Jude

1Chapter
1Greetings from Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. To those who have been chosen and are loved by God the Father and have been kept safe in Jesus Christ.
2Mercy, peace, and love be yours more and more.

God Will Punish Those Who Do Wrong

3Dear friends, I wanted very much to write to you about the salvation we all share together. But I felt the need to write to you about something else: I want to encourage you to fight hard for the faith that God gave his holy people. God gave this faith once, and it is good for all time. 4Some people have secretly entered your group. These people have already been judged guilty for what they are doing. Long ago the prophets wrote about them. They are against God. They have used the grace of our God in the wrong way—to do sinful things. They refuse to follow Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord.
5I want to help you remember some things you already know: Remember that the Lord saved his people by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. But later he destroyed all those who did not believe. 6And remember the angels who lost their authority to rule. They left their proper home. So the Lord has kept them in darkness, bound with everlasting chains, to be judged on the great day. 7Also, remember the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other towns around them. Like those angels they were full of sexual sin and involved themselves in sexual relations that are wrong. And they suffer the punishment of eternal fire, an example for us to see.
8It is the same way with these people who have entered your group. They are guided by dreams. They make themselves dirty with sin. They reject God’s authority and say bad things against the glorious ones. 9Not even the archangel Michael did this. Michael argued with the devil about who would have the body of Moses. But Michael did not dare to condemn even the devil for his false accusations. Instead, Michael said, “The Lord punish you!”
10But these people criticize things they don’t understand. They do understand some things. But they understand these things not by thinking, but by feeling, the way dumb animals understand things. And these are the things that destroy them. 11It will be bad for them. They have followed the way that Cain went. To make money, they have given themselves to following the wrong way that Balaam went. They have fought against God like Korah did. And like Korah, they will be destroyed.
12These people are like dirty spots among you—they bring shame to you in the special meals you share together. They eat with you and have no fear. They take care of only themselves. They are like clouds without rain. The wind blows them around. They are like trees that have no fruit at harvest time and are pulled out of the ground. So they are twice dead. 13Like the dirty foam on the wild waves in the sea, everyone can see the shameful things they do. They are like stars that wander in the sky. A place in the blackest darkness has been kept for them forever.
14Enoch, the seventh descendant from Adam, said this about these people: “Look, the Lord is coming with thousands and thousands of his holy angels 15to judge everyone. He will punish all those who are against him for all the evil they have done in their lack of respect for him. Yes, the Lord will punish all these sinners who don’t honor him. He will punish them for all the evil things they have said against him.”
16These people always complain and find wrong in others. They always do the evil things they want to do. They boast about themselves. The only reason they say good things about others is to get what they want.

A Warning and Things to Do

17Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said would happen. 18They told you, “In the last times there will be people who laugh at God and do only what they want to do—things that are against God.” 19These are the people who divide you. They are not spiritual, because they don’t have the Spirit.
20But you, dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up even stronger. Pray with the help of the Holy Spirit. 21Keep yourselves safe in God’s love, as you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life.
22Help those who have doubts. 23Rescue those who are living in danger of hell’s fire. There are others you should treat with mercy, but be very careful that their filthy lives don’t rub off on you.

Praise God

24God is strong and can keep you from falling. He can bring you before his glory without any wrong in you and give you great joy. 25He is the only God, the one who saves us. To him be glory, greatness, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord for all time past, now, and forever. Amen.
Study
Chapter 1
CSB

CHALLENGE AND TACTICS

CHALLENGE: “Christians are intolerant of people who believe differently.”

TACTICS EMPLOYED: Google It & Walking Contradiction

First, ask what they mean by intolerant. Many people today say all views are equal. In this light, you are intolerant if you think your religious views are right and others are wrong. Thus tolerance means accepting everyone’s views. However, people who define tolerance this way often contradict themselves. After all, the belief that Christianity is the one true religion is obviously a viewpoint. If all views are equally valid, the Christian’s view is just as valid as other views and should be tolerated. And yet people who criticize Christians for being intolerant are rejecting the Christian viewpoint and are thus being intolerant by their own definition.

CSB

The sin most strongly connected with Sodom and Gomorrah is homosexuality, which Paul describes as unnatural (Rm 1:26-27, see note). Along with his mention of the punishment of angels who flouted God’s created order, Jude uses what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of the judgment that falls on those who reject God’s authority.

CSB

Jude alluded to traditions found in pseudepigraphal works (The Assumption of Moses and/or The Testament of Moses) in recounting a dispute over the burial of Moses in v. 9. And in vv. 14-15, he cited a text from the pseudepigraphal 1 Enoch. (A pseudepigraphical work is one written under the name of another—in these cases, Moses and Enoch.) The citation from 1 Enoch proves more difficult because Jude actually quoted from the book and claimed that “Enoch … prophesied” (v. 14).

Some think Jude actually quoted the historical Enoch, a man who was taken up to heaven before death (Gn 5:23-24). It is difficult to see, though, how Jude could have cited an actual oral tradition from the historical Enoch since the book of 1 Enoch was in circulation in Jude’s day and was well known in Jewish circles. Jude almost certainly derived the citation from the book of 1 Enoch, and the latter is clearly pseudepigraphical. We would be faced with having to say that Jude knew that this specific quotation from 1 Enoch derived from the historical Enoch. It is better to conclude that Jude quoted the pseudepigraphical 1 Enoch and that he also believed that the portion he quoted represents God’s truth. Jude’s wording does not demand that he thought he had an authentic oracle from the historical Enoch.

There is no reason to conclude, however, that the entire book should be part of the canon of Scripture (see Augustine, City of God 15.23). Jude probably cited a part of 1 Enoch that he considered a genuine prophecy. Perhaps he referred to Enoch because the adversaries treasured the work, and therefore he used their ammunition against them. It is possible that the false teachers rejected Christian tradition about Christ’s coming and hence Jude cited Enoch’s prophecy. Indeed, the content of the prophecy is not remarkable, assuring the readers that the Lord will truly judge the ungodly.

Importantly, citing a quotation from another source does not indicate that the entire work is inspired—even if the saying itself is true. For instance, Paul quoted Aratus (Phaenomena 5) in Ac 17:28, and he surely did not intend to teach that the entire work is inspired Scripture. Similarly, he quoted Epimenides in Ti 1:12, without any notion that he accepted the truth of the whole work.

Some might think that the citation here is different because Jude said Enoch “prophesied.” The verb prophesy is sometimes used to designate canonical Scripture (Mt 15:7; 1Pt 1:10). But the verb is also used to say that a certain utterance or saying is from God. For example, Caiaphas prophesied regarding the fate of Jesus, even though he was an unbeliever (Jn 11:51). Zechariah prophesied when the Spirit filled him at John the Baptist’s birth (Lk 1:67). Women prophesied when the believing church gathered (1Co 11:4-5; see Ac 19:6; Rv 11:3). A prophecy may derive from God and still not be a part of canonical Scripture. We cannot necessarily draw the conclusion from the words “Enoch. . . prophesied” that the work was considered to be Scripture. It would have been more telling if Jude had used the phrase “It is written” with reference to 1 Enoch. Jude simply drew from a part of the work that he considered true.

We know the Qumran community valued 1 Enoch but did not include the book in its canon. Nor do any major Christian groups today consider 1 Enoch to be inspired Scripture. Jude cited it for its truth, but he did not claim inspiration for the entire work.