Jude 1-7

1: Jude, a bond-servant 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 appealing 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 licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

5: Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving 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, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

 *** 

Jude first called himself a bond-servant of Jesus Christ before calling himself the brother of James. James was the bishop of Jerusalem who was also the Lord's brother. Jude then, was a brother of the Lord Himself (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3).1 Neither Jude nor James considered themselves to be better than the others because of their blood relation to Jesus, which is obvious by not calling themselves His brother, but His bond-servant. They did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah during His earthly ministry (John 7:5, Mark 3:21, Matthew 12:46-47), but they were with the other apostles and the women after His ascension, waiting for the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14).

His letter shares similarities with 2 Peter and was written some time after that one. Jude wrote to believers and opened with mercy, peace, and love. He began by saying he felt the necessity to appeal to them to contend earnestly for the faith. He sensed the need for an urgent appeal on this. He described the faith as being, "Once for all," handed down to the saints. Meaning there is no other faith to replace this one. He said this in reference to, "certain persons," who had crept in unnoticed and attempted to undermine the true message of Christ.

These ungodly persons who corrupt the grace of God and deny the Lord Jesus Christ are marked for condemnation. Jude said he wanted to remind his readers of what they already knew, that the Lord, even after delivering His people out of Egypt, still destroyed those who didn't believe (Exodus 12:51, Numbers 14:28-29). Even the angels who abandoned their place to engage in, "gross immorality," (as the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah also did later on), are being kept by Him in bonds until the day of judgment (2 Peter 2:4, 9). The judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, along with the surrounding cities who engaged in perverse sexual sin, are an example of the punishment of eternal fire.

Jesus said in Matthew 25:41 that at the judgment He will separate the nations--the sheep, from the goats who did not show compassion--and send the uncompassionate ones into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. The place of eternal punishment was prepared for them, not people, however, ungodly people who lack moral restraint, attempt to corrupt the grace of God, and oppose Jesus Christ, will join in the same place of eternal punishment.

We saw the strong warning given by Peter in 2 Peter 2, and here Jude gave the same warning. This applies to us today and we must be aware of, and guard against, any teaching contrary to the gospel of Christ. We must not ever think that the grace of God gives us permission to engage in sin. We must not think that we don't have to restrain ourselves, resist temptations, or fleshly impulses. These are things which test our faithfulness to the Lord and when we pass these tests, a crown of life is reserved for us (James 1:12).


1 https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/jude/1.htm, retrieved February 27, 2022


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians 1:1-10

1: Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), 2: and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: 3: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4: who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5: to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen. 6: I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7: which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8: But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9: As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! 10: For am I now see...
Read more

2 Corinthians 7:8-16

8: For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while— 9: I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. 10: For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11: For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter. 12: So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness on our behalf might be made known to you i...
Read more

2 Corinthians 10:1-11

1: Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent! 2: I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. 3: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4: for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5: We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 6: and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. 7: You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. 8: For even if I boast somewh...
Read more