 The Most Neglected Letter
in the New Testament: The First Sermon on the Epistle of Jude
Rev. Danny Hyde
Jude 1-2IF I WERE to ask you what the most neglected book of the Old
Testament, which book would you answer with? Maybe Chronicles?
Obadiah? Now if we turn that question towards the New Testament?
Philemon? Second and third John? Many of you probably would not
mention the epistle to Jude because you do not remember its name
or even know it is in the New Testament.
For this reason we turn our attention this Lord’s Day to what
has been called “the most neglected book in the New
Testament”—Jude. To illustrate its obscurity let me ask you
this: who was Jude? Why did he write his letter? Name one of the
three Old Testament men he uses as illustrative of those he was
writing against. Name the two stories he mentions that are not
in the Old Testament.
Yet although Jude is probably the most neglected in the New
Testament—and this is good enough reason for us to take it up—we
turn to its words because as a part of the canon of Scripture it
is the Word of God. It was “breathed out by God” and is
therefore “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). Among the
ancients who recognized Jude’s inspiration was the early church
theologian, Origen of Alexandria (185–254), who said Jude was
“holy Scripture” and “a letter of few lines, it is true, but
filled with the healthful words of heavenly grace.”
In order to understand the heavenly grace contained in this
book, it is important and helpful for us to see its bigger
picture. With a letter as short as Jude, it is easier for us to
see how the book fits together much easier than with a much
longer book like Hebrews, for instance. Scholars have shown that
Jude was a very educated and organized writer. In fact, his
short letter has all the marks of following classical Graeco-Roman
rhetoric. Verses 1–2 are the introduction in which Jude seeks to
gain his audience’s attention; verses 3–4 are the narration in
which he seeks to inform his audience of his main argument;
verses 5–16 are his proofs where Jude seeks to develop his
argument with evidence; verses 17–23 are his conclusion, seeking
the reader’s emotional response; and verses 23–25 are the
doxology—an added in element of this style in Christian
literature.
Big deal. Right? This structure is a big deal because in seeing
it we come to appreciate the care that Jude took to write this
little letter to his audience and to us. Most importantly is the
fact that the attention to literary craftsmanship and beauty
leads us to stand in wonder at the work of the Holy Spirit in
divinely authoring this epistle. Biblical books like Jude give
us a sense of the Holy Spirit’s creativity, causing in us the
exultation of the Psalmist: “I find delight in your
commandments, which I love” (Ps. 119:47); “Your testimonies are
wonderful” (Ps. 119:129). And may this Holy Spirit open our eyes
to understand verses 1–2 of this most neglected book in the New
Testament.
The Threefold Author (v. 1a)
The first thing the Holy Spirit draws our attention to is the
threefold author—Jude. One of the literary devices that Jude
uses all throughout his epistle is the use of things in threes.
Here Jude speaks of himself in three ways: Jude, servant, and
brother. So who is this Jude who calls himself “a servant of
Jesus Christ and brother of James?” Traditionally he has been
understood to be one of the brothers of our Lord Jesus Christ
(Cf. Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3), as the ancient fathers such as
Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Athanasius, Jerome, and Augustine
taught.
As a brother of the Lord who writes to a Christian audience,
Jude is a picture of God’s amazing grace. How so? Recall the
story when Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth. There,
Jesus’ own friends and former neighbors rejected him. Worse yet
was that the apostle John says, “For not even his brothers
believed in him” (John 7:5). Jude, along with Jesus’ family,
even thought Jesus was “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21). At one
point Jude was just like you and me—an unbeliever! Yet here is
Jude writing to the people of God as a “servant” of Jesus. He
was a servant because like the prophets he was called and
commissioned to speak on behalf of the Lord, but he was also a
servant as you and I are in belonging to the Jesus “with body
and soul, both in life and in death,” as the Heidelberg
Catechism teaches us (Q&A 1).
As one who himself had been “snatch[ed]…out of the fire” (v.
23), Jude writes in a very prophetical style as a servant of the
Lord. His purpose was to alarm the church into a sense of
urgency. He urgently exhorted “those who are called” (v. 1) to
“contend for the faith” (v. 3) which “certain people [who] have
crept in unnoticed” were “pervert[ing]” (v. 4). He also urgently
exhorted the church to “build yourselves up in your most holy
faith” (v. 20).
Because he writes to no specific church or region in which the
church existed, Jude wrote a truly “catholic epistle,” meaning
that his letter was meant for all believers in all times and in
all places. Therefore this transformed unbeliever writes to us
who are gathered for worship some two thousand years later. He
urgently writes to all of us, whether we are pastors, elders, or
members, to be aware that within the church are some who have
come to use the grace of God as an opportunity to live any way
they please. In the Reformation period these people were called
the “Libertines,” as they flaunted their liberty; in our day we
call these antinomians, that is, those who are against the Law
of God. Jude, who once lived in unbelief but was powerfully
changed knows the power of the grace of God that causes us to
live thankful lives, unlike “these” people whose desires were
for sexual pleasure (vv. 4, 7, 16), power pleasure (vv. 8, 16),
and personal pleasure (v. 12).
The Threefold Recipients (v. 1b)
This Jude wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to his
threefold recipients. Again, Jude uses threefold repetition for
the effect of grabbing our attention and impressing upon us the
truth of what he is saying. He continues in verse one by
addressing us as called, beloved, and kept.
