Saturday, November 6, 2010

Jude

Above is the result of inputting Jude into "Wordle"

Source: http://identity33.com/blog/?p=531#more-531

  1. Who: Written by Jude (Greek Judas) who says he's a brother of James. He would also, then, be the step-brother of Jesus Christ.
    He became a believer AFTER the resurrection.
    • Matthew 13:55: Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas.
    • Mark 6:3: Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.
  2. To Whom: Jewish churches that had been infiltrated by false teachers.
  3. What: from verse 2: urging you to defend the faith from apostates - early gnostics. 2 Peter and Jude are very similar, sometimes using the very words and phrases possibly indicating that one borrowed from the other.
  4. When: About same time as 2 Peter - mid 60's AD, though some argue for a very early date - perhaps 41-46 AD.
  5. Where: There is no hint of where this is written from or to what locality. But, the references to Michael and to Enoch should tell us this was written to Jewish converts to Christ.
  6. Why: There are some false teachers (early gnostics) in their fellowship who are deceiving and creating doubt in the minds of the believers.
  7. Key Words: remind, don't forget, remember.
  8. Key Verse: 1:3 (defend the faith).

(1) This letter is from *Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of **James.
I am writing to all who have been called by God the Father, who loves you and keeps you safe in the care of Jesus Christ.

  • *Jude: John 7:5: For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.
  • **James:
    • Galatians 1:19: The only other apostle I met at that time was James, the Lord’s brother.
    • 1 Corinthians 15:7: Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles.
    • The church historian Eusebius called James a ‘bishop of Jerusalem.’ The brothers of Jesus were with their Mother Mary on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:14).

(2) May God give you more and more mercy, peace, and love.

(3) Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. BUT NOW I find that I must write about something else, urging you to *defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.

  • *defend: The word translated "defend ("contend earnestly" in the KJV), is epagonizomai. Our English word "agony" derives from its root. Epagonizomai means literally "to agonize about," "to contest" or "to contend." Jude uses epagonizomai to demonstrate how we should be exerting ourselves in keeping the truth pure and practicing it. It suggests a person straining for all he is worth to ensure the faith's purity in both its principles and practices.

(4) I say this because some *ungodly people have **wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live ***immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

  • *ungodly people: Apostasy from within, probably referring to the gnostics who were already at work.
  • **wormed their way: Galatians 2:4: Even that question came up only because of some so-called Christians there—false ones, really—who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations.
    • Much as unbelievers slowly but surely infiltrated our seminaries and then churned out apostate preachers leading to the eventual apostasy of the "mainline" denominations.
  • ***immoral lives: Gnostics believed that a person was free to do whatever he wanted and God would forgive it, for He is gracious. They make God’s free grace a grounds for sinful behavior. Many do that today when they say, ‘You can have Jesus as your Savior, without having Him as your Lord’.
  • The apostates in Jude’s church are particularly dangerous because, while they have departed from their belief in the gospel, they have not openly declared that departure. Rather, they have chosen to remain – as wolves in sheep’s clothing – among the church. Not only do they act as though they are among God’s people, they even have positions of influence and authority in the church. These apostate teachers are abusing their positions of authority, using them as a means to attack the gospel that has been once for all delivered to the saints - just like so many preachers and church leaders in the modern apostate churches of today.
  • And why have such men crept in unnoticed? Because Christians were not watchful and not bothering to evaluate.

(5) So I want to REMIND you, though you already know these things, that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful.

  • Jude gives 3 examples of rebellious ones who were judged by God:
    1. Israelites who left Egypt but were disobedient
      (verse 5):
      • Deuteronomy 9:23, 2:14-16: And at Kadesh-barnea the Lord sent you out with this command: ‘Go up and take over the land I have given you.’ But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and refused to put your trust in him or obey him ... “Thirty-eight years passed from the time we first left Kadesh-barnea until we finally crossed the Zered Brook! By then, all the men old enough to fight in battle had died in the wilderness, as the Lord had vowed would happen. The Lord struck them down until they had all been eliminated from the community. “When all the men of fighting age had died,
      • 1 Corinthians 10:5: Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
      • Hebrews 3:17-19: And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness. And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.
    2. The fallen angels who left their place (verse 6).
    3. Sodom and Gomorrah (verse 7).

