Jude 1

Jude 1
¹ Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 

If you are a child of God, this letter is for you.

² Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

As I have been learning about God's grace and mercy, I now read this greeting with a greater appreciation of exactly what Jude wanting for our lives.  I won't rehash it all here.  Read my past blogs.  Romans is full of grace and mercy.  This blessing is a powerful one.

³ Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.

We have our plans.  Sometimes God will change our hearts from what we want to what he wants.

⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Two sentences, yet I could take paragraphs writing what the Holy Spirit is sharing.  

God's grace will cover all sin.  Yet there are those who would use this as a license to continue sinning.  The apostle Paul says NO WAY.

The image of a king is used here too.  Only this is the King of kings.  A study of history teaches us that the king was over every aspect of the lives of those in his kingdom.  No one dare speak out against the word of the king.  No one brazenly disobeyed his law.  They realized their life would be forfeit. 

My life does not measure up to Jesus being my Sovereign Lord.  Were I to tell the truth, I treat him more like a vending machine (I want this.) or a super hero (save me from this most recent trouble I have found myself in.).  Far too often, when faced with obedience vs self gratification I chose me.  How about you?

⁵ Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. ⁷ In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
⁸ In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. ⁹ But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰ Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.
¹¹ Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana, Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1

In verse 5 Jude assumes the people knew their history.  Do you know your Bible history?  When you read each reference to the past in these few verses do you remember the story? 

When the people were brought out of Egypt and did not believe God could give them the promised land, they died in the desert.  When Satan and his angels rebelled against God they were thrown out of heaven and are bound in chains till judgement.   

Sodom and Gamorrah you can read yourself.

Michael and Satan was an interesting study.  You can find the story of Moses' death in Deuteronomy 34.  There is no mention of the battle.  Commentary to the rescue:

c. And He buried him in a valley: Notably, the Lord buried Moses. This was more complicated than it sounds, because the devil contended with God over the body of Moses.

i. Jude 9 speaks of an occasion when Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses. Apparently, there was a contention over the body of Moses, and according to Jude Michael the archangel won this contest as he appealed to the Lord’s authority: “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet why Michael contended with Satan over the body of Moses is less clear.

ii. Some say that the devil wanted to use Moses’ body as an object of worship to lead Israel astray into idolatry. Others think that Satan wanted to desecrate the body of Moses, and claimed a right to it because Moses had murdered an Egyptian.

iii. But consider that God had another purpose for Moses’ body, which Satan wanted to defeat: Moses appears in bodily form with Elijah (whose body was caught up to heaven [2 Kings 2]) at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-3); and perhaps Moses and Elijah are the two witnesses of Revelation 11.

iv. Apparently, God had a purpose to fulfill with the body of Moses before the time of general resurrection, so God made special provision to bury the body of Moses Himself. And, perhaps, God preserved the body of Moses in some way. God wanted to protect the body of Moses, so no one knows his grave to this day. Seemingly, they searched for it (as would be expected) out of a desire to memorialize this great leader of the nation.

Cain read for yourself.

Balaam took money to curse the Israelites and could not, so he told Balak how to make God angry with Israel.

Korah disputed Moses' leadership of the people and it cost him his life.

All of this history is to help you understand that the false teacher use their dreams to their own detriment. 

¹² These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted —twice dead. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

They only take and provide no benefit.   They are worthless for guidance.  How would ancient sailor navigate if the stars moved?

¹⁴ Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁶ These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

No commentary required.

¹⁷ But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. 

There are scoffers all around.  Christians are ridiculed at every turn.  Do not listen to these men.  Build each other up while we wait for Christ's return.

²² Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Mercy, not legalism.  However don't deny the hell they are headed towards if they do not repent.

²⁴ To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

God can keep you from stumbling.  You just have to have faith.

God Bless.