The Truth War (11 page)

So understanding Jude's true identity and his familial relationship to Christ gives us an interesting insight into the character of this man and what fueled his passion for defending the truth. His own experience—nearly being led astray by giving too much credence to popular opinion—certainly explains the intensity of his own zeal as a mature warrior for the truth.

A final reason for identifying Jude as Jesus' half brother is found in the sheer paucity of information Jude finds it necessary to give about himself. He and his family were apparently quite well-known in the early church, because even though he claims no title and cites no personal credentials, he requires little introduction. It was sufficient to identify himself in verse 1 simply as “a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James.” Since there was no better-known James in the early church, and since no other brothers named “James” and “Jude” (or “Judas”) are ever mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, the conclusion seems inescapable that “Jude . . . brother of James” is the same “Judas” named twice in the Gospels as a half brother of Christ.

How amazing that two of Jesus' own earthly brothers were used by the Spirit of God to write New Testament books. Neither was an apostle, but their work was recognized by the apostles and the early church as divinely inspired. And these epistles were both inspired and preserved by the Spirit of God and handed down to us as part of the New Testament canon.

AS A YOUNG MAN,
JUDE APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN
CONFUSED BY THE FIERCE
OPPOSITION TO JESUS, AND
AT FIRST HE HIMSELF WAS
SWEPT UP IN SKEPTICISM.
JOHN 7:5 SAYS THAT DURING
JESUS' EARTHLY MINISTRY,
“EVEN HIS BROTHERS DID
NOT BELIEVE IN HIM.”
LATER, OF COURSE, JUDE
DID
BELIEVE. BUT AT FIRST,
HE SEEMS TO HAVE
FOLLOWED THE CROWD IN
THEIR REJECTION OF
JESUS' AUTHORITY

Jude's humble identification of himself as “a bondservant of Jesus Christ” tells us a lot about this man. In Jude's own mind, whatever earthly connection he had with Jesus as a half brother by blood, and whatever personal relationship he had with Jesus as a close family member and younger brother, everything earthly gave way to a much more profound spiritual and heavenly relationship, in which Jude regarded Jesus as sovereign Lord and divine Master over his life.

That is particularly fascinating when we reflect on the earlier unbelief of Jude and his brothers (John 7:5). Apparently,
all
Jesus' unbelieving siblings became believers after the Resurrection. These two, James and Jude, clearly became influential church leaders. And although Jesus' other siblings are not mentioned by name outside the Gospels, they likewise must have been eyewitnesses to the Resurrection. Acts 1:14 strongly implies that they all became believers, because it says, “Mary the mother of Jesus,
and . . . His
brothers
” (emphasis added) were together with the apostles, all praying in one accord in the Upper Room just prior to Pentecost.

Since a mere forty days elapsed between Jesus' crucifixion (on Passover) and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, it appears Jesus' earthly siblings came to saving faith after He died for them.

Jude must have been deeply humbled by his earlier unbelief, and he certainly would have been in awe of the reality that his eldest half brother was actually the incarnate Son of God, who died for Jude's sin and unbelief and then rose triumphantly from the dead. That event evidently changed Jude's whole perception of Jesus and who He was. He no longer thought of Him as a mere brother. Thus Jude simply refers to himself as “a bondservant of Jesus Christ”—and mentions that he is brother to James.

A SUDDEN CHANGE OF AGENDA

Although we are nowhere given the details of Jude's conversion or experience as a believer, by the time he penned his famous epistle, it was clear that he had become a respected voice of authority among the saints and an effective warrior for the truth. He doesn't identify his original audience. It could be a single church or a group of churches. He seems to have had Jewish believers predominantly in mind, as the epistle is full of Old Testament imagery. But there are no other solid clues about the original recipients of this epistle. Moreover, Jude wastes no time in the introduction establishing or defending his own credentials. It is plain to see that he was already well-known and highly regarded by the people to whom he wrote.

And Jude likewise knew them well. He was certain of their calling (v. 1). He gave them a warm but very brief blessing of “Mercy, peace, and love” (v. 2). He called them “Beloved” (v. 3). He wrote as a familiar friend and spiritual mentor.

But Jude also wrote with a tone that is as urgent as the epistle is brief. Verses 3–4 explain the gravity of the issues that compelled Jude to write. He had initially intended to write an edifying message of comfort and encouragement about the salvation all believers enjoy. But he was dissuaded from that goal before he even began to write: “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. 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 lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (vv. 3–4).

The apostle Paul began his epistle to the Galatians with a similar note of urgency and solemnity, foregoing the gracious words of commendation that were an essential part of Paul's normal pattern. Even when he wrote to the problem-filled church at Corinth, Paul had words of approval and appreciation for them (see, for example, 1 Corinthians 1:4–9 and 2 Corinthians 1:7). But the great apostle completely omitted any note of encouragement when he wrote to the Galatians. Hardly a word of endorsement or praise for them can be found anywhere in the entire epistle. Instead, he pronounced a somber double curse against false teachers in their midst (Galatians 1:8–9). The opening nine verses of Galatians seem designed to leave readers shaken and breathless, and thereby to jolt them away from the false teachers' seductive influence.

Jude is driven by similar concerns, and he likewise hurries to the point. In some ways, the opening verses of Jude are even more abrupt than Galatians 1. Verses 3–4 constitute one of the most compelling and sobering introductions to any epistle in the New Testament. Think of it: Jude is saying that he sat down to write a positive, encouraging epistle celebrating the joys of salvation, but—grasping the current urgency and willingly following the Holy Spirit's sovereign control and inspiration—he was compelled to write something other than he had intended. His letter thus became a short, strongly worded warning urging them to fight for the faith.

