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Jude, the servant and half-brother of Jesus (and the full brother of James, who wrote the epistle of James and was an elder of the Jerusalem church), greets his readers, who are also believers in Jesus, loved by God the Father, called to live a life of faith. Jude extends a blessing of mercy, peace, and love to his audience.
Jude felt this letter was necessary to write to encourage his readers to fight for the faith. There are certain unnamed false teachers who have come into their assembly who are using God’s forgiveness as an excuse to sin and to reject Jesus as Lord.
Jude appeals to examples from the Old Testament as proof to what he is writing about. God saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, but He did not allow the unbelieving Israelites to receive the reward of the Promise Land. Likewise, He punished demons by chaining them in darkness until the Judgment at the end of time. Further, He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sinfulness. These are each examples that God judges sin, disobedience, and faithlessness.
Just as the examples of sin and faithlessness previously described, the men who are corrupting Jude’s readers will be judged by God. The false teachers will be punished for their deceptions, and to follow them will only lead to loss of reward and fellowship with God.
Jude quotes a prophecy from Enoch, detailing how God will judge the ungodly for their sinful deeds. Sins like grumbling, fault-finding, acting upon lust, arrogance, manipulating people to gain power over them—God will punish such behaviors.
Bearing in mind that God will punish sin, Jude urges his readers to remember what the apostles teach. It is not unexpected that mocking, lustful men will come to cause divisions in the church. This is something the apostles have warned about. But believers can stand firm in the faith, pray under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and thus can maintain their fellowship with God. In doing so, believers can help other stumbling believers avoid losing their rewards and right themselves in their faith-walk with God.
Jude praises God, for it is God who can keep us from falling away from His fellowship, so that we can stand before Him one day without blame and with deep happiness, rather than shame. It is God who has saved us, through His Son Jesus. He deserves all glory forever, He is sovereign over all things throughout all of time. This we believe is so.
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