doctrinal message, to a passionate
appeal that would strengthen the readers. They
must be stirred up to defend the truth of the Good News. The false teachers
were attempting to alter the unchanging, inspired, inerrant and sufficient Word of God for their own purposes. Notice that Jude says that “God gave this unchanging truth once for all time
to His holy people.” Not “once upon a time,” but
“once for all time.” The
Word of God is complete, all God- inspired doctrine is already given, nothing more can be added,
and nothing can be taken away from it. A writer puts it this way, “If
it’s new, it’s not true, and if it’s true, it’s not new.”
When a teacher claims to have a new revelation above and beyond what is found in Scripture, we reject it immediately. We need nothing more than the inspired Word of God (see Rev. 18,19). This is our answer to the leaders of false cults with their books that claim equal or greater authority
with the Scriptures.
4. Jude reveals the threat to his readers – godless people joining the assembly
and teaching that God’s forgiveness allows immoral living. The verse
says, “The fate of such people was determined long ago.” This
seems to say that God selected these people to be doomed, but that
is not the meaning. The
Bible never teaches that some are chosen to be damned. When men are saved, it
is through the sovereign grace of God, but when they are lost, it is because of their own sin and disobedience. The verse does teach that the condemnation of these apostates has been determined long
beforehand. If men chose to turn away from the Christian faith, then their
condemnation is assured and they face the punishment preordained for all apostates.
Why? They turn the grace of God into sin and depravity and they deny the
only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny every essential doctrine of
His person and work and are opposed to the Gospel, to the value of the blood of Christ, and to His being the only way of salvation. This is true of all apostates, then and now.
5. Jude gives three examples of how God deals with apostasy: The Lord,
having saved Israel out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
6. How God dealt with the rebellion and apostasy of the angels
who sinned and who God keeps chained in darkness, waiting for judgment.
7. How God dealt with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, filled with sexual
immorality and perversion, destroyed by fire and who are a warning of the eternal fire that will punish all
those who are evil.
8. Jude condemns the false teachers who claimed authority from God through
their perverted dreams and visions and who justified their immoral lives through these dreams. Like the sinning angels in v.6, these apostates rejected all authority, both worldly and spiritual, thereby
rejecting the Scriptures and denying Christ. They even speak evil
of the “power of the glorious ones,” who probably are the angels of v.6.
9. Jude shows the error of arguing with the power of Satan which
even Michael the archangel did not do. He uses an example not found anywhere
else in the bible – Michael given the task of secretly burying the body of Moses in the desert of Moab so that Satan
could not use the site to erect an altar of worship to Moses, which would lead Israel to greater sin. When Satan challenged Michael for the body, Michael did not curse Satan and argue with him, rather he said
to Satan, “Let the Lord rebuke you.” This is how Christians
are to deal with Satan and with demons. Believers are not to address them, but
rather to seek the Lord’s intervening power against them. Some
teachers suggest that we do battle with these powerful demons, but that is not our place.
The sovereign power of God deals directly with them.
10. Like many arrogant preachers today, the apostates speak disrespectfully in areas of which they are
ignorant, acting like animals by simply following their natural, sensual instincts.
11. Jude explains that these teachers follow in the footsteps of certain evil characters found in the
OT. Cain is an example and his sin was basically the rejection
of salvation through the blood of a sacrificial victim (Gen. 4). His way
tries to please God through human effort, which God rejects. Ultimately,
it lead to the murder of his brother Abel. The example of Balaam is the
desire to become personally wealthy by making a business out of the service of God. He accepted money to lead Israel into sexual sin and eventually into idol worship. “And like Korah, they will perish because of their rebellion” – Korah rebelled
against Moses and sought to be a priest although not chosen by God for this service.
The apostates followed this example by claiming to have authority from God to lead His people.
12. – 13. Jude gives examples of the false character
of these teachers: like dangerous reefs that shipwreck you, they care
only for themselves; like clouds that promise rain but give none, bringing
only dryness and death;
like trees without fruit, promising a spiritual feast, but bringing famine instead; like wild waves churning
up the sea, they promise powerful ministry, but are eventually exposed in their shameful deeds; and like wandering
stars, brilliant for a moment but quickly fade away into nothing.
13. -15. Jude quotes Enoch, seventh in the line of Adam
(Gen. 5:1-24). Enoch, before the Flood, prophesied about Christ’s Second
coming in judgment (1 Thess. 3:13) with His holy ones (both angels and believers). The people of the world, all of the ungodly, will be judged for all they have done in their rebellion
and failure to worship God.
16. Jude further describes these who are condemned as grumblers, complaining against God’s will
and ways, doing whatever evil as they chose. These are the people who
always question the sovereign
will of God. Why does He permit wars and suffering? Why doesn’t He
do something about the mess the world is in? Why?
Why? Why? They are the loud-mouthed
braggarts always talking the talk and never walking the walk.
17.- 19.
The apostles, through their teaching and writings, had given ample warning that apostates would enter the church and
that the church was to be prepared. These apostates would scoff at God’s
future plans and pretend that they know the truth but deny that judgment would ever come. They claim they have the highest spiritual knowledge, but are actually following their sensual desires
because they do not have the Spirit in them.
20. –23. True believers have a sure foundation, our holy faith which we are to build on by studying and obeying
the Bible. We are to pray as directed by the HS, in agreement with
the Word of God as revealed in the bible. Our lives should be lived in such a
way that God can bless us as we wait for His return. We are to show mercy
and patience to the victims of the apostate teachers because they have not yet reached a firm conclusion about
Christ. Others are to be rescued from judgment before it is too late,
while the third group, while buying into the error of the apostates, still needs our mercy.
24. – 25. These verses are Jude’s beautiful benediction to the glorious, omnipotent God, who is able to keep
us from stumbling. We will be brought into His presence, faultless through
the justification by faith, and made worthy of eternal life in heaven by His imputed (passed on) righteousness. Because of
all of these gifts, we will experience great joy. “All glory to Him,
who alone is God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, glory, majesty,
power, and authority belong to Him, in the beginning, now, and forevermore. Amen.”
