Meeting James and Jude

By Josh Ketchum 2012

I. Introduction
A. Similarities of James and Jude
1. Composed by biological brothers of Jesus.
2. Written to Jewish Christians
3. Both focused on faith. James is how faith to be lived out, and Jude is how faith to be defended.
B. Differences
1. James is larger with more themes, while Jude is a very short book that focuses only on one theme.
2. James is used more than the book of Jude.
II. James
A. Authorship:
1. Four men are James in the New Testament. But only two were authoritative: James the son of Zebedee and James the Lord’s half-
brother. The latter is the author of the book. Both external and internal evidences agree to his authorship.
2. He was a pillar of the church and spoke with authority; he listened to mission reports of Paul. He was known as James the
righteous or James the just.
3. He was stoned to death by the scribes and Pharisees in A.D. 62. Josephus recorded this account.
B. Address:
1. Jas. 1:1 the twelve tribes in the dispersion.
a. Jewish believers; they were poor and struggling with issues of life and social matters. They were exhorted to live out their
faith.
b. James was concerned that the world was getting to the church (Jas. 4:4; 1:27). The problem was not when the boat is in the
water; the problem was when the water is in the boat. The church ought to influence the world, but the world influenced the
church.
c. He spoke the truth in love. He rebuked yet he called them “brothers.”
C. Date:
1. Early date – 45 to 50 A.D.
2. Late date – 58 to 62 A.D.
D. Style:
1. The Proverbs of the New Testament. It has 50 short sayings.
2. He jumps from topic to topic.
a. He echoes many Old Testament law to his epistle especially form Leviticus 19.
b. He also put in his epistle the teachings of the Lord from the Sermon on the Mount.
3. This is how our lives should be. The Lord’s teachings should undergird everything we do. It should flow from our lips naturally and
shape our decisions.
a. Internalize the word of God to make it natural in our lives.
E. Outline:
1. Testing of Faith 1:1-18
a. Through Trials (2-4)
b. In Prayer (5-8)
c. By Poverty (9)
d. By Wealth (10-11)
e. By Temptation (12-18)
2. Characteristics of Faith 1:19-5:6
a. Controlled life (1:19-20)
b. Doers of the Word (1:21-27)
c. Shows no favoritism (2:1-13)
d. Displayed by works (2:14-26)
e. Controls the tongue (3:1-12)
f. Seeks heavenly wisdom (3:13-18)
g. Avoids worldliness (4:1-10)
h. Does not judge a brother (4:11-12)
i. Places trust in the Lord (4:13-17)
j. Avoids materialism (5:1-6)
3. Triumph of Faith 5:7-20
a. Integrity is preserved (7-11)
b. One depends in God (13-18)
c. Seek the way of sinner (19-20)
F. The church today is struggling at the same problems, and so the epistle is very timely. Do we really let faith impact the way we live for
daily basis?
III. Jude
Contending for the faith; someone preached 600 sermons from the book of Jude.
A. Authorship:
1. Jude was also written by the biological brother of our Lord. Jude is a short name for Judas.
2. He identified himself as the brother of James (1:1); he likely wanted to associate with the well-known James who was a leader in
the church.
B. Address:
1. Likely a Jewish audience. The book has a good amount of Old Testament and apocryphal Jewish knowledge.
2. Christians who needed to be warned regarding false teachers and encouraged to persevere in the faith (1:3).
a. Jude felt that the faith was in danger.
b. He addressed not in the highest literary skill of the Greek language, but rather the as a passionate prophet who wanted to get
across his message to his audience.
C. Date:
1. Difficult to be precise.
2. Somewhere in A.D. 60 to 80.
D. Stylistic and Composition Features:
1. Jude’s penchant for groups of three.
a. v. 1 – recipients: called, beloved, and are kept
b. v. 2 – salute: mercy, peace, and love
c. v. 8 – immorals: defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious one
d. v. 16 – grumblers and fault finders: follow sinful desire, loud-mouthed boasters, and show favoritism to gain advantage
e. v. 19
f. v. 25
2. He used illustrations as well in groups of three.
a. vv. 5-7 – Israel in the wilderness, rebellious angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah
b. v. 11 – way of Cain, Balaam’s error, and Korah’s rebellion
3. He used Old Testament and Jewish references:
 a. Israel in wilderness (v. 5)
b. Rebellious angels (v. 6)
c. Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 7)
d. Body of Moses (v. 9)
e. Way of Cain (v. 10)
f. Balaam’s error (v. 11)
g. Korah’s rebellion (v. 11)
h. Enoch (v. 14)
4. We cannot accurately understand the New Testament without a solid foundation of the Old Testament. The Old Testament is a first
source of illustration. Jude searched the Old Testament for powerful illustration to make powerful point for the present world.
5. Jewish Apocryphal books
a. Jude 14-15 (1 Enoch 1:9)
b. Jude 9 (possibly, the Assumption of Moses, we do not have the exact copy)
c. This doubted the inspiration of Jude’s work.
d. Jude is only validating what he is quoting. His citations do not validate their inspiration, nor invalidate his. Paul refers to
Jewish Midrash (1 Cor. 10:4), a heathen poet (Acts 17:28), and likely from an unknown source (2 Tim. 3:8).
e. We too also use novels, newspaper and movies, but we do not put a stamp of validation of their inspiration.
6. Common material with 2 Peter 2:1-3:3.
E. Jude’s Message: The church must contend for the true faith and people of faith must persevere by resisting false teachers.
1. The message is so timely for us today as the epistle of James. The world today needs proclaimer of the gospel to contend for the
faith.
2. We must preach not only general truth, but also general truth: church, baptism, moral issues.
3. We are called to and we are going to give account someday for it.
F. Outline:
1. Introduction and purpose 1-4
2. Denunciation of false teachers 5-16
3. Admonitions to faithful Christians 17-23
4. A closing doxology 24-25
(Kelcy pp. 169-170)
IV. Five timeless truths from both epistles:
A. James 4:6 “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas. 4:1-17; Jude 6, 8, 16).
B. James 1:16 “Do not be deceived” (Jude 4, 17-25).
C. James 2:18 “I will show you my faith by my works” (Jude 8-16).
D. James 2:13 “Mercy triumphs over judgment (Jude 22-23).
E. Jude 22 “Save others by snatching them out of the fire (Jas. 5:19-20).

Rizaldy M. Ferrer
Feb. 8, 2012