We started this study with a look at the writer and the original audience of this letter. We concluded that this is Jude the half brother of Jesus and of course the brother of James who is the writer of the letter of James and the leader of the Jerusalem church. We will now move into the content of this letter that starts out with some very strong and direct words. This entire letter was not written to build any doctrine of salvation or anything like that but is warning against false teachers that are in the church and also will encourage the believer to know how to recognize false teachers and false teachings.
As we begin to dive into this letter we will notice immediately that Jude is not wasting time in getting to the point. In fact this letter is not set out to go into great detail of everything we could know about false teachers and teachings so we will look at some of that from other Scriptures as well to help us in our understanding. This is something that was needed in the first century and it is something that is even more wide spread today in our churches as well. With that let’s look at our first point for this study.
1.SPEEDY diligence in writing this letter.
Look with me at Jude vs. 3a Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation.
We determined in our last study that Jude was probably very close to the recipients of this letter and I believe we see that from the beginning of this verse as well. Jude calls these people Beloved. The Greek word used here is agapétos (ag-ap-ay-tos’) which is the adjective that describes the noun form we know as agape. This love is a deep love that shows love of preference. This means that this is not just ordinary love that we may have for all people but it shows intimacy and closeness. This again is a term that is used often of Christians. As we know, Jude is writing to a group of Christians that may be a part of a church in regions that he ministered in.
I really want us to notice though the urgency of this letter. Like I said this letter is short and to the point. He was not sending a letter to build some doctrinal point or to bring about something to guide them into understanding about following Christ. By association what he shares will build a great understanding of what following Christ looks like but in reality his point is clear from the start. He says at the beginning of verse 3 while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation.
I want to point out the word effort here. This is the Greek word spoudé (spoo-day’) which means swiftness to show zealous diligence. This elevates the better over the good – the more important over the important – and does so with earnest swiftness (intensity). Jude understands the urgency of writing to them concerning this common salvation.
Jude knows that these believers need instruction, care, fellowship for spiritual growth. He does not sit down to write to tell them how much God loves them or that God will prosper them. His intentions is to build up and to see these people grow. As we will see this will be done not in talking about what spiritual gifts they need to desire but in recognizing the error of false teachings that are infiltrating the church.
So Jude understands the speediness that is needed in the message of the letter and this moves us to look at our second point where Jude knows the….
2.SERIOUSNESS in commitment to the faith.
Look with me at Jude vs. 3b 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.
This is something that all of us need to grasp a hold of. You may not be one to sit and write a letter, write a Bible study or sermon but we must know the seriousness of our commitment to the faith we profess. Jude wrote this letter with a sense of urgency and now we start to see the reason why he wrote this letter. But before we get to that we must see the seriousness or necessity of why he wrote this letter. The word for necessity is the Greek word anagké (an-ang-kay’) which means a compelling need requiring immediate action in a pressing situation. This is not just something that Jude wanted to tell them but this is a serious and pressing issue that needs to be addresses as soon as possible.
We also see that this necessity to write is pointed towards exhorting that you contend earnestly for the faith. The idea of of exhorting is directly pointed to bringing comfort to those that hear or read this letter. You might expect that you would hear a lot of language that speaks of God’s love for the Christian or the peace that God gives to us but that is not what this comfort is pointed towards at all. Our culture has weakened the message of the Gospel to material and emotional help from God but in reality the comfort we need is in knowing that God is true and that God’s word is true.
It is with this that Jude continues by saying that they must contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. If we think of comfort differently than what we see here then we definitely look at contending for the faith differently. The phrase contend earnestly is one word in the Greek which is epagónizomai (ep-ag-o-nid’-zom-ahee). This word comes from epí, which means “focused on” and agṓn, which means “a contest, competition” This shows us the idea that brings about our action to fight for or contend with skill and commitment in opposing whatever is not of faith.
*The faith we speak of is not some inner belief or something that we may desire for ourselves but is faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. To understand the point of what he says here we must see this with the focus of this faith being handed to us, that is saints, or giving to us once for all.
I believe this phrase once for all sets us the foundation of what Jude will express throughout this letter. The fact is Jesus died once, there was one sacrifice of the Lord that gave to us eternal life, there is one Gospel, one Lord and there is nothing to be added to what has been laid as the foundation of the Gospel. We must not add to the Gospel, we must not warp the message of the Gospel and if we know of someone that does this then they are going beyond what was handed to them as the truth.
The Gospel message is complete and must not be tampered with. Hebrews 9:24-28 explains this so well, it says For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, mere copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy places year by year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
Jude is showing that the Gospel, our faith can not be changed and therefore anyone that presents this Gospel in a different way must be looked at as a false teacher of Christianity.* This is what Jude will point out primarily in this letter as we move now to our last point for this study.
3.SPOTTING false teachings among us.
Look with me at Jude vs. 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.
This is the theme of the entire book. Yes this push to spot false teachings and expose the false teacher is what will bring comfort to the believer. For those that bring into action a sense of deconstruction of the Gospel and of the faith have changed the concept of how to be saved. This change can bring anxiety and a sense of standing on shaky ground for the believer. There is no peace in a Gospel that changes with the culture or is different from one society to another. We must understand that the Gospel is firm, never changing and we must always have that perspective. We know that we all are growing and we will learn things we haven’t before, we will recognize where we were wrong at times but the idea that Jude is speaking about in this letter points to the fact that these people have come into the church for the purpose of destroying the truth of the Gospel.
I want to point out that Jude says For certain persons have crept in unnoticed. He does not call these people out by name, either because he did not know who they were specifically or because he chose to keep them concealed. His focus is on showing his audience the error instead of excommunicating these people from the congregation. Also we see that these people have crept in unnoticed. This really shows to us the ability of these false teachers to bring in heresy as they commune with you, as they attend the same church or even as they stand in the pulpit to preach. This phrase is summed up in one Greek word which is pareisduó (par-ice-doo’-no). This word means to settle in alongside secretly or under pretense. This word has the sense of slipping in the side door. So this word truly shows to us how the false teachers get in to the church to deceive.
Don’t mistake that they somehow slip in physically but it is their message that is focus here. This will be more evident as we move along through the book of Jude. But also what we see is that Jude does not say that these are just people that have some type of wrong understanding of what being a Christian is. These are not people that just clearly do not know better but that they purposely came into the church by stealth to deceive.
Jude does not hold back on what type of people that do this really are when he says that they are those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation. There are many ways people view this statement but I will refrain from going into detail about each one because I think simply Jude is speaking of the condemnation of all that are not of the elect of God. It is these types of people that bring in these heretical doctrines. No true Christian will bring in heresy but it will be those that are condemned by their own sin.
These certain persons not only come in secretly, not only are they not really a part of the true church but Jude says they are ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
You can see very similar words from Peter in 2 Peter 2:1-3 that says But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words, their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
We see clearly that Jude is setting the stage for what he wants to get across to his audience. He is not interested in beating around the bush but rather goes right to the point. In the same way Jude set to warn his audience, we must also respond to false teachers and false teaching. We must be diligent with quick action, we must be serious about our commitment to the truth of the Gospel and we must be able to spot false teachers and false teachings. The only way we can do that is not just to depend on your pastor but to diligently get into the Word of God on a daily basis. Study the Bible, learn the Bible, memorize the Bible and seek to understand the true and only meaning of the Bible. In our next study we will look deeper at Jude’s warning about these false teachers and their heresies.
Disciple's Direction 