Happy to Be a Slave of a Great Master

Jude 1-2

Main Idea: Because of the mercy, peace, and love of God shown through Jesus Christ, Christians can rejoice in their status as the Lord’s servants.

1. Know Who You Are in Christ (1).
   1. You are purchased.
   2. You are called.
   3. You are loved.
   4. You are protected.
2. Know What You Have from Christ (2).
   1. Enjoy abundant mercy.
   2. Enjoy abundant peace.
   3. Enjoy abundant love.

I have, since I was a little boy, been a fan of Tarzan, especially the old black-and-white movies that starred the Olympic-gold-medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller. Altogether he appeared in twelve movies between 1932 and 1948. Throughout those movies fans experienced many occasions of anxiety and excitement as Tarzan faced and escaped danger. Nothing, however, stressed me out as much as when he, his wife Jane, and their son named “Boy” would take a swim. Why? Because there, lurking in the bushes along the shore, were deadly crocodiles that would slip into the water with the clear intent of doing serious bodily harm with extreme prejudice to Tarzan and those he loved. Fortunately, Tarzan was always smart enough and strong enough to save the day. Not once did he lose.

Tragically, the same cannot be said for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Far too often false teachers have slipped into the waters or, as Jude 4 says, “come in by stealth,” damaging and devastating and deceiving the body of Christ. To this danger Jude, the half brother of Jesus, gives his attention in this short, twenty-five-verse letter. Hoping to write a word of encouragement about “the salvation we share,” Jude is redirected by the Holy Spirit to bring a word of warning, calling all believers “to contend for the faith” (v. 3).

Jude’s strategy is well thought out and planned. Throughout the body of the letter, he will expose the false teachers for who they are, and he will prescribe a plan of attack that allows us to take the fight to these spiritual terrorists. However, he lays the foundation for the battle both at the beginning and at the end of the letter with a word about our security: we are safe in Christ (vv. 1,24). Such safety is possible for those who are happy to be a slave—a slave to a great Master, a slave to the King. And such safety is an ever-present reality for those who know who they are in Christ (v. 1) and know what they have in Christ (v. 2). Jude is Christ focused and gospel centered every step of the way as he makes his argument.

Know Who You Are in Christ

JUDE 1

Jude (lit. Judas or Judah) is immediately identified as the author of this short book. Five men bear this name in the New Testament, but this Jude makes clear his identity: he is a servant of Jesus Christ (a strong statement but not much help when it comes to identification!) and a brother of James. So Jude is the half brother of Jesus and the full brother of James. Four brothers of Jesus are noted in Matthew 13:55 (James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas). He may have been the youngest of the brothers; and like the rest of our Lord’s family, Jude did not believe in him during his earthly ministry (John 7:5). In fact, Mark 3:21 says they believed he was out of his mind, mentally unstable! However, the resurrection changed everything, and now Jude is glad to claim his brother as his Lord and Messiah. Indeed, his first affirmation of his new identity (and ours!) in Christ is striking.

You Are Purchased

Jude presents himself as “a servant of Jesus Christ” (lit. “of Jesus Christ a slave” [doulos, not diakonos]). “Of Jesus Christ” is brought to the front of the sentence for emphasis. His relationship is not one of a brother to a brother but of a slave to a master.

What it must have been like for him to grow up with Jesus (a perfect brother!) and now to follow and worship him! What humility Jude displays! But what an honor it was for him and is for us to be slaves to the King! First Corinthians 6:20 tells us we belong to him because we were “bought with a price.” First Peter 1:19 informs us “the precious blood of Christ” was used to purchase us. Therefore we are not our own; we belong to him, and Jude was happy to embrace his brother as his King.

You Are Called

Curtis Vaughan, the wonderful Greek scholar for many years at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, noted that “called,” which is actually the last word in verse 1 in the Greek text, is a substantive or verbal adjective and the participles “loved” and “kept” modify or refer to those who have been called (Vaughn and Lea, 1, 2 Peter, 209). So our calling is central to our identity in Christ.

Jude does not use the word “called” to mean “invited” (Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, 429). Here the word means the effectual calling of God that opens the heart to freely respond to the gospel. In Scripture there are two types of calling. There is a general call (see Matt 11:28-30), and there is an effectual call (see Rom 8:30). There is a mysterious wonder in this truth that the sovereign God effectually brings persons to salvation in perfect harmony with their freewill response to the gospel. There is a marvelous complementarity and mind-bending mystery.

Timothy George has well said,

God created human beings with free moral agency, and He does not violate this even in the supernatural work of regeneration. Christ does not rudely bludgeon His way into the human heart. He does not abrogate our creaturely freedom. No, He beckons and woos, He pleads and pursues, He waits and wins. (Amazing Grace, 86–87)

Those who have been called are on the receiving end of this wonderful wooing and precious pursuing.

You Are Loved

“Loved” is the preferred reading over “sanctified” (KJV, NKJV). Both “loved” and “kept” are in the perfect tense, affirming that both are settled realities for the Christian. The emphasis here is that we are loved—abidingly so—by the Father.

This is the only place in the Bible where this phrase “loved by God the Father” appears. There is a sense in which God loves all persons indiscriminately as his creatures (John 3:16), but there is also a sense in which God especially loves his children^[2] It is comparable to the difference between the love I have for my friends and that which I have for my wife and sons. For those who are in Christ, he is now our Father, and he loves us with a perfect and permanent Fatherly affection. This love is not whimsical, fleeting, or conditional. You can do nothing to make him love you more, and you can do nothing to make him love you less. No, as 1 John 4:10 beautifully puts it, “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

You Are Protected

Again, the word translated “kept” is in the perfect tense, and it is one of Jude’s favorite words. It appears in verse 1, twice in verse 6, and again in verses 13 and 21 (five times total). The word means “to protect, keep from harm, or preserve.” Here the emphasis is that we are kept safe in our salvation by Jesus Christ. Hebrews 7:25 links our eternal security to the intercessory prayer ministry of Jesus. Jude 24 says he will keep us from stumbling and will present us to the Father “without blemish and with great joy.”

