Jude is a relatively short epistle but so much meaningful and impact. If you were to look through the whole letter, you would noticed that there are 4 groups of people (marked these 4 groups of people in different colours) and these are to be noted about the 4 groups.
(i) Jude - who is the the brother of James and half brother of Jesus ( Why half? I always thought that it was because father Joseph passed away but no, it is because Jesus was conceived by Holy Spirit, hence half-brother!). He referred himself as a bond-servant of Jesus and the meaning of of bond-servant is one who volunteers himself willingly to be a servant. The Greek word for this is Doulos (yes, like the name of the ship!)
Why is he writing this letter? Because it was an appeal the the CBK (second group of people) to fight for their faith. against the ungodly people
(ii) CBK - the recipents of the letter - the people who are Called Beloved in God, the Father and Kept for Jesus Christ. The CBKs are the ones who are receiving multiplication of mercy, peace and love from God.
(iii) the ungodly ("UG) - who has crept into the group of CBK. Jude was warning the CBKs to be careful of UG by comparing the UG with the Israelites who escape Egypt but did not make it to the Promised Land (do you know how many people actually managed to make it), Cain, Balaam and Korah.
(iv) the others - those that have doubts, those to be snatch out of fire and those to be given mercy.
What impacted me the most is that not all Christians will go to heaven and that made me worry about my own salvation. I like what someone said before - Christians are saved by grace to do good works. Being saved does not give us a license to continue sinning but we must bear in mind that we are still living in this imperfect world. We must hold on to our faith in Jesus Christ until we see Him.
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