Jude 1

1. 1:1

   Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, to those who are called, beloved by God the Father and kept safe in Jesus Christ:

   Being kept safe in Christ isn’t that comforting when you realize his entire organization peaked at 12 members, and one of them quit.

   Jude describes believers as being "kept safe in Jesus Christ." Given that most of the early disciples faced intense challenges of various sorts, what does "safety" mean in a Christian context if it doesn't mean physical protection from harm?

2. 1:2

   May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

   It’d be better if they were square-rooted.

   The greeting prays for mercy, peace, and love to be "multiplied." What does the mathematical concept of multiplication imply about how God intends for these virtues to spread through a community, compared to just adding them one by one?

3. 1:3

   Dear friends, while I was eager to write to you about our shared salvation, I found it necessary instead to urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.

   So Jude had his memo ready to go, but then there was breaking news on GoHeretical.com.

   Jude admits he had to completely pivot his writing strategy from a positive message about shared salvation to an urgent warning to "contend for the faith." How should modern leaders decide when it is time to pivot from encouraging their people to actively confronting a crisis?

4. 1:4

   For certain individuals have slipped in among you unnoticed, people who long ago were marked for condemnation—ungodly ones who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

   So, Unitarians.

   Jude warns about certain individuals who slip into the community unnoticed and pervert the faith from the inside. What types of people or movements do you think represent that kind of subtle threat to church communities today?

5. 1:5

   Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that Jesus, having once delivered his people out of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe.

   Jesus, of course, wasn’t around when God saved his people from slavery in Egypt. So this verse probably refers to that time Jesus bailed Peter and James out of jail in Cairo.

   Jude explicitly credits Jesus with delivering the Israelites from Egypt, even though Jesus does not appear by name in the Old Testament. How do we make theological sense of Jude’s idea?

Rest of the chapter coming soon.