Jude the servant

Jude 1 “Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:”

Who is Jude? We see he has at least one brother James.

Mark 6:3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.”

Matthew 13:55 “Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?”

Another name for Jude is Judas.

He is the brother of Jesus. However, notice that is never mentioned in verse 1 of Jude. It mentions he is the brother of James.

One thing many people get confused about is that Judas (jude) is not Judas Iscariot that betrayed Jesus.

John 14:22 “Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?”

So with this, lets slow down a little and look at this.

Jude calls himself the servant of Jesus. He could have boasted and bragged about being the brother of Jesus but that part is not mentioned here. He found it more important that his name be associated with being a servant of Jesus.

To be a servant of someone, that means that your life is entrusted to them. Jude, was more proud of the fact he was a servant of Jesus just as Paul was that he was a prisoner for Jesus.

Ephesians 4:1 “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,”

Ephesians 3:1 “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,”

Philemon 1 “Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer,”

Jude was not claiming that his physical vocation was a servant but his spiritual vocation was that of a servant. Even going farther, Jude exclaims he is a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and proud of that fact. He was willing to let not only present people know who his master was but future generations as well.

Paul says this:

Romans 1:16–17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

Jude was living out this verse in letting the world know he was a servant of Jesus. He knew that even being a physical brother of Jesus wasn’t enough. He must trust Jesus as his Savior.

A servant in this verse would be someone whose master would have bought them. This is normally done with money or something of significant value.

1 Corinthians 6:20 “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

1 Corinthians 7:23 “Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.”

1 Peter 1:18–19 “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”

So no it was not with money we were purchased, it was by the shed blood of Jesus.

Acts 20:28 “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”

Titus 2:14 “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”

So we see that as Paul was a prisoner, Jude was a servant, so are we. Jude was not looking at Jesus as only his brother, but his Savior.

Secondly, notice he put brother of James second. This did not mean that he didn’t love his brother James, in fact he did very much. Again in Mark and Matthew we find Jude’s brother James mentioned by name. However, it was more important that people knew he was a servant of Jesus and Jesus had the top priority in his life.

Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Here Jesus is talking about how much he cares for his creation. Verso 30 in this chapter mentions he even clothes the grass. But oh how much more he loves and cares for us. We are indebted to Jesus for everything. He deserves and earned first place and Jude knew he would not accept second, third or any other place except first.