Jude 2

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). 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: informs us that “his brethren” were part of the praying group that was awaiting the Holy Spirit; 1 Corinthians 9: 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.

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.

The Captain of the army is Jesus Christ, and the soldiers He commands are people who share a “common salvation” through faith in Him. Jude called them saints (Jude 3), which simply means “set-apart ones.” He addressed them as sanctified, which, again, means “set apart.” (Some manuscripts read “beloved in God the Father.”) Perhaps there is an echo here of 1 Peter 1: where all three Persons of the Godhead are seen to be involved in our salvation.

Certainly salvation begins in the heart of God and not in the will of man (Rom. 9:16).

The mysteries of God’s sovereign electing grace are beyond us in this life and will never be understood until we enter His glorious presence. For that reason, we are wise not to make them the basis for arguments and divisions. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God” (Deut. 29:29).

Second Thessalonians 2:13–14 makes it clear that the same God who chose us also set us apart by the Spirit and then called us by the gospel to trust in Jesus Christ. God’s choosing and God’s calling go together, for the God who ordains the end (our salvation) also ordains the means to the end (someone calling us to Christ). We did not understand how God’s Spirit was working in our lives prior to our conversion, but He was working just the same to “set us apart” for Jesus Christ.

Not only are God’s saints set apart, but they are also preserved. This means “carefully watched and guarded.” The believer is secure in Jesus Christ. This same word is used in Jude 6 and 13 (“reserved”) and also in Jude 21 (“keep yourselves”). God is preserving the fallen angels and the apostates for judgment, but He is preserving His own children for glory. Meanwhile, He is able to preserve us in our daily walk and keep us from stumbling.

Because they are set apart and preserved, God’s soldiers are the recipients of God’s choicest blessings: mercy, peace, and love. Like the apostle Peter, Jude wanted these special blessings to be multiplied in their lives (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:2). God in His mercy does not give us what we deserve. Instead, He gave our punishment to His own Son on the cross. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows… But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:4–5).

Because of Christ’s work on the cross, believers enjoy peace. The unsaved person is at war with God and cannot please Him (Rom. 8:7–8), but when he trusts the Savior, the war ends and he receives God’s peace (Rom. 5:1).

He also experiences God’s love (Rom. 5:5). The cross is God’s demonstration of love (Rom. 5:8), but His love is not experienced within until His Spirit comes into the believing heart. As the believer grows in his spiritual life, he enters into a deeper relationship of love (John 14:21–24).

Certainly those who know Christ as their Savior enjoy a unique position. They are called by God to be set apart for God that they might enjoy love with God. While their fellowship with the Father might change from day to day, their relationship as children cannot change. They are “preserved in Jesus Christ.” Because Jude would write a great deal in this letter about sin and judgment, he was careful at the very outset to define the special place that believers have in the heart and plan of God. The apostates would sin, fall, and suffer condemnation, but the true believers would be kept safe in Jesus Christ for all eternity.

It bears repeating that an apostate is not a true believer who has abandoned his salvation. He is a person who has professed to accept the truth and trust the Savior, and then turns from “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). Jude would not contradict what Peter wrote, and Peter made it clear that the apostates were not God’s sheep, rather they were pigs and dogs (2 Peter 2:21–22). The sow had been cleaned on the outside, and the dog on the inside, but neither had been given that new nature which is characteristic of God’s true children (2 Peter 1:3–4).

Here, then, we have the “spiritual army” that Jude was addressing. If you have trusted Jesus Christ, you are in this army. God is not looking for volunteers; He has already enlisted you! The question is not, “Shall I become a soldier?” Rather, it is, “Will I be a loyal soldier?”

Isaac Watts once preached a sermon on 1 Corinthians 16:13: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you [act] like men, be strong.” When he published the sermon, he added a poem to it; we sing it today as one of our spiritual songs. Am I a soldier of the Cross, A follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, Or blush to speak His name? Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease? While others fought to win the prize And sailed through bloody seas?