Your prompt for JusJoJan January 19th, 2025 is “why.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

I learned so much this morning as I opened the book of Jude and listened afterward to the Verse-by-Verse ministry of verses 1-3!

Why, for instance did we learn his name as Jude instead of Judah or Judas? Well, because early religious scholars did not want him, a half- brother of Jesus-to be associated with Judas Escariat.

Jesus had two half-brothers, James and Jude, however, Jude is one of the lesser known books in the New Testament. Why?

Maybe because he was not an apostle.

How would you feel if the brother you’d grown up with, played with, ate with, and more was later revealed to be the creator of the entire Universe? “No wonder He was Mom’s favorite” you might say.

Jude never believed in Jesus or even knew who he really was until after His death and resurrection. Isn’t that wild?

Yet he learned so much from Jesus, that his book, which he wrote to be a warning about false teachers really should have been studied because you get more “bang for your buck” so to say than many of the longer books.

Why?

Well, it contains controversy, mystery, and invites wonder due to its frequent references to extra-Biblical material, its tone was definitely apocalyptic, yet he never attempts to explain future events in detail.

The letter is only 25 verses. Generations of Christians have ignored it, largely out of ignorance. He was writing to Jewish believers in the Diaspora; ten Greek cities outside of Palestine where Jews settled after Rome conquered the nation.

Our New Testament contains five letters written to these early Christians-Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter and Jude which make up the Jewish Epistles. Jude was speaking to these early believers who knew their history, and was the only book of the NT scripture sourced by someone who was not considered an Apostle.

However, the early church leaders accepted this authority considering it inspired by the word of God.

We also learn that Jude was a lover of triads; thoughts expressed in threes. His letter contains 14 triads in those 25 verses! Very poetic! I studied only verses 1-3 this morning, all which were triads!

For example:

Jude 1-2 says, Mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. So much is said in this one triad.

Why?

Mercy is what we receive from God when we become a believer. He forgives our past sins and has mercy on our souls. Once a believer, you can do nothing to fall out of favor with God. Your soul is saved. However, if you don’t obey God after you believe, your reward in heaven won’t be as great.

Peace. God gives us peace just knowing that our souls are safe. Peace of mind. A lightness of the heart. We can breathe easy.

Love, the greatest gift of all. The love of God is with you forever. Believers have this knowledge and want to share it with the world! We are to love our brothers and sisters as we love our parents or our spouse.

The main point of Jude’s letter was to contend for the faith. Fight for what you believe and against false teachers. This is known as the good fight.

I have so much more to learn from this book, but I wanted to share how much was impressed upon me in just three verses.

This is not your Sunday Message, but it could have been I suppose. It was my post for Just Jot it January though, and it turned out to be much longer than a jot.

Have a blessed and peaceful Sunday, ill be back a little later today.