Jude Overview

Obviously, I googled the Beatles song to see if there was any correlation, and there isn’t.  BUT now the song is stuck in my head.  Click here if you want it stuck in your head too!  (and if you are too young to know this song, go away!)

This book opens with:

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

So I went back and looked at the book of James, which opens with:

¹James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

Let me show you how prideful I am.  If I was James or Jude, I would have said, “I am Jesus’ brother!”.  😳

We know practically nothing about Jude other than his love for Jesus (and proud of his brother James).  James was martyred around 62 AD.  According to other writings and traditions, James (not officially an apostle because he did not become a believer till after the Resurrection) was the church leader in Jerusalem. He was thrown from the southeast pinnacle of the temple (over a hundred feet down) when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a club. This is thought to be the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the temptation.

So the fact that Jude is willing to write this letter proves that he too is willing to die for Jesus if the letter gets in the wrong hands. 

The Book of Jude is an important book for us today because it is written for the end times, for the end of the church age. The church age began on the Day of Pentecost. Jude is the only book given entirely to apostasy. (fancy word, I know 😂). But now that we are not on milk but mature enough in the Word, we can start using “meat” words.   From the Greek term apostasia, apostasy means “a defiance of an established system or authority; a rebellion; an abandonment or breach of faith.”   Ummm what? This will help:

• there are two main types:
  •  a falling away from key and true doctrines (I ask you, without reading the Bible, how do people know True Doctrine?)
  • a complete renouncement of the Christian faith.

Jude is a small but important book worthy of study, written for today’s Christian.