Jude 1;1-2 (ESV)
“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Biblical epistles are simply letters written either to an individual, a group of people, or to a church/churches. They follow the letter writing conventions of the ancient Greco-Roman period where you have the sender, the recipient, a conferring of blessing, and then the maim body of the letter. In our passage today, we can clearly see these – Jude introduces Himself; he mentions the recipient of his letter (those who are called, beloved, and kept). He then confers a blessing to his recipient – mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you. After this, he goes on to the body of his letter.
From this simple introductory lines in the book of Jude, we can discover that the Scriptures have much to offer. First, notice that he identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother to James. Jesus was in a very real sense his brother, but Jude at this point recognises the supremacy of Jesus and he can best see himself as a servant of Jesus, and gladly so.
Secondly, Jude describes his recipient as called, beloved, and kept in Christ Jesus. This points to the state of the Christian – they are called by God, they are loved by God, and they are kept in Christ. This latter one is extremely crucial as it is repeated couple of times within the letter. (Look out for repeated words, phrases, ideas). If I was then to summarise the book of Jude just based on this observation, I would do that in three points:
– The believer is kept by Christ (verse 2)
– The believer should keep themselves in God’s love (verse 21)
– The believer will be kept from stumbling (verse 24)
What a glorious truth that although I have a responsibility as a believer to not veer off, God does the bulk of the work of keeping me.
Only two verses in and there is so much that we can learn from the book of Jude. And that is how we should approach all the other Biblical epistles. Even a simple greeting could nourish our souls for days.
Reflections
1. Which is your favourite Biblical epistle?
2. What other lessons can youlearn from the book of Jude?
3. How does this knowledge change your reading ?
