Contend for the Faith Part 1

Jude 1–16 CSB

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James: To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3 Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. 4 For some people, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. 5 Now I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe; 6 and the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day. 7 Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns committed sexual immorality and perversions, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. 8 In the same way these people—relying on their dreams—defile their flesh, reject authority, and slander glorious ones. 9 Yet when Michael the archangel was disputing with the devil in an argument about Moses’s body, he did not dare utter a slanderous condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these people blaspheme anything they do not understand. And what they do understand by instinct—like irrational animals—by these things they are destroyed. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, have plunged into Balaam’s error for profit, and have perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These people are dangerous reefs at your love feasts as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead and uprooted. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever. 14 It was about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied: “Look! The Lord comes with tens of thousands of his holy ones 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all the ungodly acts that they have done in an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh things ungodly sinners have said against him.” 16 These people are discontented grumblers, living according to their desires; their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering people for their own advantage.

Introduction:

Big Idea of the Series: As false teachers have arisen against the church, Jude encourages believers to contend for the faith by putting forth an intense effort to fight for the truth of the gospel. Jude also assures them that Jesus will protect them and preserve them until he returns and presents them to the Father.

Text: Jude 1–16

Big Idea of the Message: Jude warns that false teachers have infiltrated the church and charges believers to contend for the truth of the gospel.

Application Point: Even today, as throughout history, the church continues to come under attacks from false teachings; yet God will equip the church to withstand the threats and to fight for the true faith.

The author of this letter is likely one of four half-brothers of Jesus mentioned in the Gospels (see Matthew 13:55; “Jude” is a shortened form of “Judas”). From the accounts of the Gospels, none of the brothers followed Jesus before his death. However, after his resurrection, they become disciples (see Acts 1:14). Interestingly, Jude identifies himself as the brother of James, yet only refers to himself as a servant of Jesus Christ (Jude 1). The specific audience that Jude writes his letter to is not stated, but from the text, it appears Jude was writing to a Messianic Jewish community.

We tend to quickly read past the introduction to get to the main purpose of a letter. Yet, in Jude’s opening statements in the first verse, he reminds his readers of three powerful truths. First, they “have been called.” Os Guinness states, calling is “almost a synonym for salvation. In this context, calling is overwhelmingly God’s calling people to himself as followers of Christ. … The body of Jesus’ followers as a whole is the community of the ‘called out ones’ (the origin of ecclesia the Greek word for church). … Our primary calling as followers of Jesus is by him, to him, and for him. First and foremost, we are called to Someone (God)” (Os Guinness, The Call [Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003], 29). Second, they are “loved in God the Father.” As Brennan Manning reminds us, God “has a single relentless stance towards us; He loves us” (Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel [Colorado Springs CO: Multnomah Books, 2005], 6). Third, they are “kept for Jesus Christ.” The word “for” could be translated as “by” or “in.” Also, the word “kept” means “to keep watch over, to guard, held in custody” (Robert L. Thomas, New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition [Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1998), 5083]. Jude is declaring to believers that we are guarded and watched over by Jesus Christ, and he will strengthen us to persevere until the end (see Jude 24).

Jude’s original intention was to write a longer letter about their common salvation in Christ (Jude 3). However, an urgent matter had arisen among the believers that compelled Jude to write a quick letter, urging them to “contend for the faith.” To contend for the faith means to “struggle for, contend, fight” (James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) [Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997], 4151). Because corrupt teachers had secretly infiltrated the church (v. 4), Jude urged the disciples to put forth an intense effort to fight for the truth of the faith. The infiltrating false teachers had begun sharing false teachings and ideas. Interestingly, Jude does not call out the particular false teachings they are spreading. Instead, Jude points out the way these ungodly teachers are living their lives. Their moral compromise is a direct indication of the wrong teachings and theology that they hold and proclaim to others.

Body:

I. First, Jude says they “pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality” (Jude 4). These false teachers corrupted the truth of God’s grace by turning grace into an opportunity for moral freedom from restraint, especially in gratifying their flesh. A form of this teaching is still prevalent in the church today. The idea is that since we are already forgiven by God through Jesus’s death, we can do whatever we want. The mantra “I am free in Christ” is distorted into the idea that we are free to sin and afterward play the “grace card” to cover ourselves. However, this perversion of God’s grace, in reality, is a denial and rejection of Jesus’s teachings and authority. Here is a video that illustrates the way we can abuse grace in our lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5L2wFD7ymU.

