This paper takes a look at the book of Jude. The questions being explored are, “What is Jude's main reason for writing the letter to the saints of his time?” and, “What are some of the main things God is emphasizing to His people today through this holy writing from our brother Jude?”
Let's begin with the name of the author. His name is Jude, which is just the Greek word for for the Hebrew name “Judah,” the same as the son of Jacob and of the tribe of the nation of Israel. The name itself has the main meaning of “praise.” Indeed, this is how Judah, Jacob's son, got his name. His mother, Leah, says at his birth, in Gen. 29:35, “'Now will I praise the Lord;' therefore, she called his name Judah.”
So, Jude himself, being an epistle of Christ (II Cor. 3: 3), is a revelation of “praise.” Digging a little deeper, we find that the root of the word “Judah” is the Hebrew word “yadah,” meaning “to use the hand,” and “yad,” meaning simply “hand.” The connection between hand and praise is that as God's people rejoice in and thank and praise God, they lift their hands to God. You can see this in many Scriptures, such as Psalm 143:5,6: “I muse on the works of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee....” Psalm 134:2 says, “Lift up your hands in the holy place, and bless the LORD.” Lamentations 3:41 gives us the root idea behind why God's people lift their hands to God in prayer and in praise: “Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.” Our hands stretching up to God represents our whole inner being reaching toward God, longing for God, thanking God, magnifying His wonders.
The Bible tells us that we were created for God's praise (Isaiah 43:21, 61:11, Eph. 1:12). This means that we were created to show forth the wonders of who He is. We were created to reveal Him, and to cause all to be awed at the glory of God.
And this is what Jude is doing in His epistle. He is moved by the Holy Spirit to exhort the people of God, who were beginning to wander, to return to the faith that Jesus brought to us. He was exhorting them to return to operating in the hand of God, not in the hand of man, and to through that show forth the glory of God and the salvation He brought in Christ Jesus. He was exhorting them to return to the place where the wonders of God could again be seen in the people of God. For, as Paul says to the Ephesians, “we should be to the praise of His glory” (1:12). More specifically to the point of Jude, Paul also mentions that as we grow up to be full-grown sons, we are “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph. 1:5-6). Jude is exhorting us to return to the TRUE grace of God, so that the wonder of His grace may be made known (Eph. 2:7). Grace is the work of God's hands. Our hands and mouths then respond in praise of His power and ability.
This brings us to Jude's main point. In verse 3, he says that while he wanted to write something to encourage them, he found it necessary to exhort them “to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.” Why was this necessary? Because there was already trouble brewing in the church (vs. 4). Paul wrote to Timothy about the trouble that was coming in the church (as did Peter). Paul said that the Holy Spirit had revealed expressly (meaning clearly and strongly) that Christians were going to start to “depart from the faith” (I Tim. 4:1). This departing was beginning already, and before long it was going to snowball to almost completely envelop the whole church.
So Jude needed to exhort the brothers and sisters in Christ to “earnestly contend” to keep the faith. There needed to be a strong wrestling to keep this faith. What is this faith? “The faith” does not refer to the body of doctrine of Christianity. It means simply faith – believing God. It means walking by faith, not by sight (II Cor. 5:7); walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh (Gal. 5:16); operating in the hand of God, not in the hand of man (Psalm 111:2-7, 28;5, John 14:12); living by grace, not by our works of righteousness (Eph. 2:5-10, Phil. 3:9).
Jesus came to bring us “the faith.” Notice in Galatians chapter 3, Paul makes a careful distinction between “before faith came,” and “after the faith has come” (verses 23-25). Yes, Abraham, David, and others clearly walked in a foreshadowing-level of faith, which typified the real, full faith to come in Christ Jesus. But the real thing – the full level of seeing God, and going in the flow of what He is doing – only came in Christ. Jesus was the first one to walk in this kind of faith. He came to walk it, then die and rise again that that faith could be written into our humanity. So, Jesus “is the author and the finisher of the faith” (Heb. 12:2). He started this faith. He finished and sealed it, so that it has now been once and for all delivered to the saints, as Jude says in verse 3.
