The Book of Jude is a short letter. But Jude is not so easy to understand. Jude wrote the letter. He was a brother of James and a brother of Jesus. Jude wrote to people that knew many things about the Old Testament* part of the Bible. They also knew many of the stories that the Jews* told about their history. So, if you do not know these stories, Jude can be hard to understand.

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Jude wrote this letter to warn people. False teachers had come into the church*. These people were saying things that were not true. But they were very clever. They were able to fool many people. They said many new and interesting things. But Jude said that the people must not listen to them. They were like many false teachers in the old days. They said things that were not true. They did things that did not please God. And they did not listen to the words that the disciples* taught. They said that their words had authority. But they did not follow God’s word that he gave to the apostles*.

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Jude said many hard things against these teachers. [1] Jude said that they were very dangerous. They denied Jesus was Lord*. [2] They would fool people. They would lead people down the wrong path. These men refused all authority but their own. They lived bad lives. They were like Cain. He did not listen to God’s warning to him. [3] They only served God to make money. And God would punish these men. He would punish them like he punished Israel*. [4] He would punish them as he punished the angels* [5] who turned away.

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Jude wanted God’s people to be strong. They must grow to know more about their faith*. They must keep loving God. And they must rest in the hope* that Jesus would return.

 

[1] Jude 4

[2] Jude 5; see Numbers 14:11; 20:12

[3] Jude 11, 17

[4] Genesis 4:6-12

[5] Jude 6