Jude; Epistle of

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

Concise Bible Dictionary:

Written by Jude the brother of James, and apparently the same person as the apostle JUDAS. The Epistle is addressed to “the called ones, beloved in God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ.” Apostasy had set in, and the saints are exhorted to contend for the faith divinely delivered. Ungodly ones had crept in, who abused the grace of God, and denied their only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Three instances are produced to show how apostasy had been punished:
1. Some of those saved out of Egypt were yet destroyed.
2. Fallen angels are kept in eternal chains for judgment.
3. Sodom and Gomorrha, which lie under the abiding effect of the judgment on them. Then the railers are put to shame by the conduct of Michael the archangel, who when rightly contending with Satan about the body of Moses did not rail against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke thee.”
Three stages of departure from the way of truth are mentioned, with a woe upon those who are found in them:
3. The gainsaying of Core—opposition to the royalty and priesthood of Christ (compare Num. 16). Such were doubly dead, by nature and apostasy, and are reserved for eternal darkness.
Enoch prophesied of the judgment on the ungodly when the Lord comes with His holy myriads. See ENOCH. The saints had been warned against some who separated themselves, as being superior to others, whereas they were only natural men, and had not the Spirit. The saints were to build up themselves on their most holy faith; and by prayer in the Holy Spirit to keep themselves experimentally in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. They were to try to save others. The Epistle closes with a full ascription of praise to Him who is able to keep His saints from stumbling and set them with exultation blameless before His glory.

Related Books and Articles:

The Epistle of Jude
The Epistle of Jude
Remarks on the Epistle of Jude
Lectures on the Epistle of Jude

Ministry Nuggets:

• Peter speaks of sin, and the reward of unrighteousness, and Jude distinctively of apostasy. "If God spared not the angels that sinned" says Peter; but Jude speaks of them as {v.6} "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation." (“Reflections on the Epistle of Jude: Part 3, The Faith We Have to Contend For”)
• Jude looks at grace. There is nothing like grace, but what if grace be abused? What if grace be abandoned? What if grace be turned to licentiousness? Now that is what Jude takes up. (“Jude 1” by W. Kelly)
• That which is peculiarly striking in the Epistle of Jude is that he pursues the corruption of the assembly from the creeping in of some unawares on to its final judgment, showing withal that it is not arrested but passes through its various phases to that day. (“JUDE” by J.N. Darby)
• Peter, as pointed out, it is sin-sin working indeed in gross forms-in the bosom of the Church; in Jude it is moral apostasy, though those who are guilty of it still retain their place inside (v. 12); while in John the apostates have gone out. "They went out from us, but they were not of us," etc. (1 John 2:19). (article #86561)