Jude
Jude: Contending for the Faith in Today’s Culture
By: Jackie Hill Perry
“The preservation of our own comforts and the privileges afforded to preaching a half gospel can make it tempting to lay aside what we know to be true because there’s a lot to lose for preaching the whole gospel...”
I found out about this book after reading Jackie Hill Perry’s book Holier than Thou as it was advertised in the back of the book. It caught my eye because I know how short Jude is in the Bible and I was wondering how you could do an entire Bible study over one chapter!
This was an awesome study! You definitely get to know the chapter very well and I learned so much. Even though you’re drilling down verse by verse in Jude, it’s great that JHP includes so much other Scripture to look up that helps you understand what Jude is talking about and makes connections.
I did this as a study with a few other women. There are four days of homework each week. I wouldn’t say they are short days, but it’s definitely do-able. The number of pages per day is not always indicative of how long it will take you because there are sections of commentary that you just read; it’s not necessarily a lot of questions to answer.
Her style of Bible study is similar to Jen Wilkin’s methods where there are definitions to look up, underlining and circling, cross-referencing, and some thoughtful questions to answer.
The book comes with an access code to LifeWay’s video player so everyone who has a book has the ability to watch the week’s corresponding video if they can’t make it to group.
What was different about this study than other ones I’ve done is that the video you watch for the week goes with the homework you WILL be doing instead of what you just finished. I didn’t like that as much.
I would have rather had the video portion be explaining and going over what you just got done studying. When you get JHP’s part before you read you’re not sure what kind of questions you’re going to have and if she addresses them. Then it’s hard to remember during the week if the video said anything about it.
With Jen Wilkin’s studies, you might have some hard questions you’re unsure about, but then you come together and watch the video and she usually answers or addresses the things you were wondering about. That seems to work better for me.
This study felt timely for me because one of the main themes is (as the subtitle states) contending for the faith.
Jude calls out the false teachers who are perverting God’s grace to justify their sinful desires, pursuing unnatural desire, relying on their own knowledge and rejecting authority instead of submitting themselves under the authority and design God established. (v5-8)
With very descriptive and poetic language (v12-13) Jude points out that these false teachers are selfish, aimless, dangerous, and do not promote life.
Essentially they are diluting, distorting, and denying the truth and the gospel message. Jude is calling the church to contend for the one faith we all share in Christ. (Galatians 1:6-9, 23; Acts 6 :7)
This call to contend is just as relevant today as it was then. I’ve recognized more and more messages within Christianity that are teaching a different gospel, one that presumes upon God’s grace to justify what they feel is right, one that rejects the authority of Scripture but elevates other sources or methods of reasoning above God’s Word.
And these false teachers are really hard to detect when we are not discerning. They are not the ones rejecting Christianity altogether. Those aren’t the false teachers Jude and other writers in Scripture are warning about. It’s the ones that claim the Christian label but lead people down a path of half-truths which are lies.
Doing this study bolstered me and encouraged me to contend for the truth. That we are right to push back on false gospels. Jude calls us to have mercy on those who doubt, but to save others by “snatching them out of the fire” (v23)— a call of urgency.
JHP does a good job of walking us through how to contend for the faith in love and mercy and patience, that how we contend matters. But the word ‘contend’ that Jude uses has connotations of a fight; the Greek word used for it is the same one we get the word ‘agonize’ from. Contending is struggling and persevering. Enduring rejection or mocking.
If you are contending for the gospel, even with grace, humility, gentleness, and respect, you will still probably encounter antagonism. That doesn’t mean you are doing a wrong thing.
Part of what I feel my call is as a book reviewer is to contend for the faith as I process books that I read and to point out to other readers where there is questionable theology. This study in Jude encouraged me to continue to do that and reminded me how important mercy, peace, and love are within that.
Jackie Hill Perry has, herself, been a great contender of the faith and a promoter of God’s authority and his good design, his goodness in character. Her book Gay Girl, Good God is just one example of how she has done this.
I appreciate her teaching style because she is very blunt, but you can tell it comes from a place of love and camaraderie, not of superiority.
Another major theme of this study is in the doxology of the passage where Jude says “to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great job” (v24).
It was such an encouragement to really let it sink in that when we are adopted into God’s family, we are sealed for heaven. He keeps us until the end. We don’t have to do enough good. We abide in Christ and he keeps us abiding. He is the reason we will experience the full glory of God’s presence.
What a relief and a mercy that Christ keeps us.
Recommendation
Even though I wish the video situation was reversed, I definitely still recommend this study. It gets you in the Word, it challenges you, and it encourages you.
Now, just as much as when Jude wrote his letter, we are called to contend for the faith. To unify under our common salvation and dispel any idolatry or false beliefs about who God is and what his truth is.
This study will encourage you of that importance and assure you that you are not alone in doing so.
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