The James mentioned here is probably the brother (humanly speaking) of Jesus. Jude sees himself primarily as a servant of Jesus Christ. Incidentally, the fact that the apostles always referred to themselves as "servants of Christ" is implicit evidence for the resurrection. They all saw themselves as serving Christ. Now you do not serve a dead man. You may well do something in honour of them, or seek to continue their work, but you do not serve them. They knew that Jesus was alive, and they were serving the living Christ.
We are called, loved in God the Father, and kept for Christ. There is a purpose to our lives, we are loved by God, and our destiny is to serve Christ.
Jude then blesses them with mercy, peace and love, in abundance. We need a prosperity of love, mercy and peace.
Jude wanted to write to them about the salvation they share. We need to explore the fullness of the salvation we have, to see what all its consequences and implications for our lives are. However, Jude was unable to do this for a more urgent matter had arisen. Their faith was under attack and action needed to be taken.
The Lord has entrusted us with the faith, and we are to fight for it. We have a duty today in our society to explain and defend the faith. The more we come under attack, the more we must proclaim the faith.
This attack was not from without, but from within. Ungodly people had wormed their way into the church and were perverting the gospel. They used the grace of God as an excuse for immorality. Exactly the same sort of thing happens today. There are those who in the name of Christ teach that it is OK to have sex outside marriage, or that homosexual acts are OK with God. They say that all that matters is "love". Such people are denying the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and are going against the clear teaching of the word of God.
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