Jude the last book of the Bible before Revelation was written circa 70 to 80 A.D. The author Jude, being the brother of James, thus identifies himself as being the Lord Jesus’ half brother (Judas in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55), there are 4 half brothers mentioned.

“Is this not the carpenter [Jesus], the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him.” Mark 6:3.

The Scriptures identify themselves as being, “living and powerful”, Hebrews 4:12 and as such have an eternal relevance to mankind.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13.

Jude in a short 25 verses gives us an explanation of what has gone wrong with the church from beginning to the present day.

Suppose for a moment that you were reading this letter in 81 A.D. as you read it you would say, “Yes I have met men like this and have heard them teaching this blasphemy”.

If you read this short book today you might say, “Yes church history bears these words out and I have met men like this in my church”.

In the future a man may be reading this book in a cave somewhere during the tribulation, he will likely say, “Yes I have learned that this was true throughout church history; I saw it myself and now it is too late, the church was in ruins when it was taken away!”

You see, time moves on, the point of view changes, yet the Scripture remains true; whether you understand it or not.

Jude as well as the two preceding books 2 Peter and 1 John, speak not only of love and good conduct among Christians, but they also warn of deceiving spirits and false apostles (see 2 Peter chapters 2-3 and 1 John chapters 2-4 in particular).

“But there were also false prophets among the people [children of Israel], even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.” 2 Peter 2:1.

As you study Scripture you will find that God’s adversary, Satan, continually tries to destroy the things that God establishes.

For example he began by leading the children of Israel into idolatry through stunts like the one described in the book of Numbers chapters 22-25.

Briefly the account goes like this, after leaving Egypt and forty years of wandering in the wilderness the children of Israel camped near Moab and the residents there were in dread of the Israelites, so their king Balak made an alliance with the people of Midian and sent for a prophet of God named Balaam.

His intent was to pay Balaam to curse the Israelites, and Balaam being greedy was soon persuaded, he warned King Balak though that no matter the price, he could only say what God told him to say.

Disaster, every time he would try to curse the Israelites he only blessed them, King Balak was not happy.

Balaam could have walked at this point, but greed made him stick his head in a noose, so he gave the king some very effective advice which brought horrible tragedy upon the Moabites (who were in no danger to begin with) and death to the greedy prophet.

Christ said this of Balaam when He spoke to the Apostle John in the book of Revelation.

“But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.” Revelation 2:14.

Balaam advised the Moabites to send their women into the Israelite camp to seduce them with sex and idol worship. The trick never changes as the book of Jude shows.

The first century church was attacked through the vile philosophy of the Gnostics who taught that the physical was evil and the spiritual was good, the outcome of this was that they enjoyed letting their flesh do whatever it desired and encouraged the spiritual.

Whenever you let the flesh have unfettered freedom the spiritual suffers and in their case they became libertines, not Christians. So, just as Moabite women seduced the Israelites into idolatry and illicit sex, Satan’s Gnostics used a similar hook.

Another problem with Gnostic thinking is if the physical is evil then Christ could not have been God incarnate. There were other heresies but this example is enough to convey the idea.

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 1-3.

Let us focus on the last phrase, “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints”. We are to stand firm, unwavering, contending for the faith, this is the serious duty of all mature Christians.

We can be kind and loving, but once the line is drawn it will not be crossed, you will not back down, the words of the heretic may be lofty and the PhD’s behind his name may be numerous, but he is not wiser or smarter than God whose Scriptures are inviolate.

“Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God.” Philippians 1:27-28.

As pointed out before, the Bible is relevant to all mankind at all times and does not need to be updated to fit the modern age. Engineering, chemistry, biology and modern conveniences may change but man’s sin nature remains the same. And Christ is still the answer for both that and the world’s woes.

This gospel that was once for all time delivered to believers must never be altered; obviously it has been. Men did not stand up for what is right!

“For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude 4.

These men were known by God long ago, He could have destroyed them, but God expects us to shoulder responsibility like adults and know our Bible so we would recognize them when they showed up. Had we been awake and not so self absorbed, even their fate may have wound up different.

Every Christian must remain vigilant at all times, just as the Israelites were in the book of Nehemiah when they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem while surrounded by enemies.

“Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon. Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me.” Nehemiah 4:17-18.

Without vigilance they creep in. They creep in smiling, superior in their knowledge, always smiling; remember the song that goes, “smiling faces, smiling faces, tell lies”, unnoticed they have debased the glorious church of Jesus Christ, crippling it throughout the church age.

The word licentiousness is translated lasciviousness in the old King James Version, they are basically interchangeable. The dictionary defines them as, lustful, wanton, and lewd, without sexual restraint.

The Greek indicates, shameless conduct, filthy, wantonness, indecency; this word can be found in, Mark 7:22, 2 Corinthians 12:21, Galatians 5:19, Ephesians 4:19, 1Peter 4:3, and above in Jude 4.

“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness…” Galatians 5:19.

“… [Gentiles] who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” Ephesians 4:19.

“For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles – when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.” 1 Peter 4:3.

Finally, Gnosticism (and liberal theology) by its very nature has to “…deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude 4.

“He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:10-12.

Jude, Part 1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 9-7-16, updated on 3-23-22.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.