"Intro to Jude" (Jude 1-7)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/11/2025 7:57 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus:  “Intro to Jude”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  Jude 1-7

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. 4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5 Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And angels who

did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”

 

            These are the first seven verses to the on chapter letter written by Jude, who was a bond-servant of Jesus Christ and was the brother of James, as he writes to the ones that are called, and beloved in God the Father, and who were kept for Jesus Christ.  Now there were a number of Jude’s in the New Testament and so it is our duty to find out who this Jude was.  In the Greek the name Jude is Judas, and since most people know that this Jude was not Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed the Lord Jesus to the Roman’s on the night He was crucified.  When you think about it no one that I have ever heard of has named one of their children Judas, and I think that the reason is clear as mentioned it was Judas Iscariot who betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ the night He was put to death for the sins of the world.

 

            I mentioned in my last SD that I have gone over the book of Jude earlier in my quest to study every book of the Bible, which took twenty-five years, and I suppose that if I had the commentary from John MacArthur in my possession which has his comments on the book of Jude that I would be using it, but I don’t.  I also mentioned that John MacArthur has fifteen sermons on this little book of Jude, and tells me that there is much in this book to write about.  I am going to get my help with this book, as mentioned from the pen of Dr. Warren Wiersbe and in his commentary he has written a lot about this book of Jude.  I will quote from his introduction in this Spiritual Diary and then in tomorrow evenings, Lord willing, I will begin to look at the first two verses which is pretty much Jude’s introduction to his letter.  His introduction and his ending are special, especially his ending to his letter. 

 

            “Since the author of this epistle was the brother of James, this would make him the half brother of our Lord Jesus Christ (see Mark 6:3).” “"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?" And they took offense at Him.”  You can see from this verse and others that Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ had more children after Jesus was born to her, and so we can see that she did not remain a virgin, but one thing we don’t see in the New Testament is what happened to Joseph who was the father of all of these children mentioned in Mark 6:3, but we really don’t know how many sisters there were as this is a practice in not naming the names of women in the New Testament in genealogies that are found.  However there are a few women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.  Ok back to what Warren Wiersbe has to say. “Our Lord’s brothers in the flesh did not believe in Him while He was ministering (John 7:5).  But after the Resurrection, James was converted (see 1 Cor. 15:7), and we have every reason to believe that Jude was also saved at that time.  Acts 1:14 informs us that ‘His brethren’ were part of the praying group that was awaiting the Holy Spirit; 1 Corinthians 9:5 states that ‘the brethren of the Lord’ were known in the early church.

 

            “So much for the identification of the author.  Why did Jude write this letter? To warn his readers that the apostates were already on the scene!  Peter had prophesied that they would come (2 Peter 2:1-3; 3:3ff), and his prophecy had been fulfilled.  Apparently Jude wrote to the same believers who had received Peter’s letters, intending to stir them up and remind them to take Peter’s warnings to heart.  You will discover a number of parallels between Jude and 2 Peter as you study this fascinating but neglected letter.”  I want to mention that once I get finished with my study of 2 Timothy in my morning Spiritual Diaries that I will then begin a study on 2 Peter, and am looking forward to that, but I still have more to do in finishing up 2 Timothy.

 

            “He wrote to ‘exhort’ them (Jude 3).  In the Greek language, this word was used to describe a general giving orders to the army; hence the atmosphere of this letter is ‘military,’  Jude had started to write a quiet devotional letter about salvation, but the Spirit led him to put down his harp and sound the trumpet!  The Epistle of Jude is a call to arms.” 

 

6/11/2025 8:36 PM