By Pastor Bruce Oyen
SOME UNIQUE DISTINCTIVES OF JUDE'S LETTER
The letter (epistle) of Jude has several unique distinctives about it. Consider some of them.
First, its author was 1 of 8 men in the New Testament with the same name. And he wrote to a man who was 1 of 6 men in the New Testament with that name, James. It takes work to sort them out! And both these men were the half-brothers of Jesus Christ, having Mary and Joseph as their parents, whereas Jesus had only Mary as his physical parent, he having been miraculously conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit.
Second, it is quite short, being only 25 verses long. Though it is short on verses, it is long on truth. So much so that a preacher from the past, Donald G. Barnhouse, preached Sunday morning sermons on it for 18 months!
First, its author was 1 of 8 men in the New Testament with the same name. And he wrote to a man who was 1 of 6 men in the New Testament with that name, James. It takes work to sort them out! And both these men were the half-brothers of Jesus Christ, having Mary and Joseph as their parents, whereas Jesus had only Mary as his physical parent, he having been miraculously conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit.
Second, it is quite short, being only 25 verses long. Though it is short on verses, it is long on truth. So much so that a preacher from the past, Donald G. Barnhouse, preached Sunday morning sermons on it for 18 months!
Third, its canonical place in our Bibles, though not its chronological place, is next to the last book of the New Testament, namely, The Book Of The Revelation Of Jesus Christ.
This last book of the New Testament most likely was written in the last decade of the first century A. D. Maybe in A. D. 95. But the letter of Jude was written several years earlier. The New Scofield Study Bible, published by Oxford, says it might have been written in A. D. 68. The NKJV (New KJV) Study Bible, published by Thomas Nelson, says, "Although assigning an exact date for the writing of Jude is impossible, it is likely that the book was written between A. D. 60 and 64." The Zondervan KJV Study Bible (That is its exact name, and should not be confused with other study Bibles with similar names), says this about the date of the writing of Jude's letter: "If 2 Peter makes use of Jude----a commonly accepted view......then Jude is to be dated prior to 2 Peter, probably c. A. D. 65. Otherwise, a date as late as c. 80 would be possible."
A fourth unique distinctive of this short letter is its straightforward emphasis on the importance of sound doctrine and godly behavior in the thinking and lives of those who claim to be Christians. Jude's letter is short, but it packs a punch when it comes to these matters. It is comparable to firecrackers. They don't have to be BIG to have power. I have placed an empty soup can over one end of a metal tube, put a few firecrackers in the other end, lit them, and watched the can go high in the air. Jude's letter is comparable to some classmates I watched fight when I was in high school: they were small but packed a punch, as the bigger boys discovered!
According to Jude, if we are on the wrong side of God's truth, look out! Like an experienced boxer, he came out swinging with bare fists! He had no tolerance for those who promoted false doctrine or ungodly living, and did his best to knock them out with the power God's truth.
Moreover, Jude also would have said Christians should not change the Bible in order to make it more acceptable to those we want to win to Jesus Christ, as has recently been done. One well-known organization has altered the Bible to make it acceptable to Muslims. To read about it, click on this link:
http://www.wnd.com/2012/01/new-bible-yanks-father-jesus-as-son-of-god/
Moreover, Jude also would have said Christians should not change the Bible in order to make it more acceptable to those we want to win to Jesus Christ, as has recently been done. One well-known organization has altered the Bible to make it acceptable to Muslims. To read about it, click on this link:
http://www.wnd.com/2012/01/new-bible-yanks-father-jesus-as-son-of-god/
A fifth unique distinctive of the letter is the fact that its starts and ends on a positive note, with the more sobering themes in between those two points. In verse 1 we read its inspiring, 3-fold description of Christians, In verses 20 -25 we read its words of comfort and challenge. Those last verses can cheer us up when we need it. They can do this because they extol the virtues of God. It is striking that in verse 1 we read about God the Father and Jesus Christ, and in these last verses of Jude's letter, all 3 members of the Godhead are spoken of. Personally, I wonder if the "call" referred to in verse one is the Holy Spirit's call through the Gospel to salvation. If so, it wold then mean that it, too, refers to all 3 members of the Godhead. But this is only speculation on my part.
