Jude 1:1-4
Contend for the Faith
1Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who are called, loved by God the Father, and kept in Jesus Christ:
2Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
3Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.
4For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed—ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Berean Standard Bible
Jude introduces himself twice over and neither time by rank. He is a servant of Jesus Christ, and he is a brother of James. Then he turns to the people he is writing to and gives them three things before he asks them for anything.
To those who are called, loved by God the Father, and kept in Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Called, loved and kept are all things done to them rather than things they managed. Nobody on that list earned his place on it. Then multiplied, which is not a word for a small increase.
Verse 3 is where the letter turns. Jude lets his readers watch it turn instead of quietly changing course on them.
Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.
He had a letter planned and he did not write it. Something arrived that made the pleasant subject impossible, and he says so rather than hiding the change of plan. What he asks for instead is contending, which is a word for effort against resistance, and he attaches two things to the faith they are to contend for. It was entrusted, so it belongs to somebody else and they are holding it for him. And it was given once for all, so it is not being added to.
Then the reason, in verse 4. Certain men have crept in among you unnoticed. Crept in says how they got there and unnoticed says what nobody did about it, and between them the two words rule out an attack from outside the door. It is people already inside the room, and nobody saw them arrive.
Jude says two things about what they do with grace. They turn it into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude names both halves together. It is possible to take the kindest thing God has done and turn it into permission, and Jude treats that as the same movement as denying Christ rather than as a separate lesser problem.
So the letter opens with people who are called, loved and kept, and immediately tells them there is something to be defended. Jude holds the two together without apologizing for either. The security in verse 1 is not a reason to relax in verse 3.
Questions
1 Jude gives the people three descriptions in verse 1 before he asks them for anything. What are they?
AnswerCalled, loved by God the Father, and kept in Jesus Christ. All three are things done to them rather than things they achieved. He establishes what they already are before he says a word about what they should do, and that order matters for everything that follows.
2 Jude changed his mind about what to write. What was he going to write about, and what did he write instead?
AnswerHe had made every effort to write about the salvation they share, and instead he wrote to urge them to contend earnestly for the faith. Something had come up that made the happier letter impossible, and he tells them plainly that the letter changed rather than pretending this was the plan.
3 Jude says the faith was entrusted once for all. What does each of those add?
AnswerEntrusted means it belongs to somebody else and they are looking after it, so it is not theirs to reshape. Once for all means the handing over is finished and nothing is being added to it later.
4 In verse 4, how did the trouble get in?
AnswerIt crept in unnoticed. These are men already inside the group rather than opponents outside it, and nobody saw them arrive. That is why Jude has to write at all, and it is why the warning goes to the whole church rather than to a gatekeeper.
What This Means for Us
Jude puts the security first and the work second, and he does not treat the two as a tension he has to manage. Verse 1 says they are called and loved and kept, and none of that is their doing. Verse 3 asks them to contend. A family that only hears the first half gets comfortable, and a family that only hears the second half gets tired, and Jude gives them both in three verses.
So each person names one thing they believe that they have never had to defend, and we say who is keeping us while we hold it.
Prayer
Father, you called us and you love us and you keep us, and we did none of that ourselves. Thank you for a faith handed over whole rather than one we have to invent. Give this family the nerve to hold it and the humility to remember it is not ours, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.