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Letter of Jude
A letter written to a church dealing with false teachers who threatened the orthodoxy of the original apostles’ message.
Praises and encourages the faithful while condemning the false teachers to judgment.
AUTHOR: Jude, the brother of James and the half-brother of Jesus Christ Himself (see Mt. 13:55; Mk. 6:3).
This is the traditional view, and there is nothing of substance to argue against it.
Jude was slow in being accepted into the canon as Scripture.
It was not fully accepted until about A.D. 350.
This was probably due to Jude’s quoting some apocryphal books (see Jude 9, 14-15).
The apocryphal books were written between the Old Testament and the New Testament and have never been counted as Scripture by most believers.
Eventually, the book of Jude proved itself as Scripture and was fully accepted by the church.
As stated, it is mentioned by the middle of the third century (A.D. 350).
DATE: Uncertain.
Somewhere between A.D. 67-90.
There is no clear indication of when the epistle was written.
However, there are some factors that point toward a date somewhere between the middle 70s and 80s.
1. Jude refers to a body of beliefs that had been formulated by the church (Jude 3).
The church most likely would not formulate a creed of beliefs until after the apostles had begun to die off.
As far as is known, all of the apostles had gone on to be with the Lord by the late 60s except for John.
2. Jude challenges the believers to remember the words of the apostles—as though most of the apostles had already passed on and there was a need to look way back over the early years of church history (Jude 17-19).
3. Jude and Peter deal with the same subject of false teachers, and the two books make many of the same points.
Because of this, it looks as though Second Peter made use of Jude or Jude made use of Second Peter.
Peter probably had access to Jude, incorporating the short book primarily into the second chapter.
It is unlikely that Jude would have had access to Second Peter and made use of only the second chapter.
TO WHOM WRITTEN: “To them that are sanctified...preserved...and called” (Jude 1).
Jude wrote to specific people in a particular situation.
This is seen in his calling them “beloved” and speaking so directly to them as though he knows them in a most personal way (Jude 3-5, 17-18, 20).
But their identity is nowhere given.
PURPOSE: “To exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith” (Jude 3-4).
Jude states explicitly that he set out to write about “our common salvation.”
But all of a sudden, he changed his epistle to combat false teachers and their apostasy.
The false teaching was the same false teaching that John, Paul, and Peter had to combat, that of Gnosticism.
(See Introduction, Purpose—First John and Colossians for a discussion of the false teaching.
Also, see Col. 1:15 for more discussion.)
SPECIAL FEATURES:
1. Jude is “The Last General Epistle.”
That is, it is not written to a particular church so far as we know
2. Jude is “An Epistle of Triads.”
That is, the author writes in sets of three.
For example, he uses three historic examples of judgments (Jude 5-7), and three great rebels of the Old Testament (Jude 11).
Verse one alone has two sets of triads, verse two one set.
There are many others easily spotted as one reads the book.
3. Jude is “An Epistle Written to Combat False Teachers and Their Apostasy.”
(See Purpose, Introduction—I John for discussion.)
4. Jude is “The Epistle that Covers the Terrible Characteristics and Judgments of False Teachers” (Jude 3-16).
5. Jude is “The Epistle that Tells Believers How to Combat False Teaching” (Jude 17-23).
6. Jude is “An Epistle that Stresses Mercy and Rescue.”
Believers are to do all they can to save those polluted and contaminated by false teaching (Jude 22-23).
7. Jude is “The Epistle with the Reassuring Doxology.”
No more reassuring words could be chosen to close a letter than the words of Jude 24-25.
Of all the closing words of the epistles, these are probably the best known.
I. THE DESCRIPTION OF TRUE BELIEVERS, vv.
1-2
II.
THE WARNINGS AGAINST APOSTASY: THE CHARACTERISTICS AND JUDGMENT OF FALSE TEACHERS, vv.
3-16
III.
THE EXHORTATION TO BELIEVERS, vv.
17-25
I. THE DESCRIPTION OF TRUE BELIEVERS,
VV. 1-2 (vv.
1-2) Introduction: How can we tell whether or not a person is a true minister of God? How can we tell whether or not a person is a true believer?
This is the discussion of this passage.
Remember: Jude was the brother of our Lord.
At first, he did not believe in Jesus Christ.
But sometime after the resurrection of Christ, he gave his heart to the Lord and surrendered his life to preach the gospel.
Here we see him sitting down and writing to the believers of the first century.
And in writing, he wastes no time: right from the start, he describes himself as a true minister of Jesus Christ and his readers as true believers of Christ.
Consequently, in his opening remark, we have a picture by which we can measure ourselves, the picture of a true minister and of a true believer.
The picture of the true minister (v. 1).
The picture of the true believer (vv.
1-2).
(v. 1) Minister—Servant—Humility: the picture of the true minister.
Who is he?
Jude says two simple things about himself.
a.
He says that he is “the servant of Jesus Christ.”
This is amazing, for as stated above, Jude was the brother of Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth (Mt.
13:55; Mk. 6:3; see Jn. 7:1-5, esp.
v. 5).
At first, he did not believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed One of God, the Son of God who was to come to earth as the Savior of the world.
But note what Jude says here: he says that he is “the servant of Jesus Christ.”
He now believes that his brother Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One of God.
He believes that his brother Jesus is the Son of God who came into the world to save man.
He believes that his brother Jesus can save him from sin, death, and judgment; he believes that his brother Jesus can make him acceptable to God.
What an enormous turnaround!
What a testimony for our Lord Jesus Christ!
Note what else Jude says: he says he is the servant of Jesus Christ.
The Minister of Jesus Christ and his readers as true believers of Christ.
Consequently, in his opening remark, we have a picture by which we can measure ourselves, the picture of a true minister and of a true believer
Thought 1.
The true minister of God has two very basic traits.
(1) The trait of being the servant and slave of Jesus Christ.
And remember: Christ means Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the Son of God whom God sent into the world to save men.
This is the most basic belief of a true follower of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, every true minister of the gospel makes this belief the basis of his life and ministry.
He is a true minister because he is the servant and slave of Jesus Christ.
(2) The trait of humility.
The true minister walks humbly among believers and before God.
No matter how low God’s call is to him, he is thankful for the very fact that God called him.
He is, after all, the servant and slave who is available to do the bidding of his Master.
Thought 2. The fact that Jude was a brother of our Lord is glorious evidence that Jesus Christ is exactly who He claimed to be.
It is touching when we realize that Jude had lived as the half-brother to Jesus for years.
Day in and day out, hour by hour, month by month, and year by year Jude had played, eaten, worked, slept, and gone to school with Jesus.
He had roamed the surrounding hills with Jesus as a boy and seen Him play with other children and relate to the neighbors and adults of their neighborhood.
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