Jude 1:1-16

Contending for the faith?

Jude 1:1-16

Jude 1:1

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ (use)

the half-brother of Jesus Christ

and a brother of James, the leader of the Jerusalem church

A predominantly, but not exclusively, Jewish Christian community in a Gentile society seems to account best for what little we can gather about the recipients of Jude's letter.

Bauckham, R.J., 1983. Jude, 2 Peter. Word Biblical Commentary series.
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You may fear that the Lord has passed you by, but it is not so: He who counts the stars, and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting His own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made, or the only saint He ever loved. Approach Him and be at peace.

Spurgeon, C.H., 1866. Morning and Evening.
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Fear not, I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by My name; thou art Mine.

Bonar, A., 2016. Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M'Cheyne.
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Jude is not an epistle one reads for comfort or to ponder esoteric questions about theology; it is a letter of challenge. It is a letter of outrage, and we are unaccustomed to this much passion.

Kraftchick, S.J., 2002. Jude, 2 Peter. Abingdon New Testament Commentaries series.
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Few books in the New Testament have more to say to our generation than the Epistle of Jude.

Radmacher, E.D., 1997. The Nelson Study Bible. pg. 2156
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Jude 1:2

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. (use)

They are not self-acquired Christian virtues, but the gifts of God, which, the author prays, may be abundantly bestowed upon his readers. Nevertheless, by a divine alchemy, the gifts of God are transformed into human characteristics.

Wand, J.W.C., 1934. The General Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude. Westminster Commentaries series. London: Methuen & Co. p.196
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Jude 1:3

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (use)

Yes, this is the world without any anchor in an ocean of individual caprice, on a wandering journey to shipwreck.

Baglin, R., 2020. Yes, this is the world without any anchor.
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We can't truly know God or live for God until we know the facts God gives us about himself.

Challies, T., 2019. We Are All Theologians.
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Such preaching necessitates declaring the full counsel of God in Scripture. The entire written Word must be expounded. No truth should be left untaught, no sin unexposed, no grace unoffered, no promise undelivered.

Lawson, S., 1989. Preach the Word.
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Authentic disciples cannot cling to the the truth about Jesus while avoiding the way of Jesus. The Jesus truth plus the Jesus way equals the Jesus life.

Vreeland. D., 2018. We've Gotten Salvation All Wrong: Let's Reclaim the Heart of Christian Discipleship.
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Jude 1:4

For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (use)

One thought characterizes this epistle: beware of the apostates.

Pentecost, E.C., 1983. "Jude," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament. pg. 918
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The next step is that he justifies his behavior with intellectual rationalization. He has to convince himself that what he is doing is right in order to silence his guilty conscience. Consequently he figures out a way to convince himself that wrong is right. In so doing, he must also convince himself that right is wrong. This leads to a denial of God's Word. What God has said is wrong, the apostate says is all right, and what God has said is right, he says is wrong. He has moved from volitional, to moral apostasy, and then to intellectual apostasy. All three aspects of apostatizing counter loving God with all one's heart, strength, and mind.

Constable, T., 2022. Expository Notes.
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Fix your eyes on this one truth God is madly in love with you

Houston, J., 2018. Good Grace.
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Since God is coherent, life is not arbitrary. Following personal truths is cheap. Seeking revealed truth is costly. It requires the hard work of discernment, weighing alternative truth claims and counting the cost of discipleship.

Jenkins, B., 2016. The Most Revolutionary Thing a Woman Can Do.
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Jude 1:5

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. (use)

We are ignorant of things necessary, because we learn things superfluous and unnecessary.

Baxter, R. 1825. A Body of Practical Divinity and Cases of Conscience.
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The Torah is not a book we turn to for historical accuracy, but rather for truth. The story of the Exodus lives in us. Standing at the Passover Seder, I see in my mind's eye the Israelites marching out of Egypt, the miracles at the sea, and the pillar of fire leading them through the fearful night. I feel an enormous gratitude to God. For although we cannot know exactly how God has saved our people, we have been saved. Despite unimaginable odds and opposition, the Jewish people have seen nation after nation buried under the debris of history while our nation lives.

Wolpe, D., 2004. Did the Exodus Really Happen?
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It {Exodus} is the story of two very different nations coming into close contact with the one living and true God. For one of those nations, that encounter becomes a shattering experience—Pharaoh’s crowned head is bowed low, Egypt’s gods are defeated, and the nation experiences the wrath of God Almighty. For the other nation, though—for Israel—this encounter with God becomes an exhilarating experience of deep love from—and dramatic rescue by—a God of unimaginable power.

Gilbert, G., 2018. The Story of Redemption: How Each Book of the Bible Relates to the Unfolding Promises of God.
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Jude 1:7

just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (use)

Your eternal destiny is determined by the truth. Your relationship to the truth will determine where you will spend all eternity. Your relationship to the truth will determine whether you are in heaven or in hell forever. Your relationship to the truth will chart the course of your life in this world. Your relationship to the truth will define your family. It will direct your business. It will be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. Your entire life is marked by the truth. Everything that does not measure with the truth is a facade. Only once the truth has spoken may we understand what true reality is.

Lawson, S., 2018. The Moment of Truth: Its Reality.
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Jude 1:9

But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." (use)

One of the key tenets of Christianity is not to judge. That judgement will come from a high authority in due course.

Rees-Mogg, J., 2019. Interviewed by Channel 4 News, 12 June 2019. MPs reject Labour motion to prevent no-deal Brexit. at 12:36
reesmogg-2019-judgement~a1

VII. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.

Westminster Divines,. 1646. The Westminster Confession of Faith.
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As for interpretation, the Bible is not in code and is not by and large obscure; the books were written to be understood as they point their readers to God, and they yield up their meaning to all who are prepared to be so pointed.

Packer, J.I., 2013. Taking God Seriously. pg. 40
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The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.

Begg, A., 2004. The Perfected Kingdom, Part Two.
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Jude 1:14

It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, (use)

Jude 1:15

to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (use)

In the final judgment, it will not matter how much you achieved, nor how much you owned. All that will matter is: did you know the Lord?

Lawson, S., 2021. Did you know the Lord?
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Topics and Themes

Key Verse

Jude 5

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. (use)