Craig T. Owens

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Jude calls Christians to contend for the faith without contention and without compromising the truth. Last week we learned that one of the first disciplines to help us do this is: Study God’s Word and then study it some more. 

What do we mean by using the word “study”? 

Paul counsels his friend and protege to study God’s Word (see 2 Timothy 2:15 in the KJV). But the word study (Greek: spoude) simply means diligence aimed at a goal. So what’s the goal? To contending for the truth (2 Timothy 2:14-18, 22-26). Jude is addressing a similar issue ( see Jude 4).

(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)

Just as Paul told Timothy to stick with “the Word of truth,” Jude says we need to be reminded of God’s Word (Jude 5). 

Jude is writing to people who probably have first hand—maybe even eyewitness experience—knowledge. They have either heard it from someone who was right there, or perhaps from a friend who heard it from someone who was there. And yet, certain godless men have already slipped in among you and are teaching lies. 

Jude goes back to Scripture (vv. 5-7): 

• Israelites delivered from Egypt rebelled against God and died in the wilderness 
• angels who were in God’s presence were expelled from heaven and await an eternity in hell 
• the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah experienced deliverance from Abraham but chose to debase themselves 

Jude says, “In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies” (v. 8) by changing “the grace of our God into a license for immorality” (v. 4). 

So we study the Scripture to apply it first to our own lives (James 1:22-25).  

Jude uses four examples of people who knew the Word of God intimately, but in their pride wouldn’t apply it to themselves: Lucifer, Cain, Balaam, and Korah (vv. 9-11).

1. The devil—pride is what turned Lucifer into satan. 
2. The way of Cain—God warned him about sin crouching at his door, but he ignored it.
3. Balaam’s error—he tried to calculate how close to disobeying he could get without actually disobeying because he wanted earthly rewards. 
4. Korah’s rebellion—the Greek word for “rebellion” is antilogia: literally anti + Logos, or contradicting the Word of God. 

Jesus warned the most learned men of His day against this (John 5:39-40) and we need to humbly receive God’s Word in order apply to our lives. 

If I don’t diligently study the Scripture, I cannot apply it to my life and I am doomed to repeat the same fatal errors. I must study God’s Word diligently so that it can change me. Only then may I teach others (1 Timothy 1:3-7). 

If you’ve missed any of the other messages in this series from the Book of Jude, you can find them all here. 

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