Study of the Letter of Jude Part 1 - Verses 1-2

We begin today a study of the Letter of Jude. You can find it right before the Book of Revelation. It is the second-last book of the New Testament. It is short, with only 25 verses. I picked this letter because we can work through it in just a few weeks, as a break from the 22 weeks it took to study Paul’s Letter to the Galatians!

Jude can a good follow-up to Galatians, too, because both letters dealt with false teachers, but in almost opposite situations. The false teachers in Galatia were trying to add various Jewish rules and regulations that the Galatians supposedly had to do in order to earn salvation for themselves. They were challenging salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. Trust in Christ was not enough, the false teachers said. In contrast, Jude was dealing with people who falsely perverted the grace of Christ by making it seem to be an excuse to sin and do whatever they wanted to do, as if God did not care.

The author of this letter simply calls himself “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James” (Jude, v.1). The name “Jude” is a short form for “Judas.” (The Greek actually has “Judas,” but maybe it is translated as Jude to make sure there is no confusion with Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, or another Judas, also called Thaddaeus, both of whom were among the original 12 disciples.)

This Jude seems to be the Judas identified in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 as one of the “brothers” of Jesus. He was actually a half-brother, since Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the others brothers and sisters, including James, were born of Mary and Joseph in the normal way later on. (The “James” mentioned here in Jude v.1 is not the Apostle James, who was killed by one of the Herods in Acts 12:1-2 some time earlier. This is James, another of the half-brothers of Jesus (Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3), who became a leader of the Christian church in Jerusalem (Acts 15) and wrote the Letter of James) (James 1:1).

It is interesting that both Jude and James call themselves “a servant of Jesus Christ.” But they do not call themselves brothers (half-brothers) of Jesus in their letters, as they could have. This is probably because they knew that earlier in the ministry of Jesus, they had not believed in Him as the Messiah and Savior. See John 7:5. It was not until after Jesus’ resurrection that it was clearly said in the Scriptures that they had become believers in Him. See Acts 1:14. Jude and James would also have remembered that when they and Mary had come earlier in His ministry to see Jesus, He had said, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:46-50).

Jude and James knew that it did not matter if people had met and knew facts about Jesus or even were His relatives. What really counted was whether a person had been brought to faith in Jesus as Savior. That was, as Martin Franzmann says, “the tie which bound a person to Jesus and made him an obedient child of God.” That’s why Jude, in Jude v.1, calls himself only “a servant of Jesus Christ” and immediately in v.2 says that he is writing to “those who are called,” as he was, to faith in Jesus. These were “beloved” people, dearly loved by God the Father and “kept for Jesus Christ” (Jude v.2).

Paul also wrote of “the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:8-9). Peter wrote of how believers are being kept, “being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:2-5). John spoke of these gifts of God as being the definition of love and “being beloved” - “not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins”(1 John 4:9-10). Jude summed up all of this in the simple words that he wrote to believers “who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.”

We close for today with a few other introductory notes. We know nothing more about Jude than what is in this letter. We don’t know who the people were to whom he was writing or where they were located or just when this letter was written. There are similarities with some things written in 2nd Peter, so some think that Jude had seen 2nd Peter and was influenced by what Peter said, or vice versa, before Peter was put to death for his faith. This could put the letter in the 60's AD, probably between 65-70 AD.

Paul mentions in passing in 1 Corinthians 9:4-6 that there were “brothers of the Lord” involved in sharing the Gospel besides Peter and the apostles and Barnabas and he himself. Jude could have been writing, then, to churches he himself had worked with. There are a few late traditions, long after his time, that say he worked in Persia, but we don’t know if these are true. We do know that there are possible references to this letter and quotations, as early as in Clement of Rome, 96 AD or so, and numbers of early church leaders in the 100’s AD and later.

If you have time, read all of Jude and think about what it seems to be saying and warning about. See if you can find where the references to the Old Testament are found. Praise God that you have been called to faith and are kept safe in Christ Jesus. The Lord’s continued blessings.