This faith is Jesus' faith. Galatians 2:20 says that we have died with Christ, and have risen with Him so that we live – yet not us, but Christ lives. He is alive in us, and filling us with Himself! Praise God! We live, yet not we, but Christ. As Paul put it, “I, yet not I, but Christ.” I live, yet not I, but Christ. I work, yet not I, but Christ. I love, yet not I, but Christ. I believe, yet not I, but Christ.
In everything we have a choice, we have a part. We must choose to turn to Him, and to gaze with our heart and spirit at Him. We must desire Him, and turn to Him, and let Him fill us with His Word and truth, and let Him lead us. That is abiding in Him. And as we abide in Him, we bear much fruit of His life. In the end, it is Him working in us by grace. So in everyday life, I live – I think, pray, make decisions, say things, and do things. But it is not I – I am full of Christ and anointed by Him to know, to understand, and to do. His faithfulness bears me along, bringing me out of my unfaithfulness into His faithfulness. My love is flimsy – sometimes I care, yet at other times my love grows cold and I fall short of blessing and serving and sacrificing for others. But His love “never fails” (I Cor. 13:8). So, I do not abide in my love, but in His (John 15:9-10). My emotions are fickle, so I do not abide in my emotions, but in His (Phil. 1:8). My emotions have been put to death through the cross, and I have come up into His emotions to live in them. Jesus has commanded me strongly that way, to not allow my emotions to fill me, but rather to submit to His emotions. He has perfect, righteous human emotions, which are totally in harmony with God.
I do not have enough love, so I need the love of God. I do not have enough faith, so I need the faith of Christ. This is what the rest of Gal. 2:20 says, “and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God....” It is His faith. Mine is insufficient, but His is sufficient. His faith envelops my heart, anoints my heart, strengthens my heart, so that I can walk at all times in harmony with God.
Years ago, before I had studied Greek very much, I had noticed that most of the modern translations translated that part of Gal. 2:20 as “by faith in” instead of as “by the faith of.” I tried to dig it out of the Greek, and, even though it sure looked like “the faith of,” scholars seemed persuaded that it meant “faith in.” So, I asked God about it. His answer was this: “if it is 'no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,' then whose faith is it?” That sure made it clear! From that day on it was settled for me, because that Word was spirit and life to me. It filled me with the knowledge of what “the faith” is. If my heart begins to wonder if I have enough faith, the Comforter's response within me is simply, “Jesus does.” You see, Jesus has enough faith for whatever God wants to do! He lives (really!!) in our hearts, and is shepherding us into all of His faith and walk! What good news. My heart never needs to fear if I will have enough faith or love or wisdom – Jesus is my life. “For me to live is Christ.”
To complete that part of this story for the sake of my more scholarly friends, my Greek studies eventually led me to conclude that “the faith of” was at least as valid, if not more so, than the alternative, from the point of view of the Greek language as we know it today. It is just theology, not pure language science, that led people to think the other way. (And, by the way, it is lack of a dynamic walk in God that has lead to a lot of the human-made theologies of dead religion, and has lead to strange, though commonly accepted, doctrines among the people of God!) Interestingly enough, in recent years there has been a resurgence of concluding from language study that Gal 2:20, and many similar verses, indeed appears (again, from a pure language study point of view) to be preferably translated “the faith of.” Daniel Wallace, (of the Dallas Theological University, and one of the translators of the NET Bible), for those who would like to study this further, is one of the leading proponents of this view.
It certainly is clear, however, that if it no longer I who live but Christ, then it is His faith that operates in and through me. Like Paul said, “by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace that was bestowed on me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than all of them” (I Cor. 15:10). Before Paul came into Christ, he had faith in God. It is this faith that led him to persecute the church. But his faith was insufficient. He certainly believed in the God of Israel. He believed that the law was given by God. He believed that God had brought the children out of Egypt, and into Canaan. But his faith was “blind faith.” Christian faith is not blind faith – it is seeing faith. True faith is not presumptuously doing something trusting God will help you. Rather true faith sees and hears God in the Spirit, and goes in the flow of what He is doing. Paul's faith had been blind – but in Christ Jesus He received a real faith – a divine life that was full of knowing and experiencing and yielding to the flow of what God was doing. This is grace. Grace is God doing for is, and in us, and through us, what we could not do ourselves. Grace is God doing the works. And this includes God giving us the faith and love that we do not naturally possess.
