Hey Jude
Jude had me at Beloved!
Have you ever had a relationship with someone in your life that caused you to stumble in your walk with Christ? Hate to admit it…but I have.
Jude (half brother to Jesus) wrote a tiny little letter to people he referred to repeatedly as “beloved”. Oh and good luck finding Jude in your Bible…his letter is the tiny one between John’s 3 epistles and Revelation. He wrote it so his beloved friends would realize that some ungodly people were creeping into their lives.
Oh Jude – I have totally been here. I once was entangled with a person who had “crept” into my life under the guise of being a friend and believer. This person used me and many other people to advance their own cause and we had fallen victim to their lies. How could I have avoided this?
Jude advises his friends to build themselves up in the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit (v. 20). If I had been in this state of mind when dealing with this person, I would have had better discernment about the whole situation.
I love how Jude appeals to his beloved to “contend earnestly for the faith” in verse 3. Contend is a strong word…it means to fight and struggle with difficulty and danger. That doesn’t mean we beat people over the head with our large print KJVs. But it does mean our faith is worth defending. It was “handed down to the saints” as Jude says and paid for by the life of Jesus Christ.
Our friend Jude ends with a beautiful declaration of how we can STAND and not STUMBLE when these ungodly people creep into our lives.
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 24-25