Situation (Summary):
The Book of Jude in
the Bible was written by Jesus' half brother Jude. The book warns Christians against false
teachers. Through those warnings, the
book of Jude convicts Christians and non-Christians alike of their wrong doings
or sin. With these convictions, Jude
points to Christ, our only salvation.
Jude states "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most
holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God,
looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."
Background:
Jude is short for
Judah in the Hebrew and Judas in the Greek.
Jude is not Judas Iscariot or the apostle Judas Thaddaeus. He is the brother of James, the half-brother of Jesus as stated in
Matthew 13:55, "Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called
Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas." Therefore, as the brother of James, Jude is
also the half-brother of Jesus. His
parents are Mary and Joseph. Jude
believed in Jesus after the resurrection when his brother believed. 1 Corinthians 15:7 states "After that He
was seen by James, then by all the apostles." According to Acts 1:14, he waited with the
apostles for the Holy Spirit, "These all continued with one accord in
prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with
His brothers."
Jude was written
between 60 to 80 A.D. for Jewish Christians.
The book was written to instruct believers against False Teachers and
dangerous tenets such as live in sin and still have the hope of eternal life. These false teachers were believed to be the
Gnostics. They were a Christian heresy
that combined the world's religions and started in the first century. The Gnostics shunned the material world and
embraced the spiritual world. This could
be accomplished through gnosis or knowledge by only the initiated. Their religion was very complicated and used
terms like divine spark and transcendence.
There is some debate
whether Jude belongs in the Bible. The
concern is around the similarities with 2 Peter chapter 2, use of apocryphal
books from the Septuagint, its brevity, and its structure (Jude doesn't include
a thanksgiving greeting at the beginning or a personal greeting at the
end).
The apocryphal books
are of unknown origin, suspect authorship, and not part of the Hebrew
Bible. In Jude 9, a citation from the
Assumption of Moses. In Jude 14 and 15,
1 Enoch is used however some scholars point to Deuteronomy 33:2. Regardless, the citations are probably used
as a cultural reference to help Jude prove his text. Under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the
church found that the authority of God stands behind the letter of Jude. Since
the letter was questioned, tested, and accepted, proves the strength of its
authenticity.
Jude was studied
verse by verse over the course of 2017.
Please find links to those studies below.
Verse by Verse Study
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Analysis:
2 Timothy 3:16-17
states "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." As part of our review of Jude, let's see if
the text fulfills the requirements stated in 2 Timothy by the Apostle Paul.
"Doctrine"
in the Greek is didaskalia which means
instruction, teaching, applied teaching, Christian doctrine as it especially
extends to its necessary lifestyle
applications, precepts (a general rule intended to regulate behavior or
thought). Jude instructs the believer in
several passages on how to live the Christian life. Please find the applications summarized below
from the verse by verse study.
- Jude 2: Release your anxiety, rest in Jesus, live for God.
- Jude 6: Stay where you belong, not to the left and not to the right, but in the center of God's will. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
- Jude 10: In the end, we all have to believe in something. Believe in the Truth that God supplies and the Truth that He shows us through His creation. Don't rely on men.
- Jude 14: Don't be deceived by these false teachers. Avoid them.
- Jude 17: The Christian life is a daily life. Each day is taken separately and has it's own battles. Sometimes, the battles are won and Christ is glorified and sometimes they aren't won. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus daily to help you grow in your belief and service.
- Jude 20: Faith and trust in God is the bedrock of the Christian life. We build upon this foundation to further grow. Praying is the means to reconcile our needs and plans for our life with what God desires for us. Sometimes we may not pray as we should but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. When we pray, we trust our anxieties, worries, and cares with God. To pray, you must have faith.
- Jude 22: Jude spends most of this letter describing the terrible false teachers and to avoid them. However, Jude still asks for compassion for them just like any other person of the world who is not saved. Don't give up on the lost. Even during their worst actions and sin, you may not realize that they are wavering about their belief. In the flesh, no one is totally committed one way or the other. There is always doubt. Don't stop praying, don't stop caring, don't stop witnessing.
- Jude 23: We will be called to explain why we didn't attempt to share the Gospel with the wicked. Our job is not to save that is God's work, but we are commanded to share the Gospel and disciple the believer. The Gospel is to be shared with everyone, even ones consumed and controlled by the evil one. Stay faithful, share God.
"Reproof"
in the Greek is elegchos which means
proof, persuasion, inner conviction focuses on God confirming His inbirthing of
faith, that by which invisible things are proved (and we are convinced of their
reality), convicting
one of his sinfulness. By
describing all the faults of the false teachers and documenting their
judgement, Jude convicts each one of us that have had or still have had those
characteristics. With these reminders,
the believer is convinced to focus more on Christ. For the unbeliever, they are convicted of
their sin. Please find the convictions
summarized below from the verse by verse study.
- Jude 1: By your actions, what is your surname? How would someone describe you? Christian or Hypocrite?
- Jude 3: The Christian life will not be easy. You will have to fight for it. However, be encouraged. If you believe in Jesus Christ's work, you have been rescued by God from destruction into eternal life. This rescue is permanent and valid.
- Jude 5: Don't forget all that God has done for you. Stay faithful and obedient.
- Jude 7: If something consumes your every waking and sleeping hour and is not done for God or is not about God, you are immersed in perverse idolatry. Focus on Christ.
- Jude 8: Using the past (Israelites, fallen angels, Sodom and Gomorrah) as their guide, these con artists bathe themselves in sexual immorality, ignore God, and speak falsely about God. This is a reflection of the world without God. However, how can the world believe God will let everyone into heaven (the good place) when they treat Him this way? The world believes that just because they exist that they are "entitled" to anything and everything they want and want to do. This "entitlement" causes people to impose unrealistic demands, to feel sorry for themselves when it doesn't work out, to believe they deserve happiness, to take more than they give, to look out only for themselves, to genuinely believe that they are better than everyone else, and to crave attention anyway that they can get it. They focus on themselves instead of others. We don't have the "right" to anything unless we have Christ.
- Jude 11: These false teachers would go as far as murder if disrespected or humiliated. They would do or say anything for worldly gains. Anyone who seems more important than them, they will use any method to ruin their threat. To these dreamers, no one and nothing is more important than them and they are entitled to all spoils to the point of being called a "god." Focusing on yourself, keeps you from God and brings you only misery. Be free. Focus on God and His will.
- Jude 12: If your life's focus is only for yourself, then you have fallen for the world's trap. When you find yourself needing to be noticed or needing to hear yourself speak, when your desire to show your head knowledge not the Spirit's knowledge, when it is important that people know how you serve, when you don't hear what people are saying and only thinking of how the attention can be brought on yourself, you are on the wide path. Life is not about what moth and rust will destroy or fame. It is about Christ. Be humble and serve.
- Jude 15: If you rely on yourself, if you boast in yourself, if you believe that you are better than anyone else, you don't believe in God. You believe only in yourself. You show your greatness by mocking and defaming God. You bully God to make yourself feel better. In the end all will be judged. Are you really that great? Are you really that special? Do you really have power? You know the answer to these questions. You just have too much pride to be honest. Be free, release yourself from these unholy, unreachable expectations and thoughts of yourself, believe in Christ.
- Jude 18: In calling out the scoffers, Jude reminds us not to be haughty, full of ourselves, prideful. We need to stay grounded in the Word and serving Christ. Jude also reminds us to not act on urges pressed into us by the world. We need to focus on Christ and obey the Holy Spirit and not the world.
"Correction"
in the Greek is epanorthósis
which means reformation, setting
straight/right again, restored to its original proper condition, referring to
something that is aptly "straightened out," restoration to an upright
or a right state, improvement. This word only occurs once in the Bible. Jude points out several faults that believers
can fall into by these false teachers. Please find the improvements summarized below from the
verse by verse study.