II. Jude then warns the followers of Jesus to keep away from such beliefs, teachings, and practices by giving a series of illustrations from the Old Testament and Jewish tradition. In his examples, Jude reminds his readers about people who rebelled against God’s authority and received divine justice (Jude 5). The first story is about how God had delivered his people from Egypt but then destroyed those who did not believe. In Numbers 14, the newly delivered Israelites began to grumble against God and plan on committing mutiny to replace Moses and then return to Egypt. God intervened before they could stone Moses and the other leaders. In response to their rebellion, God declared that all those above the age of 20 would die in the wilderness and not enter the promised land. Jude also recalls the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. The inhabitants “gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion” (Jude 7), even to the extent of seeking to have sex with the two angels who visited the city (Genesis 19:4–5). The purposes of these stories are to “serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7).

III. Next, Jude compares the corrupt teachers to the previous three illustrations by saying that, “in the very same way,” they reject God’s authority. The ungodly people resort to “the strength of their dreams” (Jude 8). Jude “suggests that they may have claimed to receive some of their teachings through visions” (David H. Wheaton, “Jude,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. [Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994], 1418). Rather than basing their teachings upon the foundation of Scripture, the false teachers used dreams, visions, and prophetic words to justify their beliefs. Again, this parallels a similar danger that we still face today. Although God certainly can use dreams, visions, and the prophetic to confirm his will to us, all these forms must be in alignment and agreement with his written Word. Too often, people share God’s “message" to them through visions, dreams, and prophetic words, solely relying on non-scriptural means. They evaluate their visions or “words” from God above the Scriptures. This practice is extremely dangerous and can be abusive.

IV. The false teachers rely on their dreams to be authoritative, and as a result, they “pollute their own bodies, reject authority, and heap abuse on celestial beings” (Jude 8). The NIV translates the Greek word blasphēmeōas “heap abuse.” The more accurate translation would be “blaspheme the glorious ones” (ESV). “Jude is more probably referring to the tradition that God’s law was given at Sinai by angels” (R. C. Lucas and Christopher Green, The Message of 2 Peter & Jude: The Promise of His Coming, The Bible Speaks Today [Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1995], 189) (see Acts 7:38, 53).

V. Jude then provides another illustration from a well-known Jewish text of that period called the “Testament of Moses.” In the section Jude quotes from, Moses has died, and Michael and the devil get into a dispute over the body of Moses (v. 9). These stories from extrabiblical sources may seem odd to us, but to the ears of a first-century Jew who would have been raised with them, the stories reinforced Jude’s warning. Even though these false teachers were currently seeking to pervert the gospel, their behavior had ancient roots in the Old Testament and Jewish tradition: they were rebelling against God’s authority, they were sexually immoral, and they rejected God’s messengers.

VI. Jude, in verse 11, begins his second trio set of illustrations. He issues a strong warning, “Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion” (Jude 11). All three of these stories are about those who had rebelled against God and also corrupted others. Jude then compares the false teachers to several word pictures including “shepherds who feed only themselves” (see Ezekiel 34:2), “clouds without rain” (see Proverbs 25:14), and “wild waves of the sea” (see Isaiah 57:20).

Conclusion:

I. In verses 14–15, Jude concludes the first section of his letter by quoting from 1 Enoch to make his point. As believers, we are to fight for and defend the truth of our faith. For those who are ungodly and are false teachers, God will in his timing bring judgment upon them if they fail to repent.

II. In this article, a pastor explains how he had to learn the hard way to be a “heresy healer” instead of a “heresy hunter.” He uses the following illustration: “Imagine a sharp, young doctor walking into a refugee camp. He sees an old man, half-naked, shivering and struggling to keep warm under a threadbare blanket. The doctor looks closer at the blanket and sees that it is filthy, smeared with feces and probably disease-ridden. In horror the doctor rips the blanket off of the old man and says, ‘Don’t you know that blanket will make you sick?’ Then he walks off, saying, ‘My job is done here.’ But had he done anything for the old man? Can we blame the old man for picking up the blanket as soon as the doctor walks away?” (Josh Kelley, “Heresy Hunter or Heresy Healer?,” CT Pastors, February 2015, https://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2015/february-online-only/heresy-hunter-or-heresy-healer.html).