Jude, a Servant

 

Jude 1-2

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother to James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.”

Jude’s letter is short, the greeting that we often read past looking for the meat has a strong message to us who go by the name of Christian, if we slow-down and do a little research into who Bible historians believe Jude to be.  On page 1550 of the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible reference 4287: “Author. Probably Jude, the brother of James, and if this is true, he may have been a brother of our Lord; Mark 6:3; Galatians 1:19.  The Lord’s brothers did not believe in him at first, John 7:5, but after the Resurrection they became his followers, Acts 1:14.  It is possible that Jude, because of his early unbelief, felt that he was not worthy to sign himself as brother of Jesus.  So in writing the letter he called himself simply a servant.”

Simply a servant, what an honor to serve the God of Creation, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be Jesus’ step brother, to have the same mother and yet because of unbelief to humble yourself, to make no such claims, and to take on the attitude of a servant, does that sound like anyone you read about in the Scriptures?  The apostle Paul addresses this in a letter to the Philippi church in chapter 2:5-11. “ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

It should be clear that what we see in this greeting from Jude is the life of Jesus Christ being given freedom to live out His life in all authority through Jude’s earth-suit.  Do you identify with Jude, in the area of unbelief?  I do and if you also do, will you stop trying to be a good Christian, and do as Jude did, humble yourself and ask Jesus to live His life through you.  When this happens you will not have to tell anyone you are a servant of Jesus Christ, they will see Christ in you.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice