Jude 1-2

To contend, we need to know our identity properly

You need to know who you are in Christ

Jude = slave/servant rather than a brother; a slave to a master

You have been purchased by the blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:19)(with a price 1 Cor. 6:20)

The humility to identify not as a brother but as a slave to his brother who he once rejected and thought was crazy, but now follows and worships

We are not our own; we belong to Christ

Jude embraced his brother as his Lord

We are called

By the Lord

To something.. contend for the faith v.3

Those who are called (adj.) are “beloved in God the Father” and “kept for Jesus Christ”

Both “beloved” and “kept” are perfect passive participles modifying the verbal adjective “called”

God’s effectual calling

We are loved

The only place in the Bible where the phrase “loved by God the Father” appears

While God loves creation and loves all people, God especially loves his children.

Those who are in Christ are permanently and perfectly loved with “fatherly” affection. It is unconditional and nothing can make him love you more or less.

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

We are kept

To keep from harm, to guard, to watch over, to protect, to preserve

The emphasis here is that we are kept safely in our salvation by Jesus Christ.

V.24 says he will keep us from stumbling and will present us to the Father as blameless with great joy

Crucial doctrine here: by his work on earth, Jesus has obtained our salvation; by his work in heaven, Jesus maintains our salvation (the role of the high priest in Hebrews 7:25

Hebrews 7:25 ESV

25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

You need to know what you have in Christ

Mercy

A wonderful characteristic of God that describes how he pursues us though we have no right to be pursued by Him.

Mercy is gracious, undeserved, and unmerited

Romans 9:23 - those who trust in Christ are objects of mercy

Matt. 5:7 the merciful will receive mercy

We receive mercy, and we give mercy; we gladly give to others what we have received from Christ

Peace

Linked to the hebrew word “shalom” - wholeness, completeness, prosperity

Judges 6:24 God is called “Yahweh-shalom” God alone is the source of peace

Isaiah 9 designates the coming Messiah as the “Prince of Peace”

Phil. 4:6-7

God is the Lord of peace; we cannot receive this from this world

Love

God is love; everything he does is in love

John 17 we are loved in the same way the Father loves the Son

Romans 8 nothing can separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus

1 Cor. 13 love is the center of who God is and it never fails and never ends!

Jude understands and knows this power of this love, and we must know it too

By being multiplied, these attributes should overflow into how he live our lives

Contending for the faith will not always be pretty, but we must be people of mercy, peace and love. It is what separates us from all other people's. It is unique to the Christian faith.