JUDE
So what of this little letter, situated right next to the very last book of the bible?
Let me mention a few things regarding its social-historical background. In terms of authorship, conservative scholars maintain that it’s the brother of James (v. 1), i.e., another of Jesus’ step-brothers (cf. Matt 13:54-55). If this was the case than the letter could have been written as early as the 50s although I think most scholars from this camp would consider the letter to have been written by a disciple of Jude after this date: so some time in the 80s. If the letter was written pseudonymously, then scholars tend to date it to the 80s/90s. It’s difficult to ascertain the original audience of this letter, but it was probably a predominantly Jewish-Christian church living in predominantly Gentile surroundings, perhaps somewhere in Asia Minor. As for the occasion: Jude seeks to combat the influence of the false teachers who have invaded the church and, having rejected all moral and church authority, have sought to spread their incipient teaching of immorality.
The simplest outline of the letter would go something like this: opening and appeal (vv. 1-4), background for the appeal (vv. 5-19), the appeal and closing remarks (vv. 20-25).
1 of the reasons I find Jude’s letter neat is b/c of Jude 3: Jude essentially says, ‘uys, when I sat down to write this letter, I was planning to talk to you about our great salvation, but immediately the Holy Spirit led me in a different direction: to write to you to encourage you to fight for your faith’ (i.e., fight against false teachers and their heresies). It’s like God called an audible on Jude as he approached the line of scrimmage to write his letter! Consequently, rather than getting a letter sounding more like, say, Romans, we got what we now have.
Jude explains the reason why they need to fight for the faith by describing the spiritual lineage of the false teachers troubling his flock (vv. 5-19). Jude begins by describing how these people have snuck into the church yet and spread their doctrine of immorality (Jude 5). They believed and taught that sexual immorality was completely compatible with faith in Jesus (as some expressions of Gnosticism did). Question: How do you think they (or even some people today) attempt to rationalize a sexually immoral lifestyle as being “OK” for Christians?
Although they’ve snuck in and have seemingly become entrenched in the church, God will weed them out and deal with them—he has a proven history of doing so: God judged the angels who mated with humans (v. 6; cf. Gen 6:1-5), and he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual misconduct (v. 7; cf. Gen 19). Jude clearly considers these fallen angels and S & G as the spiritual forerunners of the false teachers infecting his church. Not only do these heretics teach sexual license, they reject all matter of spiritual authority (vv. 8-9). They are thus ignorant (Jude 10), and will inevitably follow in the path of their spiritual ancestors before them: Cain, Balaam, and Korah (v. 11). Jude describes them as empty and void of any real substance (Jude 12); and their end—destruction—has been divinely appointed (vv. 13-15).
Not only has the bible outlined these people in advance, but the Apostles warned the churches that such people would arise within the church (Jude 17-18; cf. Acts 20:28-30; 1 Tim 4:1). Typically, these false teachers cause schisms in the church b/c of their worldliness (and their commitment to worldly values) and b/c they are in fact void of the Holy Spirit—i.e., they’re not Christian (Jude 19; cf. Rom 8:9)! Question: What do you think a “Christian” without the Holy Spirit would look like?
Having spent the bulk of his letter giving reasons for his appeal, he now closes out his letter with his appeal. Syntactically, the centre of his appeal is v. 21a: “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” The “love” he refers to is the love of fellowship not God’s elective love (which is mentioned in Jude 1). God’s elective love is unconditional—a true child of God can never be cut off from this; but fellowship love is conditional: if you screw around, God, for his part, gets angry and disciplines you (cf. Heb 12:6), while you, for your part, can no longer hear or feel God—b/c you’re out of fellowship with him (cf. Isa 59:1-2)! Question: What are some other symptoms that a Christian is out of fellowship with God?
The surrounding clauses modify the main command. In other words, how do you keep yourself in the love of God? You do this by: building yourself up in your faith (v. 20a), praying in the Spirit (v. 20b), and anxiously looking ahead to and living in light of Jesus’ 2nd Coming (v. 21b). Additionally, believers must help those who are struggling with false teaching (vv. 22-23). For varying reasons, some people find it easy to discern and jettison false teaching while others do not (what might some of those reasons be?): so have mercy but be cautious (cf. Gal 6:1). But while we are responsible to “keep” ourselves in God’s love, ultimately, God is the one who “keeps” us in his love (v. 24). In other words, b/c God keeps us there we can keep ourselves there (cf. 1 John 4:10, 19).
Next up: the “end.”