Study of the letter to Jude

The Letter of Jude

  1 Jude,^a a servant^b of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
  To those who are called, who are beloved^c in^d God the Father and kept safe for^e Jesus Christ:
  2 May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.

  3 Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. ⁴For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.^f

  5 Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, that the Lord, who once for all saved^g a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day. ⁷Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust,^h serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
  8 Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones.^i 9But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of slander^j against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" ¹⁰But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct. ¹¹Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam's error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah's rebellion. ¹²These are blemishes^k on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves.^l They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; ¹³wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.
  14 It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "See, the Lord is coming^m with ten thousands of his holy ones, ¹⁵to execute judgment on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him." ¹⁶These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage.

Warnings and Exhortations

  17 But you, beloved, must remember the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; ¹⁸for they said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts." ¹⁹It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions. ²⁰But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; ²¹keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads toⁿ eternal life. ²²And have mercy on some who are wavering; ²³save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on still others with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.^o

Benediction

  24 Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, ²⁵to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Notes:

·        There are three schools of thought concerning who John was writing to in his letter.

o    specific person, a lady.

o   The church as a whole at the time John was alive.

o   The church in the last days.

·        Given the tone of the letter it is very unlikely the letter was addressed to one person. In Scriptures the Church of God is often referred to as a lady and as a bride.

·        John could have been writing to the church in his day but if he was the final greeting is problematic. If to the church in his day why would he say the “children of your elect sister send you greetings”?

·        The problem with John writing to the church at the end time is very few scholars have accepted this letter as directed to the church in the last days. They agree Revelations is for the last days but do not seem to consider 2 John to be in this vein also.

·        We will consider the letter to be written to the church in the last days.

·        This letter is written with an emphasis on love.

o   Walking in love means obedience to Christ.

o   Walking in love means not uniting ourselves with deceivers.

·        This is put very strongly. We are not to welcome them into our house.

o   The term house can be understood as the church and/or our place of abode.

·        Notice that this refers to deceivers, not the unsaved. The difference is that a deceiver claims to be a Christian but is not obedient to the commandments of God.

o   The deceiver comes appearing as a believer but with the intent to turn God’s people away from love and obedience.

·        Nowhere is John saying do not entertain those who do not believe. The emphasis is on those who claim to believe but do not really.

o   The danger is that a deceiver can cause those who are children of God to turn away and lose their place. A person who does not believe is not trying to deceive. It is known and that person admits they are not a believer.

·         

Now we come to Jude.

·        Jude is considered a general letter to the church since he did not address it to anyone specifically.

·        Since this is a general letter we can consider Jude to be written to the church in all ages, including ours.

·        Jude almost seems to be expanding on the second letter of John.

·        Where 2 John 1:7 – 9 tells us to beware of deceivers, Jude 1: 4 – 16 provides more detail about how they will deceive and what kind of people they will be.

·        Jude 1: 17 – 21 gives the same kind of warning that John gives. We are told to remain Holy, pray and keep ourselves in the love of God.

·        Jude is also a bit more specific in admonishing us to save the unbelievers from the fire and pray for those having spiritual problems (wavering)

Combining 2 John and Jude

·        Combining the two letters we get a very clear picture of the assaults against believers.

·        We also see that our salvation is bound up with love and obedience. (That is not to say we are saved by works. We are saved by Christ, but if we love Christ we will be obedient).

·        We also see very clearly we are not to accept into the fellowship those who are deceivers or are not believers.

·        This is especially true now in this age of accepting everything as equal in the name of political correctness. As believers we cannot accept every wind of doctrine or believe as equal to the salvation of Christ. We are a peculiar people and must be obedient in love to the Lord.