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Jude

"On some have compassion, making a distinction."

— Jude 22 Reading lensThe Reading LensEvery verse pulled to the top of a book is chosen by three questions: Where is God’s heart here? Who is He protecting? Who is being saved by the action? It marks the place where those answers come into clearest focus — a “look at this, in this book.”

About the Letter

Twenty-five verses, from a writer who identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James — which has been taken to mean a brother of Jesus.

He says outright that he intended to write about something else. He was making every effort to write about their common salvation, and found it necessary instead to write urging them to contend for the faith, because certain people had crept in unnoticed.

It is the most unusual short book in the canon for what it quotes: the dispute over the body of Moses, and an explicit citation of Enoch — neither of which is in the Hebrew Bible. It ends in one of the best-known doxologies in the New Testament.

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The Whole Letter

The change of subject and the reason for it. Three examples of judgment, and the archangel who would not pronounce a railing judgment even against the devil. The images — waterless clouds, autumn trees without fruit, wandering stars. The quotation from Enoch. Then: build yourselves up, keep yourselves in the love of God, and show mercy with discernment — and the doxology to him who is able to keep you from stumbling.

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