Jude

1.1-25

Jude is the only biblical author to identify himself by family relations. Declaring himself the brother of James, he could only have been referring to the Apostle James, the half-brother of Christ, making Jude also the half-brother of Christ. Like most pastors, he would have preferred to write a letter imparting joy at the like-mindedness of his shared faith and salvation through Jesus Christ. Jude wanted to do this but instead found it more necessary to exhort his readers to fight for their faith (v3) due to the apostates now having crept into their midst unnoticed (v4). *see also 1 Tim 6:12 "Fight the good fight of the faith..." As he addresses this threat, his letter delivers four points regarding apostates: The Danger of Apostates (vv3-4), The Doom of Apostates (vv5-7), The Description of Apostates (vv8-16), and The Defense Against Apostates (vv17-23). Consider the relevance of these verses for your circumstances today. Do you need to be made aware of this threat, reaffirmed that judgment awaits those who reject authority and blaspheme (v9), reminded of what to look for, or know what to do when facing the threat of apostasy? Ask the Lord what He would have you apply for your life from them today.

CHAPTER 1

Contend Earnestly for the Faith

1 Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you exhorting that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5 Now I want to remind you, though you know all things, that Jesus, having once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having indulged in the same way as these in gross sexual immorality and having gone after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and blaspheme glorious ones.
9 But Michael the archangel, when he, disputing with the devil, was arguing about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
10 But these men blaspheme the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.
11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have poured themselves into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
12 These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;
13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
14 But Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, also prophesied about these men, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones,
15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
16 These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of their own benefit.

Keep Yourselves in the Love of God

17 But you, beloved, must remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.”
19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, not having the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
22 And on some, who are doubting, have mercy;
23 and for others, save, snatching them out of the fire; and on others have mercy with fear, hating even the tunic polluted by the flesh.
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.