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Articles
Jude's Priority
Jude was very diligent to write to the brethren concerning the common salvation (not
common in the sense of the ordinary, but common as it was shared by all the saints).
This salvation is great (Heb. 2:1-4), being eternal in scope and being effected by the
sacrificial death of the Son of God (Heb. 5:5-9; 2:9, 10). By His death we are delivered
from the bondage of sin with its consequence of eternal punishment (Heb. 2: 14-18; Mark 3:29;
Jude 7). Thus it became the priority of Jude and the rest of the writers of the New
Testament to proclaim the gospel and to make known all things which we have been
commanded by God to do (Acts 10:33; 20:27; Matt. 28:20; Eph. 4:15).
Some have said that Jude changed the subject matter of his letter from what he had
planned to write; however, when one warns of those things which are dangerous to our
faith in the faith, he is teaching of the common salvation. Jesus certainly preached the
gospel of our salvation, and in His teaching He warned of all sorts of dangers that we
must avoid. Look at the teaching in Matthew 5,6,7 to see instruction, correction, rebuke,
and exhortation. All that Jude wrote is "concerning the common salvation" (Jude 3).
Surely warnings are one of the priorities in teaching others concerning their salvation.
Even John the Baptizer was a warner (Luke 3:3-18).
Jude's purpose was to help his readers who had been sanctified to remain a pure, holy,
and separate people. In order to remain thus, it was necessary for them to perceive the
dangers that would cause them to make shipwreck of their faith (Jude 4,5). Jesus and
Paul also taught in the same manner, as did the rest of the Apostles of Christ (Matt. 16:6;
Mark 12:35; Philippians 3:2; Col. 3:8; 2 Peter 3:17,18).
Jude taught us to watch out for false teachers (Jude 4). He then gave several specific
characteristics of those false teachers (Jude 5, 10-12, 16, 18, 19). Some "Christians" in
our day raise their voices in protest against this kind of teaching, yet many of them are
ignorant of the dangers surrounding us, and many have fallen into the snares of the devil.
Jude describes in specific terms the errors of "certain men": licentious, immoral, proud
(despise authority), evil speaking, greedy, without proper fear, self-serving, murmuring,
complaining, boasting, flattering, mocking, sensual, divisive, lacking the Spirit (Jude 4-19).
We cannot serve God and mammon (Luke 16:13). We cannot expect all false
teachers to be found outside the church. They are tares in the wheat (Matt. 13 :25-43).
They "rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves"
(Acts 20:29, 30). They are sometimes wolves in sheep's clothing (Matt.7:15); they
sometimes appear as ministers of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11: 12-15). By their
words and by their fruits we can know them (Matt. 7: 16-20; Romans 16: 17; Colossians 2:22;
1 Timothy 4:1, Hebrews 13:9).
Our concluding questions are these: do we have the same priority that Jude had, and
do we appreciate the teaching of the warnings in specific terms that the Scriptures use?
Surely we are not so blinded to sin that we think that the dangers are all past.
Author: Gilbert Alexander
