1"Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James." Jude was almost certainly a half-brother of Jesus. The people of Nazareth named his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas (Matthew 13:55), and Jude is the same name in Greek. Jude prefers servant to brother of the Lord. He takes the title of someone under authority before he issues a single call to arms. Jude grew up in the same house as Jesus and chose submission over standing.
Called, beloved, and kept are the first of the triads that give this short letter its rhythm. It is full of threes, three examples of judgment, three descriptions of the false teachers, three commands at the end. The identity of the readers comes before any warning. The verb for kept, *tereo*, returns in verse 21, where Jude tells them to keep themselves in the love of God. God's keeping and their keeping bracket the whole letter. 2"Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you." Multiplied is a word of abundance, the same one Peter uses in both of his letters.
Then the plan changes. 3"Although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith." This is an unusually human verse. Jude had a positive letter in mind, and a crisis forced him to write a different one. Anyone who has planned to encourage people and found themselves warning them will recognize the feeling.
The verb for contend, *epagonizomai*, occurs only here in the New Testament. It comes from the word for a contest in the arena and gives us our word agonize. It describes an athlete's or fighter's full exertion for a worthy cause. The faith was 3"once for all delivered to the saints." It was handed over completely. Jude's readers are caretakers of something they did not invent, and Bauckham and Green both stress that the crisis in Jude is moral and doctrinal.
The reason for the appeal follows. Certain people 4"have crept in unnoticed." They slipped in by a side door and arrived with the language of the church. Jude says their condemnation was written about 4"long ago," which sets up the examples that follow. Their method is named precisely: they 4"pervert the grace of our God into sensuality." They took the doctrine of free grace and treated it as a license. Grace forgives every sin, and these people heard it as permission for any sin. They also 4"deny our only Master and Lord." The denial was probably practical, since Paul says some "profess to know God, but they deny him by their works" (Titus 1:16). Jesus is our only Master, and our culture treats him as one option among many.
Ask what has been handed to you that you did not invent, and where you have heard grace spoken as a permission slip.
Prayer
Father, you have called us, loved us, and kept us for Jesus Christ. Multiply mercy, peace, and love to us. Give us the strength to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and keep us from turning your grace into an excuse for sin. In Jesus' name, amen.