New Testament – General Epistles – 7 Books

Here’s another chant: James!  1^st & 2^nd Peter!  1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd John!  Jude!

These epistles are called “general” because they are not addressed to any particular local churches or individuals, but to the Church universal. Also sometimes referred to as the “catholic” epistles, which means universal. Practical instruction for the mostly Jewish Christians who were dispersed throughout the world.

The writers of these general epistles were men who had known Jesus intimately. Peter and John were among the first to leave their livelihood behind and accompany Jesus in His earthly ministry. They were with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, at His crucifixion, at His resurrection and ascension. All four of these men were assembled with the crowd in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, when the Church was born. James and Jude were Jesus’ own human half-brothers, sons of Mary and Joseph. It is plain from the gospels that they didn’t understand Jesus’ Messiahship until after His resurrection, but after that event they became believers and leaders in the Church. These people knew the Lord, spiritually, as we do, but also in His humanity as friends and family members.

James is believed to be the earliest of the epistles addressed to Jewish Christians. It stresses the practical ethics of the Christian life and is less concerned with theology than Paul’s writings are. James gives the characteristics of Christian growth to maturity:  patience in testing, practice of the truth (faith), control of the tongue, becoming peacemakers, prayerfulness in trouble. Such characteristics demonstrate the faith of the believer as he grows in grace, developing wisdom, which is the ability to see life from God’s perspective. We don’t have to do it alone, indeed we cannot:

James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

James shows that if the believer is not demonstrating growth, his faith is unproductive (“dead” James 2:26) and unrecognizable to others.

1^st Peter was written to “aliens, scattered” or, literally, “the sojourners of the dispersion.” These believers were suffering as they lived faithfully in a pagan and hostile society. They were persecuted: slandered, ostracized and oppressed because they believed in Jesus Christ. Peter reminds them and us exactly Whose we are and how we should conduct ourselves among the unbelievers:

I Peter 2:9 “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

2^nd Peter teaches that the Christian’s confident assurance is based on the knowledge of our Lord. Our protection against false teachers is familiarity with the written Word of God.

2 Peter 3:17-18 “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

The Apostle John wrote 5 books in the New Testament: John’s Gospel, 1^{st, 2nd} and 3^rd John and Revelation. He had lived very close to Jesus in His incarnation and ministry. He also outlived all the other apostles. That must have given him a lot of time to reflect on the Person and Work of our Lord and to think about the doctrines of the Church.

1^st John was written to believers about our position IN CHRIST. We are members of God’s family. We have fellowship with one another through our fellowship with the Father and the Son. John shows that the method of remaining in fellowship with the Father and Son is to keep a close watch on our tendency toward personal sins. Fellowship means a common sharing of faith and love. Though the believer’s position is IN CHRIST forever, when we do commit personal sins it breaks our temporal fellowship with God. God knew we would always have the Old Sin Nature as long as we lived in the flesh, so He made a way for our daily cleansing from personal sins, through the continual application of the Blood of Christ, which has paid that penalty in full:

I John 1:7-9 “But if we (believers) walk in the light (knowledge of God), as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us (continues to cleanse us) from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess (homologeo – admit, name to God) our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

This is not renewed salvation, for we cannot lose our salvation once we are IN CHRIST. It is a renewal of our fellowship with the Father, as that of a disciplined child who acknowledges his father’s authority and his father’s perfect love.

2^nd John is about walking in Christ’s commandments and rejecting false teachers.

2 John 8-9 “ Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”

3^rd John encourages hospitality to traveling teachers and rebukes those who have shunned them, as the teachers go about delivering the message of Jesus Christ.

3 John 7-8 “For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”

Jude, like 2^nd & 3^rd John, consists of just one short chapter, but it really packs a punch. Even in the earliest years of the Church, false teachers were infiltrating with their Gnosticism, embellishing the truth with their mysticism and outright lies; confusing with their legalistic arguments (“debaters”). I don’t like debaters about Biblical truth. God’s Word is written. It is simple enough for common people to read and understand; it is straightforward in its presentation of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. Anyone who twists and complicates God’s Perfect Plan into something weird and esoteric is a false teacher with the intention of snaring emotional and spiritually immature believers in a satanic trap.

Jude tells us that those false teachers can expect the same fate as the demonic infiltrators of Genesis chapter 6:

Jude 8 “Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.”

And Jude gives us this magnificent benediction to the Savior and Keeper of our souls:

Jude 24-25 “ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,  to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

And amen. 

