Book of Jude
A call to contend for the faith against false teachings.
About the Book of Jude
The letter of Jude is a passionate, urgent appeal from one of Jesus' brothers — who identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James — to an unnamed community facing infiltration by false teachers. Jude had planned to write about salvation, he says, but was compelled to write about the urgent need to "contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people."
Jude draws extensively on the Old Testament and Jewish tradition to warn against the false teachers: the judgment of the Israelites in the wilderness, the fate of angels who abandoned their positions, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The teachers are described with striking imagery — "waterless clouds swept along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, uprooted — twice dead; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever." The severity of this language reflects the seriousness with which Jude views distortions of the gospel.
The letter ends with one of the most beautiful doxologies in the New Testament: "To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen." In the face of all that threatens the community, Jude anchors them in the one who is able to keep them.