The next verse in the book of Jude, verse 4, starts the next section of his letter, which I call “the negatives.” They are a very important part of his letter, for they point out the problems that were beginning to creep into the church. They also point out what each of us need to be delivered from. Notice that in verse 4 he says that these people who were causing problems (whom I will call “problem people” for brief in what is to follow) were “turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.” They were misunderstanding grace, so they were turning it into an excuse for sin. Grace is not God just overlooking our shortcomings – it is God making us, by the work of the Holy Spirit within us, into what He wants us to be. It is He doing what we cannot do. We participate by receiving His love, but it is His power and working and capability.
And faith will believe that, and turn to God and receive this grace. Just as at the time of Jude's writing, however, so today many do not understand the grace of God. It is often taught as believing in Jesus, getting a ticket to some paradisiacal land called “heaven,” then living a carnal life, hoping to bring a few with you when you eventually get to see God in the sweet by-and-by. In the mean time, God's grace covers you as He looks past all your failures.
But that is not how Paul lived. He was a testimony of the grace of God! He was transformed into the image of Jesus! He grew in the faith of Christ. He loved people with the love of God, laying down his comforts to love and serve people – pouring out his life like a drink offering. By faith he received divine wisdom, which no man could ever muster up in a thousand years. That was Christ living in Paul. That was Christ's faith that taught the living Word of God, prophesied and laid hands on people for the imparting of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. That was God's love that compelled him to be the servant of all. That was the grace of God making Paul to be the part of Christ that he is.
In reading these verses about the problem people, we sure get the impression that they were very evil indeed. I propose, however, that they did not appear so bad on the outside. In fact, they were fellowshipping with the saints – sharing with believers during the times when the saints got together to eat, fellowship, and build one another up in Christ. They appeared righteous. Yet something was dreadfully wrong, or else Jude would have never used such strong language, comparing them with Korah, Balaam, and Sodom and Gomorrah.
To help see what had gone wrong with these problem people, let me share with you the words that I have highlighted in yellow in my Bible. They paint a picture for us of what was going on. The highlighted words are: “believed not,” “dreamers,” “know naturally,” “for reward,” “feeding themselves” (literally, “shepherding themselves”), “murmurers,” “own desires,” “for advantage,” and, “mockers.” The first three are the root of the whole problem – they believed not; that is, they did not walk by faith. They did not walk in the things of the Spirit. So, they were dreamers. When people do not have revelation by the Holy Spirit, which comes by faith, the only way they have of interpreting the Scriptures, and understanding the things of God, is to dream. Their imagination of what they think God probably meant, based on logic or some other wayward method, is the only thing they have left to rely on. So, they dream and imagine, and come up with all kinds of philosophies and religious methods and means of piety.
These dreamers appeared very pious, I am sure. They were likely Judaizers, or the equivalent, at the time of Jude's writing. They were very religious, and were having an influence among God's people. Since they could only dream and imagine, they walked after what they knew naturally – learning after the flesh, the “old man's” way of learning.
Since they did not have Christ to shepherd them in the Spirit, they just shepherded themselves, and fed themselves with false words and false understandings, instead of letting Christ feed them with spiritual understanding.
And, because they did not have the True One shepherding their hearts by the Holy Spirit, when they taught or lead others, their eye was toward the “reward.” They wanted others to follow them (instead of Christ), so they influenced others with their wise sounding words (full of religious zeal, and adherence to the Scriptures – as they understood them, of course, not after the sweet-tasting wisdom of God). So they got others to follow them “for advantage.” Do not think that this was necessarily for money. It probably wasn't for the most part. It was for the reward of having a following. It was for the reward of having a big ministry, and knowing that were doing great things for God. It was for the reward of having a satisfying feeling that they were RIGHT. It was for the feeling of pride of being some of the few willing to do the hard things God required of them (or so they thought).
As a result, they were “murmurers” and “mockers.” The verb form of the Greek word translated “murmurer” is used often of people complaining because they did not understand the grace of God, or did not understand who Jesus is or what He was doing. It is used, for example, in Matt. 20:11, in the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. When the short-time workers received the same grace as the long-time workers, the long-time workers grumbled that it was not fair.
