Jude

Jude is a single-chapter epistle of twenty-five verses written by Jude, 'the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James' -- traditionally identified as a brother of the Lord himself. Addressed broadly to those who are sanctified, preserved, and called, it is the last of the general epistles and sits just before Revelation. Jude says he had intended to write about 'the common salvation,' but news of trouble changed his plan: certain men had crept in unawares, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the Lord.

What follows is one of the most vivid warning passages in the New Testament. Jude stacks up examples of judgment -- unbelieving Israel in the wilderness, the angels who kept not their first estate, Sodom and Gomorrah -- and names the three ways of ruin: the way of Cain, the error of Balaam, and the gainsaying of Core. He piles image on image: spots in your feasts, clouds without water, trees twice dead, raging waves, wandering stars. He cites Michael the archangel's dispute over the body of Moses and Enoch's ancient prophecy that the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.

Jude matters because it refuses to let love for the faith go soft on error: believers must earnestly contend for the faith once delivered, build themselves up, pray in the Holy Ghost, keep themselves in God's love, and rescue others with compassion. Its closing doxology -- 'unto him that is able to keep you from falling' -- is among the most beloved in Scripture.