Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Jude 1 (Verses 1-4)

I thought I'd jump around. Here we have the start of the shortest book in the Bible, written by Jude, the brother of James, both half-brothers of Jesus.

Verse 1

Jude also seems to be tracking with the idea of the elect -- those predestined by God to be saved -- when he says "to those who have been called".

The phrase "who are loved by God" could be a bit confusing, as it could imply that God doesn't love everyone. God does love everyone, demonstrated by the fact that he doesn't destroy us all immediately because of sin and demonstrated by Jesus coming into the world to save all who will receive him. However, God does not ignore sin, and only God's covenant love is extended to his adopted children -- those who put their faith in his son Jesus.

Verse 3

Jude wanted to write about the salvation and faith shared with other Christian brothers, but changed his mind to deal with more pressing issues of false teachings that were surfacing.

However, before he switches gears, he says something that appears to be of significance -- "the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." That's an interesting way to put it, and I know I have until now overlooked it.

In Romans and Hebrews the same phrase is in there talking about Christ being our sacrifice for sins -- he died once for all. His death on the cross is what pays the penalty for sin, nothing more, and nothing less. In the same way, the final revelation about our faith came through Christ, in his teachings passed on to the apostles. Nothing more was or is to come -- we have all we need to know regarding our salvation, proper Christian thought and action, and so on.

Verse 4

It looks like Jude is concerned about false teachers creeping into the body of Christ -- "godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."

This reminds me immediately of Paul in Romans 6 -- "What shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (verse 1) and "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" (verse 15). He says the same types of things elsewhere as well, and the point is clear -- just because we have freedom in Christ does not mean we have freedom to sin.

A person who thinks that their freedom in Christ gives them free reign to sin freely and be good with God is not in Christ. The person who is in Christ has a new heart for God that desires to know him and love him and flee from sin like Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife.