Jude - Complete Notes

Complete notes on Jude are now available on Dundee Believer.

Jude 22-25 - Be merciful

1:22,23
Jude has been very direct and “unforgiving” in his treatment of false teachers, and rightly so. However, we now see that there is mercy as well. All too often we go from one extreme to the other, either being very harsh with people, or being way too soft. As always, the Bible gets it right! Sin, in all its forms, needs to be treated with the utmost seriousness, but the hope is always to lead people to repentance. We do not achieve this by saying that sin doesn’t really matter, and definitely not by saying that sin is actually good. Sadly, this is what a significant part of the church is doing. Nor do we achieve this by unremitting harshness. Instead we act with grace that leads to repentance. This is the heart of God (2 Pet 3:9).

We are to be merciful to those who doubt. We need to distinguish between false teachers, mistaken teaching and doubting. All humans struggle to believe the truth. Where I do understand, the understanding is a result of God’s grace. There are many areas where I still do not understand. So we are to recognise when people are genuinely struggling.

At the same time there will be those who are in grave danger, meddling with sin. Even such people can be saved as one snatched from the fire. But this needs to be done with great care. We do not appreciate how serious sin is, and we need to have fear. There is a real danger that we could end up being caught in the same sin. We need to make sure that we are not naive.

1:24,25

Jude closes with a great doxology, a pean of praise.  Note that the praise is to God’s glory, and to His ability to save us. He is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us on the last day without fault. He will complete the work that He has started in us. The situation is very serious and very dangerous, life is a serious business, but our God is able to keep us, able to save us. And we will be presented with great joy. There is great joy in store. All power, majesty, power and authority belong to our God. They belong to know one else, they belong to nothing else. When we are under pressure, when the world is seeking to crush the truth, we need to remember who is who. We serve the one to whom the glory belongs, it always has done, and it always will do. Those who know their God shall be strong and do exploits (Dan 11:32).

Jude 17-21 -Building yourself up

1:17-19

Now Jude turns to the teaching of the apostles. The way that Jude refers to the apostles seems to imply that he was not counted as an apostle himself. The apostles clearly warned that false teachers would come, in fact, Jesus warned as much. Paul, Peter and John all talk about false teachers. False teachers are not a surprise! A distinguishing feature of false teachers is that they follow their own ungodly desires. So if you want to become a false teacher the way to start down that road is to follow our own ungodly desires! Conversely, the way to avoid it is to follow the Spirit, to let the Word of God be our guide and rule.

These people who are false teachers divide the body of Christ, and they are led by natural instincts, not the Holy Spirit. If something is based only on human wisdom then it is worthless and will eventually lead to a dark place.

1:20,21

So what are we to do? We are to be aware of the dangers and realities of false teachers, as Jude has spent most of the letter warning them about, but there is something more positive that we can do as well. We are to build ourselves up in the most holy faith, and to pray in the Spirit. We must be wary of becoming too obsessed with weeding out falsehood. If that is all we do we will actually find ourselves falling into error. Instead, we need to build ourselves up in the faith. We need to dwell on the word of God, and not just to convince ourselves of what is wrong with false teachers or false teachings. We need to do so to meet with God, to worship Him, to let Him teach us and change us. We are also to pray in the Spirit. This may include praying in tongues, but it is much more than that. We pray in line with the Holy Spirit, in line with the word of God. We are to keep ourselves in God’s love. Well, I thought God kept us in His love? Indeed He does, but we are to do so as well. This is a constant feature of the Bible. If God does something we are to do it as well. We are not saved to be helpless babes, we are saved to be more and more Christlike, growing in maturity.

What will happen when Christ returns? In His mercy He will give us eternal life!

Jude 14-16 - Enoch

1:14,15

Enoch is mentioned in the Bible in Gen 5:18-24. In 1 Chronicles 1:3 he is listed as seventh in the list. The prophecy that Jude refers to is from 1 Enoch 1:9, one of the apocryphal books.  In early church history Jude’s use of Enoch was variously seen as lending credence to Enoch, and as detracting from the credence of Jude. It is important that we look at how Jude uses the prophecy. He is using it as an apt description of what would happen to the false teachers. Moreover, the sentiments of the prophecy is entirely in line with Biblical teaching. So even if the words themselves are treated as an actual prophecy, it does not necessarily mean that Jude considered the book 1 Enoch to be authoritative. People will be judged for ungodly acts and speaking against the Lord.

1:16

The false teachers are again described in stark terms. They are grumblers and faultfinders, following their own evil desires. They boast about themselves and flatter others. In short, there is nothing to be admired about them. Likewise, there is nothing to admire about false teachers today.