Scripture’s witness on this crucial doctrine of God’s preserving work is clear: By his work on earth, Jesus obtained my salvation. By his work in heaven, Jesus maintains my salvation. God is preserving fallen angels and apostates for judgment (vv. 6,13). God is preserving you and me for glory!

Know What You Have from Christ

JUDE 2

Jude has a love for triads, or groupings of three. In verse 1 he told us we are called, loved, and preserved. Now in verse 2 he selects three of the abundant blessings that flow into the life of every single person who has trusted Jesus Christ for salvation. He wants mercy, peace, and love to be “multiplied,” or increased. Moo says he desires that we are “filled with” these Christian graces (2 Peter, Jude, 224).

Enjoy Abundant Mercy

Jude’s greeting is unique, with “mercy” leading the way. The word translated “mercy” (eleos) is found about six hundred times in the LXX and seventy-eight in the New Testament. It is a characteristic of God that moves him to seek a relationship with persons who have no right to be in relationship with him. The word speaks of compassion, lovingkindness (Hb chesed). It is gracious, undeserved, and unmerited; yet it is not blind, dumb, or ignorant. It is something in God that moves him to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves and we do not deserve.

In Romans 9:23 those who trust Christ are called objects of mercy. In Matthew 5:7 the merciful are told they will receive mercy. In Jude 21 we are told to look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 22 we are admonished to extend that same mercy to those who are doubting and in verse 23 to those who have been defiled and devastated by sin. We receive mercy, and we give mercy. We gladly give to others what we have received from Christ.

We enjoy from God what that certain man going down to Jericho received from the good Samaritan, who when he saw him beaten and left for dead had compassion and went into action (Luke 10:30-37). God saw us beaten by Satan and left for dead by sin; and he went into action and sent his Son, binding our wounds, healing our souls, and making us his own!

Enjoy Abundant Peace

The word for “peace” in Greek, eirene (occurring ninety-one times in the New Testament), cannot be separated from the Hebrew word shalom. Wholeness, completeness, prosperity, and success are just a few of the concepts that emanate from this word. In Judges 6:24 God is called “Yahweh-shalom,” informing us that God alone is the source of peace. In Isaiah 9:6-7 God’s coming Messiah is designated as the “Prince of Peace.”

Hartmut Beck and Colin Brown note that “shalom includes everything given by God in all areas of life. . . . Eirene, therefore, coming as it does from God, approximates closely to the idea of salvation” (“Peace,” 777). No wonder Paul can say in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here is our external peace.

Again in Philippians 4:6-7 Paul, while in prison, can write, “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Here is our internal peace.

And to all of this Moses can add in Numbers 6:24-26, “May the Lord bless you and protect you; may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” Here is our eternal peace.

God is the Lord of peace. Jesus is the Mediator of peace. We are the heirs of peace. Thus Jesus can say in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

Enjoy Abundant Love

Throughout this letter Jude reminds his readers that they are loved by God (vv. 1,2,3,17,20). God is ascribed many attributes in the Scriptures. He is directly said to be

• holy (Lev 11:44-45; 19:2; 1 Pet 1:16),
• spirit (John 4:24),
• light (1 John 1:5), and
• a consuming fire (Deut 4:24; Heb 12:29).

But the apostle John sums God’s character up as love when he says “God is love” (1 John 4:8,16), and Jude prays that his readers would see this love from God as ever real and ever increasing toward them. To say that God is love is to affirm that he always desires and seeks our highest good, even at great sacrifice to himself. C. H. Dodd says, “But to say, ‘God is love’ implies that all His activity is loving activity. If He creates, He creates in love; if He rules, He rules in love; if He judges, He judges in love” (Johannine Epistles, 110; emphasis original).

In John 17:23 we are told, amazingly, that as the Father has loved the Son so he has also loved us. In Romans 8:31-39 we are informed that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus. And in 1 Corinthians 13:8 Paul reminds us that because love is at the center of who our God is, it will never fail, never end! Jude knows the power of this love, and he wants his readers to know it as well.

Conclusion

What a joy to be a slave—a slave of a great Master, a King whose name is Jesus! He has purchased and called. He loves and protects. He showers his children with mercy and blesses them with peace. Because we are his, we have internal security in our hearts, external security in the world, and eternal security in heaven. Could anything be more wonderful than being a slave of such a great King?

Reflect and Discuss

1. What are some ways false teachers may “come in by stealth” and harm the church?
2. Why is it necessary to have assurance of our security in Christ before we attack spiritual threats to the church? What are the dangers of not having this security?
3. Why is it significant that Jude identifies himself specifically as a slave and not simply a servant?
4. How is it that believers are preserved in the Christian life? Can a Christian do anything to keep himself in the family of God?
5. What specific ways have you received mercy from the Lord? From other people?
6. What specific ways is the Lord leading you to show mercy to others?
7. How does shalom in the Old Testament relate to our salvation in Christ?
8. When have you experienced the peace that comes from knowing Christ as Lord and Savior?
9. Why can John say that God is love? How is it that all of God’s acts are loving?
10. Read all of Jude. How does the greeting relate to the rest of the book?