Jude 1-3

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: ² Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. ³ Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

A. W. Tozer led by the wisdom of God once wrote, “We have gotten accustomed to the blurred puffs of gray fog that pass for doctrine in churches and expect nothing better. From some previously unimpeachable sources are now coming vague statements consisting of a milky admixture of Scripture, science, and human sentiment that is true to none of its ingredients because each one works to cancel the others out. Little by little Christians these days are being brainwashed. One evidence is that increasing numbers of them are becoming ashamed to be found unequivocally on the side of truth. They say they believe, but their beliefs have been so diluted as to be impossible of clear definition. Moral power has always accompanied definite beliefs. Great saints have always been dogmatic. We need a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God that lives and abides forever.”

The New Testament letter of Jude appears in our Bibles just before the final book, the book of Revelation. It is often overlooked, missed, and considered mysterious. Its tone is direct and considered to be harsh by some. Despite its short length and the fact that is overlooked by many believers, Jude has perhaps one of the most pertinent and consistently communicated messages of the New Testament. Jude wrote his letter between 68 and 70 A.D., shortly after the letter of 2 Peter and he addresses the same subject matter as Peter. His letter was written to Christians in the first century to “earnestly contend for the faith” (v. 3). He recognized that the Church was under attack, not from persecutors without, but subtle enemies within. His call is for examination, first of our own lives, hearts, motives, and actions, and then to keep a watchful eye out for those whom he identifies as “certain men” who “have crept in unawares” (v. 4). Jude’s letter is about apostate Christians. The word “apostate” comes from the Greek word apostasis which means desertion. The prefix apo- means “out” or “away from” and would indicate someone who has left the faith. Apostates are never those who are described as being true followers of Christ, but false ones. They adopt the faith outwardly but not inwardly. His letter is about discernment and is essentially an extended illustration and commentary upon Jesus’s statement in the Sermon on the Mount, “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). Jude calls us to know the true faith, identify the true faith, and stand for the truth faith against those who would undermine it with their living or their doctrine. In the first three verses of the letter, we have three essential callings of the Christian life that are foundational to us being able to “earnestly contend for the faith.”

The first calling of a true Christian that Jude gives to us in the opening of his letter is that we are called to serve God’s Son. The letter opens with Jude’s name and he identifies himself in two ways. He is “a servant of Jesus Christ” and “brother of James.” Who is Jude? The name Jude is actually a popular one in the Bible. It also appears as Judah and Judas. While there have been a few theories put forward as to who he is, he is most certainly not the most recognizable Judas, Judas Iscariot. One prominent view of who he is emerges from church history that identifies him as the brother of Jesus. He would be the “brother of James,” another brother of Jesus who pastored the church at Jerusalem and wrote the letter bearing his name. Despite being a brother of Jesus, Jude chose to identify himself as a “servant of Jesus Christ.” The word “servant” is the Greek word doulos which is the common Greek word for slave. Despite being Jesus’s earthly brother, he saw himself as a humble slave of His master whom he would recognize as Lord and Savior. Every believer has a unique calling in which they serve the Lord Jesus Christ in a specific way, but all Christians are called to be servants of Christ. We serve Him. The contrast between Jude and those apostates that his letter warns about, is that they served themselves and their own sinful purposes while he served His Lord. Whom do you serve?

The next calling that we can draw out of Jude’s opening words is that true Christians are called to walk in God’s grace. True believers are all recipients of God’s grace. It is “by grace” that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8). The Christian life is about walking and living in that grace that is continually supplied by the Lord. In the opening of his letter in the second part of verse one and verse 2, Jude lays out three things that God’s grace accomplishes in the life of a believer.  Firstly, His grace sanctifies. The apostates that Jude warns about are marked by lives that are governed by sinful actions and sinful desires. True believers are those who “are sanctified by God.” Sanctification is the process whereby believers are gradually set apart from sin and grow in Christlikeness. The mark of a true believer is that they are being sanctified by God. The second thing that His grace accomplishes is that it sustains believers. Jude describes the recipients of his letter as those who are “preserved in Jesus Christ and called.” God guards and calls all who are in Christ. One of the great promises that Jesus made to His disciples is that no one could take them out of His hand or His Father’s hand (John 10:27-29). He does fail to save completely any that belong to Him and promises to keep them all the way through to the end (John 6:37-40). The apostates would be marked by falling away from the faith, but God would preserve His true children. Thirdly, God’s grace supplies. “Mercy,” “grace,” and “peace” are continually supplied to believers through our relationship with Christ. We are in constant need of them. We have the ability to approach God’s throne and ask for whatever we need as we face the trials that life throws at us and as we stand to contend as Jude calls us to (Hebrews 4:14-16). As we seek to contend for the faith, we must walk in God’s grace understanding that it is God that sanctifies us, sustains us, and supplies us as we do so. To contend rightly, we must do so from an attitude of humble dependence, not of arrogant self-sufficiency.

The last calling of true Christians that Jude reminds us of in the opening words of his letter are that we are called to contend for God’s truth. Jude expresses his original intention for wring about the “common salvation” that all believers enjoy, but it seems that the Holy Spirit directs His mind and pen to the matter of contending.  His call is for God’s people to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” “Earnestly contend” translates from the Greek word epagonizomai. The root of this word is the verb agonizo which is the word we get our English word “agonize” from. It describes fighting or struggling. It is the word used by Jesus in Luke 13:24 when He said, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate” and by Paul when he told Timothy to “Fight the good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12). His call is for believers to fight for “the faith.” “The faith” describes the entire body of Christian belief with the pure truth of the gospel at its center. We have “the faith” in the words of Scripture. This faith was “once delivered.” The idea is that it was given “once for all time.” It is unchanging and a foundation on which believers must always stand. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:5 that we have “one faith.” In a world of plurality, where everyone’s opinion and way of doing things must be considered valid, Jude’s call provides a striking contradiction. There is only one true faith and it is for all time unchanging. God’s true children are called to fight for it and stand for it regardless of how the world around us responds.

Are you faithfully serving God’s Son? Are you walking in His grace? Are you contending for the faith? Jude’s call is as important as ever. In an age dominated by religious pluralism, tolerance, and secular-humanism, God’s people have a tremendous opportunity to be “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14-16) that He has called us to be as we “earnestly contend.”