“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:” Jude 1:1 ESV
Reflection: what compels you to do what you do, and to say what you say?
Can you image being the half-brother or half-sister to a very famous and popular person, such as a king or a president, a CEO of a big company, a movie star, or even someone super wealthy? Someone known all over the world? It might be tempting to use the rightful family name and title from time to time. Perhaps to demonstrate our importance.
We will spend the next few days going through the letter of Jude, or Judas, who was most likely the half-brother of Jesus. We see him show up a couple of places in the gospels, including Matthew 13:55. But some speculate that Jude, or Judas, was also one of the disciples, as seen in John 14:22. But, what I want to draw attention to today is what Jude here calls himself as he opens this letter, saying “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,” Jude 1:1a ESV. The word servant here also means slave (voluntary or involuntary), bondsman or bond-servant, or servant. According to Strong, “devoted to another to the disregard of one’s own interests”.
And this is how Jude introduces himself – a servant of Jesus. Jude, who could have easily used his “title” as half brother, even as a disciple. But he chooses the designation “servant”, of his half-brother! For those of us who have brothers and sisters, can you image the level of humility that reflects? Now, there is a deep point here, that all of us can learn from, regardless of where we are at in our journey, our Christian walk. Because, as Jude calls himself a servant of Jesus, he is therefore “devoted to Jesus to the disregard of one’s own interests”, as we saw. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” II Corinthians 5:14-15 NKJV
We do not live for ourselves, for our own interests and personal gain. No, we have a much bigger perspective, a kingdom of Christ perspective that we are now in “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,” Colossians 1:13 ESV. And, with this understanding and perspective, we don’t have a choice, because the love of Christ compels us. We know that, while we can sense what the flesh wants, we choose to live by the Spirit “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16 ESV. The Spirit desires us deeply to be more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ, in every action and interaction, in every word we speak; even taking our thoughts captive to make them obedient to Christ. “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” 2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV. This is the battlefront we all face.
While scholars are not sure who Jude was writing this letter to, it is perhaps pretty obvious. Let’s read “To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:” Jude 1:1b ESV. It looks to me as if he wrote this to all who have been called by God. And as we read on, we will see many stern warnings which are very relevant to the times we live in. So, let’s start as Jude did, to figure out what titles we use,
what do we call ourselves? By some denomination, perhaps (a Catholic, a Baptist, A Lutheran, etc.)? Or just a Christian? A follower of Christ, perhaps? A disciple of Christ? Or a servant of Christ?
This is closely connected to what truly drives us, or compels us, to do what we do, and say what we say. Is it our flesh, meaning we are driven by our selfish desires? Or is it following the doctrine of a denomination? Or is it the Holy Spirit, the love and light of Christ in us? Have we, as Jude, become a true bond-servant of Jesus Christ?