This statement in the Greek text illuminates the meaning of what
Jude is saying. Jude here uses what is called an inclusio, that
is, he includes a sentence in between two other words. Our
English text begins, “To those who are called,” and then
continues with the rest of the sentence. In the Greek text, the
phrase, “To those who are called” are only two words: tois
kletois. What Jude does is to separate these two words and place
the rest of the sentence in between them; hence, the inclusio.
If we could diagram it, it would look like this: “To those . . .
beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ . . . who
are called.” What Jude is saying is that it is those who are
called by God that are the ones who are loved by God and
preserved by Jesus Christ. It is those who are called in time
that have already been loved from eternity past and that will be
preserved for Jesus Christ unto eternity future. As Paul says:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together
for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For
those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to
the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also
called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those
whom he justified he also glorified (Rom. 8:28–30).
What we notice in the titles Jude addresses us with is the
super-abounding grace of God.
You are called “the called” of God. What does it mean to be “the
called”? The Scriptures use this term in two senses: either
outward or inward, either external or internal, or either
general or effectual. Remember Jesus’ words: “For many are
called, but few are chosen”
(Matt. 22:14). Many are called to
believe the gospel outwardly, externally, generally. But here
Jude is speaking of that inward, internal, effectual call of the
gospel, by which the Holy Spirit irresistibly regenerates us and
converts us. This is what Paul meant when he said: “Those whom
he predestined he also called” (Rom. 8:29). To be the called of
God means to be “called to belong to Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:6).
In 1 Corinthians 1:18ff the apostle Paul speaks of the preaching
of Christ crucified as foolishness and a stumbling block to
Greeks and Jews; “but to those who are called,” Christ is the
wisdom and power of God. We are those who “proclaim the
excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). For us who believe in Jesus
Christ our eyes have been given sight, which were once blind;
our souls have been given life, which were once dead!
And notice, beloved, as I said a moment ago, Jude not only says
that we have been effectually called to faith and life in Jesus
Christ in space, time, and history, for we who are called are
the very same ones whom God the Father has loved from all
eternity. We are “beloved in God the Father.” Jude here uses the
perfect tense and the passive voice for this verb. The force of
this choice of word can rendered, “those who have been loved.”
The perfect tense of this verb signifies a past action with
ongoing results in the present, and in this case, in the future:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? . . . For I am
sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor
things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.
8:35, 38–39). We who were beloved in God the Father’s bosom from
all eternity, were loved when he called us to Christ, and will
continue to be loved by him unto eternity future!
The passive voice of this verb gives the force that we are being
loved, that we are the recipients and the objects of God’s love
from outside of us. And to be loved “in God the Father” speaks
of the tenderness, the intimacy of this love. As J.N.D. Kelly
comments: “His love enfolds them” (p. 243). We experience as
adopted sons of God the Father that love which the Son has ever
known “in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18; NASB).
Jude ends this triad to his recipients saying we are “kept for
Jesus Christ.” Again, the verb “kept” is a perfect passive. The
one doing the keeping is the Father, the ones being kept are the
called, and the one receiving those kept is Jesus Christ.
We are kept “for” Jesus Christ, as our English Standard Version
says, which means that we are kept unto the Day in which Christ
returns to take us to himself in glory (1 Thes. 5:23). The
mystery of the relationship between the preservation of the
saints and the perseverance of the saints is seen when our text
is compared with verse 21, which says, “Keep yourselves in the
love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that
leads to eternal life.”
Beloved people of God, you are so privileged in having these
titles upon your heads—called, beloved, kept—for they were also
used in the Old Testament of Israel. Israel was Yahweh’s called
people (Isa. 41:19, 42:6, 48:12, 15, 49:1, 54:6), his beloved
people (Deut. 32:!5, 33:5, 26; 2 Chron. 20:7; Ps. 28:6; Isa 5:1,
42:1, 43:4, 44:2), and his kept people (Isa. 42:6, 49:8). We are
the Israel of God!
The Threefold Blessing (v. 2)
As the Israel of God we are also the recipients of a threefold
blessing from God. Jude uses the rare optative mood in verse 2,
which expresses his deep desire and emotion in the form of a
prayer: “O may the mercy, peace, and love of this calling,
loving, and keeping God super-abound to you!”
As a former enemy of his very own brother, Jude prays that we
would experience the mercy of God—the experience of not getting
what we deserve. We deserve everlasting wrath and condemnation
because of our sins, but God’s wrath has been averted upon his
very own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Belgic Confession so
beautifully expresses this when it says, “God therefore
manifested His justice against His Son when He laid our
iniquities upon Him, and poured forth His mercy and goodness on
us, who were guilty and worthy of damnation, out of mere and
perfect love…” (Belgic Confession, article 20). Beloved of God:
receive his mercy.
Jude also desires that we experience the peace of God. It is
because we are no longer the enemies of God, but the recipients
of his mercy that we have peace. Peace is not only the absence
of enmity but it is the positive and blessed state of
friendship. Friends of God: receive his peace.
Jude closes his prayer to God that we would experience the love
of God—that infinite and gracious self-giving of God to us. This
is that active giving on God’s part to us in which “he gave his
only Son” (John 3:16). This is that demonstration of God in that
“while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
People of God: receive his love.
Neglected, but so beneficial, Jude’s little epistle ends with
his prayer that you would deeply and intensely feel the Lord
“multiply” these blessings and benefits upon you day after day
until our Savior returns. These are “the riches of [Christ’s]
glory” (Eph. 3:16) that the gospel offers us this day. Do not
wait but receive his lavish abundance.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen!
Rev. Danny Hyde
Pastor
Oceanside United Reformed Church
Oceanside, CA
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