WE SOMETIMES TEND
TO THINK OF THE EARLY
CHURCH AS PRISTINE, PURE,
AND UNTROUBLED BY
SERIOUS ERROR. THE TRUTH
IS, IT WASN'T THAT WAY
AT ALL. FROM THE VERY
BEGINNING, THE ENEMIES
OF TRUTH LAUNCHED AN
EFFORT TO INFILTRATE AND
CONFUSE THE PEOPLE OF
GOD BY MANGLING THE
TRUTH AND BY BLENDING
LIES WITH CHRISTIAN
DOCTRINE. ATTACKS
AGAINST THE TRUTH
REGULARLY CAME NOT
ONLY FROM PERSECUTORS
ON THE OUTSIDE BUT ALSO
FROM FALSE TEACHERS
AND PROFESSING
BELIEVERS WITHIN THE
VISIBLE COMMUNITY
OF THE CHURCH.

What do you suppose happened to make Jude change the tone and substance of what he wrote? Jude doesn't say. Perhaps before he got started writing, he received information from somewhere—a report, a letter, or an eyewitness account telling him of a threat to the spiritual well-being of this flock. Or it could simply be that the Lord supernaturally revealed something to him that prompted this change in the message.

Whatever the case, the Holy Spirit compelled Jude to take up an issue he had not planned to address. The glorious salvation about which Jude had planned to write was in danger of being severely compromised unless the church rose to the occasion of fighting for the gospel.

So what evidently started out as a warm, friendly attempt to offer comfort and encouragement turned out instead to be a shrill call to arms. The whole epistle is a war cry that applies to all believers in all ages. Jude urges us to join the Truth War and side with the Lord.

Does it amaze you to think this was necessary even in the days of the apostles? We sometimes tend to think of the early church as pristine, pure, and untroubled by serious error. The truth is, it wasn't that way at all. From the very beginning, the enemies of truth launched an effort to infiltrate and confuse the people of God by mangling the truth and by blending lies with Christian doctrine. Attacks against the truth regularly came not only from persecutors on the outside but also from false teachers and professing believers within the visible community of the church. Satan's strategy of placing his ministers within the church to sow bad doctrine was proving dangerously effective even while the New Testament was still being written (2 Corinthians 11:14–15).

Incidentally, Jude's epistle contains a nearly exact repetition of the words of the apostle Peter in 2 Peter 2:1–3:4, which had almost certainly already been written and circulated. In fact, we're drawn to the conclusion that 2 Peter was written before Jude because Jude 18 quotes 2 Peter 3:3, and in verse 17, Jude expressly acknowledges that it was from an apostle. Also, 2 Peter 2:1–2 and 3:3 anticipate the coming of false teachers; Jude expressly states that “certain men
have
crept in unnoticed” (v. 4, emphasis added; cf. 11–12, 17–18).

So false teachers had already infiltrated the church. They were at that moment safely ensconced in the community of believers. They were being accepted as fellow believers, and their poisonous false teaching was spreading in the church. Jude urged believers to oppose them rather than embrace them. The life of the church depended on it.

STEALTH APOSTASY

False teaching by deceptive spiritual terrorists infiltrating the church has always plagued the church. Whether they are conscious of it or not, false teachers are satanic missionaries sent to produce more apostates. Satan's design is to lead people who have been exposed to the gospel away from it into damning error. There are always people in and around the church who have heard the truth and understood it but who have not yet embraced it and committed to it savingly. They can be led to reject it, and that is exactly what the evil one hopes to accomplish.

This problem was not unique to the congregation Jude was addressing. Apostasy is a familiar theme in Scripture. Jude is the only book of the Bible solely devoted to the subject (thus highlighting the urgency of Jude's message). But many of the New Testament epistles have quite a lot to say about the dangers of apostasy and false doctrine. This was clearly a major, widespread problem from the very earliest days of church history. Several of the Epistles—in particular Hebrews, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 2 and 3 John—were prompted in part or in whole by the need to address the errors of various false teachers who were leading people astray.

This was not unexpected, of course. Jesus Himself told a familiar parable illustrating how easily some people fall away from truth into apostasy. The parable of the soils is found in Matthew 13 and Luke 8, and it pictures God's Word as seed being sown in four types of soils: hard soil, shallow soil, weedy soil, and good soil. The soils represent human hearts in various stages of receptivity. Jesus explained the symbolism of the parable in Luke 8:11–15:

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”

Notice: three of the four soils picture people who hear the Word and turn away. Some (the hard-soil hearers) turn away almost immediately because “the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.” They are careless hearers—heedless, spiritually unresponsive people upon whom the Word of God has no lasting effect.

Others (the weedy-soil hearers) may show early signs of life but never bear any fruit because, before the Word of God can bear fruit in their lives, worldly desires choke the life out of any spiritual interests these people ever had. They may appear to grow and thrive for a time, but they never really experience conversion (which is the first and most essential “fruit” alluded to in this parable). And in the end, they fall away. As long as these worldly, superficial hearers identify with the people of God, they are a threat to the spiritual well-being of the church.

But the greatest threat of all comes from the shallow-soil hearers. They “receive the word with joy; [but they] have no root. [They] believe for a while [but] in time of temptation fall away.” Their initial response to the gospel is all positive—even enthusiastically so. They give every appearance of genuine life and viability. But “these have no root,” and therefore their “faith” cannot last. It will never bear any true spiritual fruit because it isn't even real faith. Such people “believe for a while” only in the most cursory sense: they hear the truth, understand the truth, and superficially affirm the truth. But because they have no root, they will never produce authentic fruit.

Jude 12 actually borrows from the exact same imagery as the parable of the soils, describing apostates as “autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots.” These superficial “saints” are actually rootless, fruitless, and dead. So they inevitably fall away.