Jude 11-13 - Woe to them!

1:11

Jude now lists three examples of people in the Old Testament who were deeply misguided. Cain (Gen 4:5-8) who killed his brother Abel, Balaam (Num 22:5-7) who sold himself as a “prophet for hire”, and Korah (Num 16) who led a rebellion against Moses. From each of these examples Jude draws a different point. He talks about walking in the way of Cain. Abel gave his firstfruits to God, Cain gave something as a religious duty, his heart was not really for God. If you look at false teachers it is often obvious that they do not love Jesus. They may view Jesus as an example or an idea (usually formed in the image of the false teacher), but they do not love the living Lord. Balaam sought personal gain rather than serving the Lord. This is something that can happen all too often. Note that he actually was a prophet and did actually hear from God, yet he then became a prophet for hire. This is something that is all too common. The most obvious examples are some prosperity teachers, but it can happen in more subtle ways as well. We must always seek first the kingdom of God. Then Korah is given as an example of God’s treatment of rebels.

1:12,13

A whole series of metaphors are used to describe the false teachers. It is quite clear that Jude had a very low opinion of them! The false teachers are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They live among the church, pretending to be Christians, even sharing in the church’s “love feasts”. The likely format of these love feasts was a meal, followed by preaching and then communion. True leaders and teachers in the church are there to feed and care for the flock, false teachers look after their own interests. They might promise much, but they deliver nothing. See how vivid Jude is in his language. Utter darkness is their destiny. For far too long the church has been far too tolerant of false teachers and false teachings. We are utter fools if we allow ourselves to be taken in by false teachings. We should judge everything by the word of God.

Jude 9,10 - The Lord rebuke you

1:9

In this verse Jude is referring to a tale from the Assumption of Moses, a non-Biblical source. He is not affirming this source, just using it to illustrate a point. The tale was that when Moses died the archangel Michael went to get Moses’ body. Satan argued that he had authority over the body. Instead of insulting the devil, Michael simply said “the Lord rebuke you”. Now why does Jude raise this point? The false teachers were very full of themselves, and perhaps delighted in pouring abuse on angels and demons, think they were being very clever. Jude warns that far from being clever, they are being stupid.

1:10

The false teachers claimed to be clever, but were actually fools. They slandered what they do not understand, ie they actually knew very little about angels and demons. The things they actually did understand were only their own fleshly desires. They followed their desires just as animals live by instinct. In the end doing this would lead to their destruction. We have a very similar situation today. The concept of self-control in matters of sexual morality is given very little weight by the so-called experts. They think that because someone has a desire for something then it must be good to fulfil that desire. In doing so they reduce humans to level of animals. But we are not animals, we are made in the image of God. An animal is guided by its natural instincts, we should be guided by the Spirit, by the word of God. We are to have self-control. Secularism, humanism and atheism are all actually demeaning to human beings.

Jude 7,8 - Sodom and Gomorrah

1:7

This is a very important verse in today’s climate. Now, in the West, society’s view is that homosexuality is good and to be celebrated, as is transgenderism, and to even mildly question the validity of this view is to invite oneself to be labelled as a bigot. Along with this there are those who seek to claim that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was not because of homosexuality, but because of her arrogance and lack of concern for the poor, based on Ezekiel 16:49. This verse in Jude clearly shows that such revisionist views are wrong. Sexual sin was one of the causes of the judgement. However, there is a useful lesson to be learnt. Sin rarely comes alone. One sin will usually bring several others with it. A sexually immoral society will have plenty of other sins as well. Likewise a decadent uncaring society will quickly accumulate plenty of other sins.

“They serve as an example ...”. The attitude of many, including some in the church, is to see the clear examples of judgement in the Old Testament as at best an embarrassment, and at worse as an excuse to reject God. The consistent attitude of the New Testament, including Jesus Himself, is very different. These incidents of judgement are seen as real, and as a warning for us, demonstrating that judgement and the subsequent punishment are very real. We should adopt the same approach.

1:8

The false teachers put great weight on dreams. On the “evidence” of this they polluted their own bodies, meaning they used their dreams as an excuse for immoral behaviour. They rejected authority and heaped abuse on celestial beings. Today there are people, usually in charismatic circles, who will claim that God has revealed certain things to them in dreams. Now we need to be careful here. The Bible contains many instances of God speaking to people in dreams and visions, and there is no reason in Scripture to believe that He has stopped doing so. So God may well speak to someone, or even to you and I, through a dream. However, if we believe a dream is from God we measure what we think He is saying against the Bible. Likewise, if some preacher or prophet says that God has spoken to them in a dream that is absolutely no reason whatsoever to give any extra credence to what they say. We are to test all things, and we are to test what the preacher says against what the Bible says.