JOTTINGS FROM OTHERS
Let me conclude these few personal jottings about Jude's letter with quotes from some other persons' jottings on it.
First, consider some of what Edwin A. Blum said about the purpose of this letter. He wrote the commentary on it in volume 12 of The Expositor's Bible Commentary, which is published by Zondervan. Here (in red) is what he wrote: "The Book of Jude has been called 'the most neglected book in the New Testament.' There may be various reasons for its neglect, e. g., its brevity, its citation of non-canonical Jewish writings, and its burning denunciation of error. Yet Christians and the church today need to listen to Jude's contribution to biblical revelation. The emphasis on a 'fixed' core of truth known as 'the faith' needs to be pondered. Jesus is God's Word to man (cf. Rom. 6:17; Heb. 1:1 - 4). 'God is light; and in him there is no darkness' (1 John 1:5ff.) is the apostle John's summary of the revelation of God in Jesus. God is righteous and true and He hates sin and error."
Blum went on to say: "Contemporary culture is becoming indifferent to the question of truth. Christians have found truth in Jesus (Eph. 4:21). Jude warns of the dangers of the mixture of error with this truth. So his eloquent tract for maintaining the purity and truth of the Christian faith is needed in view of the relativity and syncretism so common today. While it must be granted that some Christians have been and are still intolerantly dogmatic about relatively minor theological issues, there is also the great danger of accepting uncritically all teaching or positions as valid and thus compromising God's once-for-all self-disclosure in Jesus."
Second, consider some of what John Phillips wrote about Jude's letter. His words on Jude (in red) are taken from his commentary, which is published by Kregel.
Phillips had been discussing the history of apostasy as it is recorded in the Bible. He then wrote, "Then apostasy again raised its head, only this time in the church. Thus we come to Jude, whose original intention was to write a treatise on the subject of salvation. The Holy Spirit changed his mind, however, and he wrote, instead, a remarkable memorandum on apostasy. Suddenly the full scope and horror of the apostasies that seemed to be surfacing everywhere in the late apostolic times dawned upon him. Hence, his vivid little volume! The book of Jude is a treasure chest of fact and illustration. It is a thunderbolt hurled from on high. Its echoes reverberate down the centuries. They sound the alarm for us in this Laodicean age of the church, an age marked by lukewarmness in the church pew, by rank apostasy in the seminary, and by liberalism in the pulpit itself. Jude is the man for our apostate age. His trumpet sounds the imminent coming of Christ. His voice is the last to speak to us in our Bible before the Apocalypse takes place. Let us listen, then, to Jude, and we will never again judge a book by its size."
Third, consider some of what Albert McShane said on the purpose of Jude's letter. His comments (in red) are taken from the What The Bible Teaches commentary set, published by Ritchie New Testament Commentaries.
McShane wrote: "It must not be forgotten that Jude does not deal with the evils of the world in general, for it has changed little over the centuries, but rather does he speak of those who are living like the world, yet claiming to have some links with Christianity. Nor is he like Paul in 1 Corinthians dealing with matters for assembly discipline, but the wrong-doers he refers to are subjects for divine retribution and are not expected to repent of their evil deeds. Like the tares amongst the wheat, they have infiltrated the ranks of the saints, but they are distinct from them. Satan ever seeks to mar the work of God from within, as well as attacking it from without. All can conceive how depressing it is to be confronted with evil and yet be powerless to deal with those who are guilty of it. On the other hand we can equally comfort our hearts that what we cannot do we can safely leave in God's hands for He is Judge of all. There is a danger of being unduly occupied with the faults of others and becoming cold at heart as a result. This epistle was written to preserve from this evil and to assure the saints that they would be kept from falling even though many, who once appeared to be the Lord's, had proved themselves to be strangers to His grace. While He would not want them to be complacent, yet he would not want them to be despondent."
To read Jude's letter in The New King James Version, click on this link: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude+1&version=NKJV. This website has many other translations availble, too.
To read Jude's letter in The New King James Version, click on this link: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude+1&version=NKJV. This website has many other translations availble, too.