(6) And I REMIND you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment.

  • Jude is referring to the sin of angels in Genesis 6:1-4, a view strengthened by Jude's citation of 1 Enoch 1:9, which contains much discussion on the fall of these angels.
    • Genesis 6:1-4: Then the people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.” In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.
    • 2 Peter 2:4-6: For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment. And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people.

(7) And DON'T FORGET Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.

  • Genesis 19.
  • According to Philo, the Hellenistic Jewish leader in Alexandria, smoke was still rising from Sodom and Gomorrah in the first century.

(8) In the same way, these people—who claim authority from their dreams—live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at *supernatural beings.

  • *supernatural beings: Greek glorious ones, probably evil angels.
  • 2 Peter 2:4: He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling. But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings. These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed.

(9) But even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (This took place when Michael was arguing with the devil about Moses’ body.)

  • *Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels: Greek Michael.
  • Daniel 10:13: But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia
  • Zechariah 3:1-2: Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. The Accuser, Satan, was there at the angel’s right hand, making accusations against Jeshua. And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire.”
  • The only place this is recorded is in an ancient book called The Assumption of Moses.
  • Michael did not rebuke the devil when he had every right to do so because Michael knew that ultimately it was not his place to do so. For it is the Lord's place to rebuke the devil.

(10) But these people scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction.

(11) What sorrow awaits them! For they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they deceive people for money. And like Korah, they perish in their rebellion.

  • Three apostate examples:
    1. Cain - Genesis 4:3-8, Hebrews 11:4
    2. Balaam - Numbers 22-24, 2 Peter 2:15-16, Revelation 2:14
      • "Balaam stands for two things. (a) He stands for the covetous man, who was prepared to sin in order to gain reward. (b) He stands for the evil man, who was guilty of the greatest of all sins—the sin of teaching others to sin. So Jude is declaring of the wicked men of his own day that they are ready to leave the way of righteousness to make gain; and that they are teaching others to sin." - Barclay
    3. Korah - Numbers 16

(12) When these people eat with you in your fellowship meals commemorating the Lord’s love, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves. They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. They are like trees in autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots.

(13) They are like wild waves of the sea, churning up the foam of their shameful deeds. They are like wandering stars, doomed forever to blackest darkness.

  • What these apostates are like and their dangers to believers:
    1. Hidden reefs that shipwreck faith (verse 12).
    2. Uncaring shepherds that lead the sheep into danger.
    3. Empty Clouds giving no rain, just the appearance of coming rain.
      • Proverbs 25:14: A person who promises a gift but doesn’t give it is like clouds and wind that bring no rain.
    4. Fruitless trees pretending to bear fruit.
      • Matthew 7:15-18: “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. But, these trees bear no fruit!
    5. Wild waves that can shipwreck.
      • Isaiah 57:20: “But those who still reject me are like the restless sea, which is never still but continually churns up mud and dirt.
    6. Wandering stars (planets) that give no light (or life). The Greek word planetes, which transliterated means "planet," really means wanderer. Long ago stargazers observed that these wanderers across the sky were different from the fixed stars. Likewise the false teachers had gone off course and had led people astray.

(14) *Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said, “Listen! The Lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones

  • *Enoch: Per Genesis 5:18-24, Enoch was raptured long before the flood.
  • 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10: And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power. When he comes on that day, he will receive glory from his holy people—praise from all who believe. And this includes you, for you believed what we told you about him.

(15) to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

  • Enoch 1:9 The Book of Enoch, written around 200 BC, was found in its entirety in a copy of the Ethiopic Bible in 1773.

(16) These people are grumblers and complainers, living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about themselves, and they flatter others to get what they want.

(17) But you, my dear friends, must REMEMBER what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said.

(18) They told you that in the last times there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly desires.

(19) These people are the ones who are creating divisions among you. They follow their natural instincts because *they do not have God’s Spirit in them.

  • *They do not have God’s Spirit in them: This would show that these deceivers are not Christians.

(20) But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,

(21) and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.

(22) And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering.

(23) Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.

(24) Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault.

(25) All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.

NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is the New Living Translation.

On-Line Sources:

Off-Line Sources:

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)