Jude 5,6 - I want to remind you

1:5

This verse is another nail in the coffin of a once-saved-always-saved philosophy. By the way, I absolutely believe in full assurance of salvation, but if we ever let this morph into an I can do whatever l like and still be saved belief then we are heading in a very dangerous direction. Jude reminds his hearers that the Israelites were saved out of Egypt, but most of them were later destroyed for their lack of belief. What we do matters, and what we do has an effect. Any supposed theology that teaches otherwise is deeply unbiblical.

Jude says he wants to remind them. This is probably a reference to general apostolic teaching.

1:6

We now get one of the references to non-Biblical traditions. Angels played a big part in Jewish religion, and the Book of Enoch (not written by Enoch) has many speculations about angels. Greek myths also had a place for angels. Jude is not endorsing these, but is using them as a point of connection with his readers. Revelation also speaks of angels who rebelled against God (Rev 12:8). Whatever the exact source that Jude is alluding to, the key point is that the angels rebelled against their proper area of authority and they would be severely judged for doing so. Exactly the same will apply to false teachers. We only have the authority that God gives us, and that authority always includes staying within what the Word of God teaches. If we step outside of that boundary we are committing a serious sin and can expect nothing but judgement unless we repent.

Jude 3,4 - Compelled to write

1:3

It seems as if Jude had become aware of the attempt by false teachers to subvert the church. He had intended to write about “the salvation we share”, ie rejoicing in, and exploring, the marvels of the salvation that God has given to us in Jesus Christ. However, something more urgent had come up, they were under attack and he needed to exhort them to fight back, “to contend for the faith”. There is nothing unusual about our faith being under attack. What we must not do is lie back and be be passive. We need to contend for the faith. “That the Lord has once for all entrusted to us”. Our faith is not a man made thing, not something we have worked out. It comes from the Lord and was given to us by Him. So if anyone contemplates changing it they should consult the Lord first! And if anyone contemplates giving in to false teachers then, or not treating them seriously, they too should consult the Lord first and see what He has to say! For this faith has been entrusted to us once for all, the gospel is the gospel and God is not about to change His mind about how things are. We need to contend for the faith, this implies that there will be a battle, so we should not be surprised.

1:4

This verse sets out very clearly the nature of the false teaching and of the false teachers. There are “certain individuals” who are the primary instruments of this. In history there are grand schemes and movements, and their are key individuals. Both matter, and it works for both good and bad. On the good side God often works through key individuals when He is implementing His plan. Abraham, Moses and Paul are obvious examples from the Bible. In history, Luther and Calvin are similar examples. On the bad side, Hitler, Stalin and Mao feature. In the context of subverting the church there will be individuals who seek to bring in false teachings. They will work subvertly. Ie they will not openly claim to be aiming to destroy the church, indeed may not even realise what they are doing. They will often claim to be upholding the spirit of Jesus, but whatever they say they are “ungodly people”. In the case of Jude’s time they were using the grace of the gospel as an excuse, a license, for immorality. How we live matters, and there are good ways of living and bad ways of living. If any teaching starts to claim that we can do what we like then we can be absolutely certain that the teaching is not of God. They also denied Jesus as our only Sovereign and Lord. Just listen to the rubbish that those in the church who seek to be “affirming” of the LGBTI agenda proclaim. They all deny the clear teaching of the Bible, old and new.

Jude 1,2 - A servant

1:1

Jude describes himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. As mentioned in the introduction, the most likely identity of Jude (and James as well) is as the human brother of Jesus. If we accept this, it is noteworthy that neither James nor Jude make anything of being in the same family as Jesus. Given the events recorded in the gospels (eg Mark 3:31-35), they knew what was truly valuable. A worldly view might have said there was value in making something of their natural brotherhood with Jesus, but they knew that they were just sinners like the rest of us, in need of forgiveness. There was far greater value in being a servant of Jesus Christ. In our own lives the most important thing we can be is to be a servant of the Lord. In all situations we should ask how can we serve Jesus.

There is no geographical identity of the recipients of the letter, and the description given here applies to all who believe. However, v17-19 imply that Jude did actually know the recipients. Anyway, what is our status? We have been called. The Lord of all has called us. We are loved by God the Father, and are kept for Jesus Christ. We belong to Jesus. We do not belong to ourselves, the world has no hold upon us. We belong to God. We should meditate on who we really are.

1:2

This is a common blessing in the New Testament letters, though most of the others have grace rather than mercy. There were some difficult goings on occurring, so perhaps Jude wanted to emphasise the mercy of God. When facing temptations or trials we often become aware of our weaknesses, this can lead us to thinking there is no point in going on, no point in resisting. If we have failed we can think there is no point in trying to get back on our feet. But there is always a point, it is always worth it, because we receive mercy in abundance from the Lord. If we treat the Lord’s mercy as an excuse for wilfully carrying on sinning thinking we can get away with it, then we are badly mistaken and are heading for trouble, in fact already in deep trouble. But if we see the Lord’s mercy as a vital help in our battle to overcome then we are on the right road to victory.

Jude - Introduction

Jude is a very short book, just one chapter. You will often find commentaries on Jude tied together with 2 Peter, this is because a part of 2 Peter contains material that is similar to a large section of Jude. There is debate on who borrowed from whom, or whether they were both using a separate source. There are also key differences, mainly that Jude refers to non-Biblical sources quite freely. The commentary on 2 Peter by Michael Green also covers Jude, and that is part of the inspiration for what I will write here, along with the other usual sources (study Bible, Bible dictionary etc).

The name Jude is a variant of Judah or Judas. There are various possibilities for who Jude is, it is possible that he is the disciple Judas (not the traitor, the other one, Lk 6:16), but the generally favoured option is that he is Judas the brother of Jesus (Mark 6:3). The reasons for favouring the latter suggestion are that he does not refer to himself as an apostle, whereas he does refer to being the brother of James.

References to the letter of Jude are found in very early Christian writings such as Clement of Rome (AD 96), Clement of Alexandria (155-215), Tertullian (150-222) etc. It is found in many early collections of New Testament writings. However, it was in the “questioned books”, the primary reason for this is that Jude freely quoted from non-Biblical sources. The church eventually came to accept the canonicity of the book.

The date of the letter depends upon whether one assumes it came before or after 2 Peter. So the date is sometime between AD 65 and 80. The recipients are identified in only the most general manner. Like 2 Peter, Jude is dealing with false teaching, but that does not necessarily mean it is directed at the same recipients as 2 Peter. Indeed, one might say the letter was rather pointless if it did go to the same people.

The false teaching was essentially saying that because we are saved by grace we can do what we like. This sort of approach has been around for an awful long time! The present hyper-grace movement contains much erroneous teaching. It is vital that we understand grace properly, both from the negative point of view that it most certainly does not mean that we can do what we like, and from the positive point of view that it most certainly does not mean that should not put every effort into living lives pleasing to God.

Jude 17-25 - Christ is Lord

Paul, Peter, James and John all warn of false teachers and scoffers, and indeed the Lord Himself (eg Matthew 24) did so as well. False teachers are a fact of life in the church, and we need to know how to recognise them and how to respond.

Jude gives three characteristics of the "scoffers". They cause division, they follow their natural instincts, they do not have the Spirit. Jesus in John 17 prayed for unity among believers, Paul talks about preserving the bond of peace (Ephesians). False teachers will cause division among believers. A godly person will be motivated and led by the Holy Spirit, a false teacher will be motivated and led by their own spirit. 

Jude then gives positive instructions to his readers.We are to build ourselves up in the faith. The primary antidote to the negative is the positive. We need to feed on the word, believe the word and do the word. We need to mediate upon who Christ is and what He has done. We need to dwell in God. We are to love as God loves, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. God is completely different from the world, His ways are different.

While Jude has given uncompromising words on the false teachers, his readers also need to be on their guard. In dealing with false teaching we can easily crush others. We are to be merciful to those who have genuine doubts. There is a difference between someone who is hard heartedly pursuing their own ends, and someone who does not understand some things but is willing to learn. We need to know when to be gentle. And the goal is to save people. If the false teachers continue in their ways they will indeed end up in hell, but a far better outcome is that they repent and so get saved. Our desire should be to see people saved, not go to hell.

We always need to be on our guard, making sure that we ourselves do not fall.

Jude closes his letter with a paean of praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our whole focus needs to be on Jesus, He is the foundation and source of our faith. He is the way, the truth and the life.

Jude 11-16 - Judgement

Cain, Balaam and Korah are cited as examples of going against God's ways. Cain was the first murderer, and his actions were motivated by jealousy of his brother Abel. When he saw that God was pleased with Abel's offering, instead of learning from this and changing his own actions, he murdered Abel. Balaam took money from king Balaak to curse the Israelites, and Korah led a rebellion against Moses.

