Overview
Jude is a short and urgent letter from Jude, a brother of Jesus and of James, written to believers who were facing a serious internal threat. Teachers had crept into the community who were using the grace of God as a licence for immorality and denying the lordship of Jesus Christ. Jude had intended to write about the salvation they shared but instead felt compelled to call them to fight for the faith. The letter is fierce in its warnings about false teachers and tender in its closing concern for the community.
Authorship and background
The author identifies himself as Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. This is widely understood to be Judas, a physical brother of Jesus (Matthew 13:55), who like James did not believe in Jesus during His earthly ministry but came to faith after the resurrection. The letter was probably written in the 60s AD, possibly before the fall of Jerusalem, and shares significant material with Second Peter, suggesting a close relationship between the two letters.
Christ at the centre
Jude describes his readers as those who are loved by God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ (verse 1). That word "kept" is significant: the same God who keeps the believers is the God before whom the false teachers will answer. The letter's vivid warnings about judgment draw on Old Testament examples — the Israelites in the wilderness, the angels who fell, Sodom and Gomorrah — not to frighten believers but to make clear that those who twist the grace of God do not escape His notice. The great closing doxology is one of the most beautiful in the New Testament: "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and for ever."
Key verses
"Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." (Jude 3, WEB) "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy... be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever." (Jude 24–25, WEB)
Main themes
The call to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Warning against those who distort grace into a licence for sin. The certainty of judgment on those who rebel against God. The care of believers for one another in the midst of danger. The power of God to keep His people until the end.
For us today
Jude is a bracing letter for a generation that tends to value tolerance above truth. The idea of contending for the faith sounds combative to modern ears, but Jude is not calling for aggression toward those outside the church. He is calling for clarity and courage within it, so that believers are not quietly led away from the gospel that saves them. The closing doxology reminds us that this contending is done in dependence on the God who keeps us, not in our own strength. He is able to keep us from stumbling. That promise is the foundation on which all faithful perseverance rests.
Please to save this book and keep your own notes.