Jude

Warm-up: When was the last time you had to fight for something?

Background: Jude, “Judas” in Greek, was named after its author (v. 1), one of the 4 half-brothers of Christ (Mt 13:55; Mk 6:3). Jude was related to Jesus, and an eye-witness of the resurrected Christ. Jude lived at a time when Christianity was persecuted by Rome from the outside, and infiltrated from within by false teachers who undermined the church by false doctrines. Therefore, Jude chiefly devoted his letter to confronting deviations from the true faith (vv 3+17). He called for discernment on the part of the church and to ‘contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints’.

Read: Jude 1:1-25

1) What are your first thoughts after reading this epistle?

• Did any theme catch your special attention?

• Who was Jude? cf Mt 13:55
  • What are possible reasons that he did not introduce himself as a brother of Jesus?
  • What else did he call himself? [His servant]
  • Why is that a more powerful witness to Christ, and in particular the resurrection?
• v2: How did he sum up his motive for writing?
  • Did he not contradict ‘mercy, peace and love’ by lashing out against some other teachers? Why not

• Why is that necessary?
  • v4: Under what pretexts is faith attacked from within the church?
• Did Jude warn believers that they can become apostates? => v1:
  • What does it mean to be ‘kept for Jesus Christ’? Kept by whom? v24;
  • Where did Jude get that idea? cf Jn 17:11-16
• When Jesus prayed in Jn 17:11-16 for his followers that they will persevere in the faith, did God grant his request? cf Ro 8:30; Eph 1:13-14
  • Can eternal life that is received by faith be less than eternal? Is it possible to be saved and then lose salvation? cf Dan 11:32; 1 Jn 2:19

4) What then is apostasy, and how are believers ‘vaccinated’ against it?

• v4 “…Certain people crept in unnoticed” (i.e. secretly): How did that happen? cf Jn 10:1
• v5: Did the Israelites who followed Moses fall into lawlessness because they believed and trusted ‘too easily’ or ‘too much’ in God’s grace and then stopped believing? Num 14:33; Ps 106:24-25; Heb 3:1; cf 2 Pet 1:9
• If genuine believers have God’s firm promise that they will persevere, why still bother them to contend for the faith?
  • In Jn 17:11-16, Jesus prayed that his resurrection life will change his followers: Does that mean that believers will change automatically and that his warnings are unnecessary for this to happen? Why or why not?*
• Read again v3,  ESV: “Although I was eager to write… ” or (lit.): “Beloved, using all diligence to write to you about our salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you earnestly to contend for the (lit.) once-for-all-delivered-to-the-saints faith“:
  • How does it change the meaning of v3 when ESV adds the word “although”?
  • Did Jude decide to exhort his readers because their salvation depends on exhortation to remain in the faith?
  • Or did he decide to change subjects and exhort instead of writing about salvation?**

• v4 (cf Tit 1:16): How did these false teachers distort the doctrine of God’s grace and deny the Lord ‘by their works’? [Licentious in ‘sensuality’; includes indulgence (excessive leisure, luxuries, unbridled ambition, food, sex, work addiction… => no one who perverts God’s grace into a free pass for such licentiousness serves Jesus]
  • How does that compare to the true doctrine of grace, Tit 2:11?
  • Is any Christian who still struggles with any ‘worldly passions’ an apostate or hypocrite? => Why not? cf Ja 3:2
• v8 “…rely on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones”: Can false teachers even deceive themselves? How?
  • How can they falsely rely on their (own) dreams? [cf Jer 14:14 =>’God told me so….’ when he did not => false assurance derived from false experiences, fake prophecies etc.]
• v10: “blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively“: What is wrong about their ‘instinct’? [preoccupation with the ‘demonic’, reliance on feeling and intuition as ‘spiritual’, aversion to reason and understanding…?]
• v11 Cain, Balaam, Korah: What did they all have in common? [False religion and false worship, both opposing what is prescribed instead by God’s word]

• How are false teachers admitted to the ministry when churches are not sufficiently vigilant, v16? =>
  • How do you guard against flattering and being flattered?
  • v19: At what cost are false teachers admitted? [sects, divisions,…]
• Can false teachers be recognized by the way in which they contend for their false beliefs? =>
  • vv16 & 18 grumblers… malcontents… boasters… scoffers…: Why can such character flaws be overlooked in wolves who come in sheep’s clothing?
  • How did the way of how Jude himself contended for the faith differ from any of the above?