The rebels  apparently took part in the "love feasts" (Lord's supper) of the church as though they were a normal  part of the congregation. When people rebel against God and cause division within the church they fail to be part of the church. They may even have had positions of leadership, but they failed to feed the flock. It is very dangerous when leaders start fulfilling their own agenda instead of acting as servants of Christ. We all need to watch our actions and motives very carefully.

Jude then quotes from the book of Enoch. This was purported to be written by the Enoch of Genesis 5, though the book did not appear until the first century BC. Why does Jude keep alluding to these "dodgy" books? It probably indicates that his hearers were Jewish, and perhaps they were paying too much attention to these books, and so he is trying to show them that even these books do not support what they were doing. The church needed to get its act together.

The message is that the Lord will come to judge. All of us needs to be aware that the Lord will return to judge. All will be called to give an account. If we know that some piece of work is going to be tested we take extra care. Our whole life should be like this, all that we do matters. 

There are many who object that God's judgements are unfair, that His ways are wrong. Well such people should ask themselves, are they happy to stand before God on the final day with the life that they lead?

Jude 8-10 - Angles on Angels

Verse 8 refers to dreams. It may have been that the false teachers claimed to have revelations through dreams. This is a common tactic of false teachers and charlatans, particularly in charismatic circles. Now God does speak through dreams, there are many instances of this in the Bible, and He still does this. But everything must be tested against the Scriptures. If something is against the Bible then it is to be rejected, no matter how many visions or angels someone claims to have seen. If it is neither directly against, nor directly supported by the Bible, then we have to use our judgement, and we are free to reject it, again no matter how many angels the "dreamer" claims to have seen.On the other hand, Jude may just be referring to them as "dreamers", ie using it as a derogatory term.

Whatever the case, they polluted their own bodies, and rejected authority. If we sin sexually we pollute our own bodies. Our bodies are meant to be temples of the Holy Spirit, so we must treat them properly. They then started heaping abuse on celestial beings, ie angels. Jude then quotes from the Book of Moses, another non-Biblical text. This does not mean he is assigning this book with authority, just using the incident of the angel Michael as an illustration. His point is that the false teachers have a complete lack of understanding. They know nothing about angels and demons, and they certainly knew nothing about the proper way for us to treat our bodies.

Jude 5-7 - Warnings from history

Jude draws on the lessons of the Old Testament. As Paul says in 2 Tim 3:16, all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for training. So Jude reminds his readers that though God delivered the people out of Egypt, many of them died in the desert through unbelief. "Once saved always saved" is a contentious and misunderstood idea. It is absolutely true in the sense that we can be 100% certain of our salvation. It is absolute nonsense if it is understood in the sense of it doesn't matter what you do after you "believe", for that is entirely unbiblical.

Jude draws some of his analogies from non-Biblical Jewish writings, such as the Book of Enoch. These had various tales of what happened to angels.

After that we are back to another Biblical example, this time from Sodom and Gomorrah. Some are keen on pointing out that Ezekiel 16:49 says that lack of concern for the poor was the primary sin for which Sodom was judged. This is not true, if you read Ezekiel 16:49 and 50 you see that it is one of the sins for which she was judged. Jude here makes it clear that sexual immorality was a major reason for the judgement that came upon her.

Sexual immorality was a danger facing the churches that Jude was writing to, this is why he cites the example of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jude 1-4 - A battle to be fought

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.

Jude - Introduction

This is one of the shortest books in the Bible, so provides a nice contrast to Isaiah!

Jude is another form of the name Judas, which was a fairly common name at the time. Obviously Judas Iscariot is the most infamous bearer of the name, but another of the twelve was called Judas (Luke 6:16, Acts 1:13), as was one of the Lord's brothers (Matt 13:55, Mark 6:3). 

Jesus' brother is thought to be the most likely candidate for being the author of this short letter. This is further supported by Jude identifying himself as the brother of James in v1.

Interestingly, neither James nor Jude referred to themselves as Jesus' brother, though others did (Matt 13:55, John 7:3-10, Acts 1:14, 1 Cor 9:5, Gal 1:19). They sought no special privilege form this familial relationship, seeing themselves more as servants of the Lord.

The letter is dated variously between 65 and 80 AD, depending largely whether one sees 2 Peter as being dependent upon Jude, or vice versa.

The primary purpose of the letter was to counter false teaching that was leading to immoral behaviour. Jude warns the church to be on its guard, both against the teaching and the teachers.