In Luke 5:30, the word is used concerning Levi's party when he had his friends over to celebrate Jesus. The pharisees (pharisee means separatist – they separated from the non-religious and from those they deemed unrighteous) and the scribes (those who studied hard to know what was right) grumbled against Jesus, because they did not understand his love for those precious people called tax collectors, who out of ignorance, and because they had never before had the Shepherd lead them into his love, ripped people off at tax time. The religious training, and lack of seeing God in the Spirit, caused those pharisees and scribes to grumble because they did not understand the inner working of God, and could not see that Jesus was there to love and heal those tax collectors and harlots and sinners.
The same word, to grumble or murmur, is used in John 6:41 when Jesus said that He was the bread of heaven. They grumbled, saying that they knew His family – what's this about Him being from heaven? They could not perceive heavenly, spiritual realities, so they only understood things after the flesh. They missed who that humble, average looking and sounding person was that stood before them. In verse 43 of the same verse, Jesus told them not to murmur, because they could only understand at the Father's drawing of them unto Himself. In other words, true understanding only comes under God's operation, not based on human will and reasoning and study. We give ourselves into God's hands, and let Him teach us. We cannot figure it out with just thinking it through. If God doesn't work, nothing happens.
In verse 61 of the same chapter, this word is used again, because they could not perceive what He meant about eating Him. Jesus then says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.” That sums it up very well.
And Jude sums up his “negatives” section with this: “These are the ones who make divisions, are natural, and do not have the Spirit.” These are not full of the Holy Spirit, so they only operate in the natural. This does not mean (necessarily) that they have never received the Spirit, but that they are not living and walking full of the Holy Spirit. This lack causes us to lean on the natural mind and heart. This also causes separations among God's people. The life of Jesus makes us one. We are one new man (Eph. 2:15) – the very body of Christ. But when we operate in the natural, there is confusion and division.
When we see so much division among those who believe in Jesus, we must conclude that it is because people have not learned to live in His life. Grace – true grace – will make us ONE. We will have one heart and one mind.
Now we come to the best part of the book of Jude. “But you, beloved...” (verse 20). He is contrasting the average believer to these problem people. He is not talking to supermen, the extra-special who get it all right. He is talking to the lowly believer who has found one simple truth – its all about Jesus. And, the life of Jesus is in the Holy Spirit. We just need to humbly depend on Him at all times, and let Him fill us and lead us. We will become free from what we “know naturally,” and become full of spiritual, holy, divine wisdom and knowledge.
Jude gives some very simple and practical advice on how to contend for the faith. We need to build ourselves up in the faith (become stronger, wiser, and more skilled at walking by faith) by praying in the Holy Spirit (verse 20). Brothers and sisters, it's that simple.
Perhaps it's not the only practical advice that could be given, but it sure is crucial. It's one of the most crucial things we can do to grow. God has burned this truth into my heart. He has been speaking it to me for 25 or 30 years now. Do you want to know Jesus? Pray in the Spirit. Do you want to grow in faith? Pray in the Spirit. Do you need revelation? Pray in the Spirit. Do you want to see God more clearly? Pray in the spirit.
This is why Paul exhorts, “pray at all times in the Spirit” (Eph. 6:18). What does it mean to pray in the Spirit? It certainly includes praying in tongues, but it is by no means limited to it. Whether “with the spirit” or “with the understanding” (that is, through tongues or through English – I Cor. 14:15), we must pray in the the Holy Spirit. To pray in the Spirit is to pray in the flow of His life and His power. It is to get caught up in Him, and pray anointed prayers. We can do this all through the day. We can do it in simple little prayers, or prayers of long intercession. But it is always restful, always joyful, always full of HIM!
We need to quit being in our own mind so much, and learn to flow in HIM!
And, the more we do this, the more we will know Him, the more we will grow in faith and in spiritual/divine understanding, the more we will will receive revelations, the more God will flow out of us in rivers of living water.
Someone will ask, “But HOW do I flow in the Spirit in prayer?” He will teach you. He WILL teach you! “Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, does find; and for the one who knocks, the door is opened” (Matt. 7:7-8). If you believe in the name of Jesus – in this wonderful salvation He brings – and you long for and ask God for the realities about which we are speaking, He will grant them to you. He loves you. He wants you to grow in these things as much or more than you do!
