Let’s try seven verses, then six, then the rest.

The Letter of Jude – Lesson 1 – Jude 1-7 – New International Version

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

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

² Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

³ Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. ⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

⁵ Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. ⁷ In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

 

1 – First Impression

Quotes from the group: There’s a lot of bad people out here, reminded of God’s Judgement, God’s Justice, and a boxing match. I forgot what my original first impression was, but I circle back to the paradigm that so many people refused to recognize evil.

2 – Why does it matter who Jude is? Why does he not say he is Christ’s brother?

My paradigm is that Jude was Christ’s brother and I see everything from that perspective. When he says he was James brother, I was wondering if he was purposely downplaying that because he wanted his standing to be based on being a Christian first, then a leader in the church, and his pre-salvation relationship to Jesus no longer mattered. Claiming to be a brother because Jude was also God’s chosen for salvation is one thing, but claiming special privilege because of who your mom was is something different.

3 – Does the phrase “kept in Christ” have special meaning for you?

For me, it is knowing that I have eternal life and nothing in the world can take it away, and this is pretty special.

4 – In abundance. Do we carry this promise with us every moment of every day?

None of us in the group do, but it is a great goal to aspire to: Living as if we understood that God is blessing us constantly.

5 – Salvation. It is as if Jude has been asked to tell the audience about their future, and yet he chose to talk to them about contending for the faith. Any thoughts on why?

My paradigm is that sometimes people look past today towards the future and do not bother to do today what is helpful. My outcome for the question was that knowing there are people searching for Christ should inspire us to confront those who do not have it right and save their souls. We are not exactly saving their souls, but if we let false teachers teach false ideals, some seekers may not be led down the right path.

6 – God’s Holy People. Who does he mean?

Not the Jews, but everyone saved by Christ.

7 – Written long ago. Why is it so hard to accept that some will suffer eternally?

My thought was that if people accept that others will go to hell, they have to admit that they themselves might end up there as well. They attempt to delude themselves into ignoring fact.

8 – Angels abandoned their proper dwelling and are held until the great Day. What aspect of our relationship to God is being demonstrated by this comparison to angels?

I wanted to communicate that not everything we think is true really is. We have examples of wonderful angels, but we also have Satan. We cannot understand the breath of depth of the lives of angels, and we cannot understand how God does everything he does, but we can accept that He is in control and we are not.

9 – Sexual immorality and perversion. What is the difference in how we expect Christians to behave and how we expect the lost to behave?

Without Christ, we can expect nothing good from anyone. When we project our self expectations onto others, we twist how we should relate to them. We must relate to them as the are, not as we are, and not as we want ourselves to be.

10 – The letter is relatively short, but a host of new topics follows before we resolve some of these themes. Ignoring what come next, what has God shown you today?

My one nugget was that our relationships with others are the basis of our witness. No relationship, no deep impactful witness. We can preach from the pulpit, but we cannot preach at the dinner table.