- Jude 4: Don't fall into Hollywood's trap. Satan is not all glitz and glamor, proudly in the open spinning his lies and his web. Satan works in the shadows and slips in unnoticed. He changes and contrives the Word to fit his bidding leading billions and billions of people astray. At the heart of his work, is sexual sin. His goal is to make wantonness, promiscuousness, lawlessness, and overt and often offensive sexual desires "normal." He has many, many workers. The tactics are same in the past, the present, and the future. Be careful what you watch, listen, and use in conversation. Don't let the world worm its way into your heart.
- Jude 24: We don't have the ability or character to be perfect, without blemish. Therefore, we can't be in God's presence as demonstrated in our study. We must be without fault, without deceit, having no spot or wrinkle on our character, unblemished from the marring affects of sin. But there is Good News! "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." What have we been "saved" from? "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." What "faith" have we been saved? "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Believe in Jesus' sacrifice. Believe in Jesus "who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed." This way, we can be without fault before the throne of God and occupy a place with Christ.
"Instruction"
in the Greek is paideia which means
discipline, training and education of children, instruction, chastisement,
correction, instruction that trains someone to reach full development
(maturity), whatever in adults also cultivates the soul - especially by
correcting mistakes and curbing the passions, instruction which aims at the increase of virtue. Through his discussion of false teachers,
Jude instructs believers on ways to correct and improve their Christian
life. Please find the increases in
virtue summarized below from the verse by verse study.
- Jude 9: Ephesians 6:12 states "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." James 4:7 states "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Even Michael respected the enemy. As believers, we should resist the enemy but respect the enemy. Let God serve the punishment.
- Jude 13: Be grounded in His Word, trust in His provision, be free of the world. Spend your time on earth focused on Him and your heart will be full. If you follow the world, anything you try to calm your heart will end in despair and unhappiness. The world is a quick evaporating high that gets shorter and more painful the more you embrace it.
- Jude 16: Remember, you are the only person to blame for the decisions in your life, especially if you put yourself in that situation to begin with.
- Jude 19: Finally, no one said that life was going to be fair. If it was, all of us would be condemned - that is the fair justice required for our sin. Condemnation is the impartial and just treatment without favoritism or discrimination. But thank God, that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Resist the resentment that the world pushes on you. Focus on God's greatest gift, Christ. Let the Holy Spirit direct and empower you for whatever task God has for you.
- Jude 21: We all struggle with the flesh. Resting in His love and focusing on a life according to God's morality, we can ignore the distractions and be peaceful in the stress. We can react by letting go of the world's expectations and drivers. No matter what happens during your day, remember God's compassion. Remember we are not of this world but the world to come. Be loyal to Christ.
- Jude 25: We were put on this earth to praise God. We do this by adhering to His will in our lives. We praise Him with all that we are because He deserves it. God only deserves praise. If we receive praise, we should thank God for enabling us to do what was praise worthy and give Him the praise. When pride creeps in, we will be lured by the evil one and begin to think ourselves higher than we ought. Remember, God is author of our salvation who alone is wise. God has infinite intrinsic worth and greatness above all. He has all the power. Give Him praise now and forever because He is true.
Recommendation
(Application):
First, if you are
not a child of God, if you don't believe in Jesus' work on the cross, get that
right immediately. Don't wait. Tomorrow may not come. Don't try to be "good enough." None of us are. We all sin.
Jesus died for our sins.
Believing and trusting in Him, we are reconciled with God. We are saved.
It's that simple. In the end, all
must choose. Life or death. Jesus or Satan.
Through our study in
Jude, we've learned that we should release our anxiety, rest in Jesus, stay in
the middle of God's will, and live for God.
We've learned not to rely on men but rely on God and His Word, the Bible. Faith and trust in God is the bedrock of the
Christian life. Through endless prayer,
we reconcile our life with God's will.
We've also learned that we need to share Jesus with everyone, even
people we think could never be saved.
Our focus is not
about ourselves, but the focus needs to be on Christ. We've learned that we can't loose sight of
Him. When we do, we fall into Satan's
trap. We need to be consumed with
Christ. We've learned to be careful what
we watch, listen, and use in conversation.
We've learned to spend our time on earth focused on Him. When we do that our heart will be full.
Resources used for this
Study:
References of
Scripture are from the NKJV version except when noted otherwise.
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