Also, this is what the gift of tongues is for. Ask for that too, if you do not have it now. If you do have it, then flow in it often. Speak in tongues and pray in tongues a lot. The gift of tongues allows us to flow in the anointing of God beyond our understanding. We start out weak, and do not know how to pray in the Spirit. But tongues is the Holy Spirit praying in us and through us beyond our level of understanding and maturity. As we flow in that gift, we are experiencing God. In due time, our understanding catches up, and we learn to pray in the flow of the power of the Holy Spirit in English.One of my greatest joys in life is to pray much in the Spirit. I can go on praying with tongues and with anointed prayers in English for hours, because it is restful and refreshing, and full of glory and revelation. It is God doing the works of prayer, and speaking forth the realities of God, and revealing what God is speaking today. It is no tiresome labor, but rather sheer joy.
I tell people that if prayer is a burden, then quit, and go out and mow the lawn, or something. Ask as you are going out, “Father, help me to flow in the Spirit, and not in my own dull prayers.” Then, God will catch you off guard at some moment, and you will again find that restful flow in Him when it is not you trying to make something happen, but it is you just receiving Him. Remember, “No one can come to me, unless the Father, who has sent me, draws him” (John 6:45). Jesus is not here teaching Calvinistic theology – God wants all people to know salvation and truth (I Tim. 2:4); He is just saying that this spiritual walk is an operation of God, not of us. Our part is to believe Him. Our part is to actively receive Him. He is the doer, and we are the receiver. That is what Jesus was talking about. It is a mystery – but a beautiful one.
The more we learn these secrets of God, by experience, the more we will find the Christian life pure joy and peace! It is not dependent on us, but on Him. He is good! “Taste, and see, that the LORD is good!” (Psalm 34:8). God knows what He is doing. We can completely abandon ourselves into His life. Jesus knows how to pray. Jesus knows how to walk in the Spirit. Jesus knows what to do and what to say. As we pray in the Spirit, we learn to let Him lead and direct in all things. We will find our lives overflowing in revelation, and the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It will become natural to flow in the Holy Spirit in thought, attitude, prayer, and deed.
This is how we contend for the faith – to learn to stay in this place of doing all things in faith, by flowing in the Holy Spirit.
The next verse in Jude continues the same line of thinking. By praying in the Holy Spirit, we also learn to “keep” ourselves “in the love of God.” As we learn to abide in this place in the flow of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit will not only teach us about and fill us with the faith of Jesus, but also with the love of God. His love will bear us along into living to love and serve God, and to bless others. This will keep us pure, and walking in “all the will of God” (Col. 4:12).
If we do not keep ourselves in this place, by faith in the glorious One and His abilities, we will find ourselves slipping into that place of “knowing naturally,” walking by sight instead of by faith, and using others for our “advantage” instead of loving them to their profit (I Cor. 10:24). Remember, the Judaizers that we read of all believed in Jesus, but added some dead works and dead knowledge and dead doctrines to their lives, and to the lives of those about them. Peter and Paul both warned about this slipping away. The book of Hebrews is full of such warnings. “Therefore, we need to pay more careful attention to what we have heard, lest we let them slip away” (Heb.2:1). “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation” (Heb. 2:3). “Let us therefore fear, lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Heb. 4:1). “Looking diligently, lest anyone fails of the grace of God” (Heb.12:15).
There is nothing wrong with the grace of God. It is able to cause us to be all that He designed us to be. It will fill us with God! It will not fail. But we can fail of the grace of God, by neglecting this great salvation, and not flowing in the Spirit. Let's not do that, but rather let us hold fast to this Glorious One, and “walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16), so that we don't have to “fulfill the desires of the flesh.” We can fail of the grace of God by letting the adulterous woman (Proverbs 5:3-14) draw us away from only being married to Christ, to let the wisdom and ways of the flesh tempt us into carnal religion and carnal understanding of the things of God.
But, praise God, we do not have to be overcome by that adulterous woman! “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to establish you before the presence of His glory, faultless, with bountiful joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion, and power, both now and for all of the ages” (Jude 24-25). His hand is able to do this. He is able to establish us in His presence, to always know His glory (the marvels of who He is). As a result -- since He, by the operation of His own being within us, is the only one who is able to do this -- He gets all the glory and praise and thanks. Thank you, Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord, for bringing this beautiful gift of faith in the operation and life of God.