Introduction to Jude

Having just studied the apostle Peter's urgent warnings about the false teachers infiltrating the early Church, it seems appropriate to me that we visit Jude's teaching on the same subject. These early New Testament pastors were deeply concerned about this issue, and it hasn't gone away. Therefore, we modern Christians need to be aware of the danger lurking, as well. These wolves are often obvious to the Bible student, but not always. Some of them can be quite subtle and quite attractive to those who admire their style of delivery. LWD

THE BOOK OF JUDE

Fight! Contend! Do battle! When apostasy arises, when false teachers emerge, when the truth of God is attacked, it is time to fight for the faith. Only believers who are spiritually “in shape” can answer the summons. At the beginning of his letter, Jude focuses on the believers’ common salvation, but then feels compelled to challenge them to contend for the faith. The danger is real. False teachers have crept into the church, turning God’s grace into unbounded license to do as they please. Jude reminds such men of God’s past dealings with unbelieving Israel, disobedient angels, and wicked Sodom and Gomorrah. In the face of such danger, Christians should not be caught off guard. The challenge is great, but so is the God who is able to keep them from stumbling. The Greek title Iouda, “Of Jude, ” comes from the name Ioudas which appears in verse 1. This name, which can be translated “Jude” or “Judas, ” was popular in the first centurybecause of Judas Maccabaeus (died 160 B.C.), a leader of the Jewish resistance against Syria during the Maccabean revolt.

THE AUTHOR OF JUDE

 In spite of its limited subject matter and size, Jude was accepted as authentic and quoted by early church fathers. There may be some older allusions, but undisputed references to this epistle appear in the last quarter of the second century. It was included in the Muratorian Canon (c. A.D. 170) and accepted as part of Scripture by early leaders, such as Tertullian and Origen. Nevertheless, doubts arose concerning the place of Jude in the canon because of its use of the Apocrypha. It was a disputed book in some parts of the church, but it eventually won universal recognition. The author identifies himself as “a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James” (v. 1). This designation, combined with the reference in verse 17 to the apostles, makes it unlikely that this is the apostle Jude, called “Judas the son of James” in Luke 6:16 and in Acts 1:13. This leaves the traditional view that Jude was one of the Lord’s brothers, called Judas in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 (see “The Author of James”). His older brother James (note his position on the two lists) was the famous leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts15:13–21) and author of the epistle that bears his name. Like his brothers, Jude did not believe in Jesus before the Resurrection (John 7:1–9; Acts 1:14). The only other biblical allusion to him is in 1 Corinthians 9:5 where it is recorded that “the brothers of the Lord” took their wives along on their missionary journeys (the Judas of Acts 15:22, 32 may be another reference to him). Extrabiblical tradition adds nothing to our limited knowledge of Jude.

THE TIME OF JUDE

 Jude’s general address does not mark out any particular circle of readers, and there are no geographical restrictions. Nevertheless, he probably had in mind a specific region that was being troubled by false teachers. There is not enough information in the epistle to settle the question of whether his readers were predominately Jewish or Gentile Christians (there is probably a mixture of both). In any case, the progress of the faith in their region was threatened by a number of apostates who rejected Christ in practice and principle. These proud libertines were especially dangerous because of their deceptive flattery (v. 16) and infiltration of Christian meetings (v. 12). They perverted the grace of God (v. 4) and caused divisions in the church (v. 19).

Jude’s description of these heretics is reminiscent of that found in 2 Peter and leads to the issue of the relationship between the two epistles (see “The Author of 2 Peter”). The strong similarity between 2 Peter 2:1–3:4 and Jude 4–18 can hardly be coincidental, but the equally obvious differences rule out the possibility that one is a mere copy of the other. It is also doubtful that both authors independently drew from an unknown third source, so the two remaining options are that Peter used Jude or Jude used Peter. Both views have their advocates, and a number of arguments have been raised in support of either side. But two arguments for the priority of 2 Peter are so strong that they tip the scales in favor of this position: (1) A comparison of the two books shows that 2 Peter anticipates the future rise of apostate teachers (2 Pet. 2:1, 2; 3:3) while Jude records the historical fulfillment of Peter’s words (Jude 4, 11, 12, 17, 18); (2) Jude directly quotes 2 Peter 3:3 and acknowledges it as a quotation from the apostles (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1). Because of the silence of the New Testament and tradition concerning Jude’s later years, we cannot know where this epistle was written. Nor is there any way to be certain of its date. Assuming the priority of 2 Peter (A.D. 64–66), the probable range is A.D. 66–80. (Jude’s silence concerning the destruction of Jerusalem does not prove that he wrote this letter before A.D. 70.)

Nelson, Thomas (2006-04-11). Open Bible, NKJV (Kindle Locations 123903-123918). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition