Part I: Opening
A simple summary of Jude’s letter could be, “What are we willing to fight for?” Jude starts out saying he intended to write a longer letter about the salvation believers share in Jesus but seems to have heard reports about what’s been happening in this church, and instead sends them a shorter, more direct memo addressing the problem. He specifically urges his audience to “contend for the faith” (v.3 — he identifies them as “dear friends,” a title he repeats two more times. While used often in the New Testament epistles, it is significant in that the adjective translated here as “dear” also means beloved, and is the same adjective God the Father used in relation to Jesus when he audibly spoke the words “my beloved son” at Christ’s baptism (Mark 1:11) and the transfiguration (Mark 9:7). It’s about as “dear” as the concept of “dear” or “beloved” can be).
Jude identifies the problem as the influence of “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” (v. 4). The implication is that these “individuals” are not just influencers but have taken up positions of leadership within the church. They certainly seem to be popular “teachers,” and well known, perhaps in the way a “televangelist” was back in 1970s or 80s, or a social media influencer today.
I find it interesting that Jude doesn’t initially frame the issue as theological, the way Paul did in Galatians 3, but as a question of morality. He is laying out “why” these teachers should be dealt with before he discusses “how” to deal with them. He urges his audience to focus on how these influencers behave. Their willingness to compromise on questions of sin, and even to be corrupt themselves, is the indicator that their theology is also bad. They are advocating for what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.” That is, the limitless mercy and grace of God becomes a license to sin. In short, if Jesus is your Savior, and you are filled with the Spirit, you can behave however you want. It doesn’t matter what you do, because God has already forgiven you and will continue to forgive you. This always seems particularly connected to matters of finances and sex. While they pay lip service to Jesus, they have, in essence, completely rejected his authority.
