What Jesus' Brother Jude Wanted Us to Know | Verse 1, Part 2 | The Potency of God's Call
When someone writes a letter, email, or any kind of message, they are ultimately intending to communicate something—something that is meant to be understood. Their message is inherently knowable established by the fact that they are in fact writing. Part of this process includes identifying oneself as the writer and then—obviously—identifying the intended recipients. It adds to the understanding and clarifies the interpretation of the letter when you know who it is that is communicating with you.
We have already seen that Jude has identified himself from the start and we will now see is that he has identified his audience: “To those who are called.”
Those who are called?
He does not list any names, rather he targets a specific group of people. This group of the “called” is in itself undisclosed insofar as the circulation potential of the letter, in that “the called” could be here or there and if they happen to come across the letter, then it is meant for them as well. Yet, this audience of “the called” is in fact a very specific type of people. That said, the letter was obviously not without a posted address so to speak, so there was in fact an original destination in Jude’s mind. He was obviously writing to a particular region that needed his encouragement, warnings, and exhortation. Its use for further audiences—a wider conglomeration of “the called”—however, is still appropriate as a recipient, the proof of which is found in the fact that you and I are gleaning from it at this very moment—almost 2,000 years later.
This term “called” is one pregnant with meaning and demands attention. Truthfully, it has sadly become a word that is almost entirely unknown as to its significance, and, as a result, has contributed to the decline of pure and meaningful worship in the church as well as to an increase of phony and meaningless evangelistic practices in the church.
Without question, you need to know who “the called” are.
Jude was not the only biblical writer to refer to his audience as those who were called. The apostles Paul, Peter, and John all did the same thing, which covers nearly all of the New Testament writings.
Paul, when writing to the Roman church (1:6–7), Corinthian church (1 Cor 1:1–2), Galatian churches (1:6) and Ephesian church (1:18), in every instance, uses some derivative form of the Greek word kaleo, which means “to call” which has the connotation of an authority placing on you a particular name or title. Kaleo is akin to the base of the Greek word keleuo, which means “to command” or “to order”.
This calling of God is no trifling and weak “shout out”—it is a commanding call. It is not a whimsical or hopeful call like the schoolchildren who pass a note saying ‘circle one: yes or no’. No, this is a divine call much like that of an appointment and selection that a President or Monarch would make to fill a position, or a soldier being called up for duty, but even these examples fall short of God's special and powerful call.
The type of call that God calls with is perfectly illustrated in Lazarus’ story in John 11. Lazarus was quite dead for four days before Jesus arrived in Lazarus’ hometown of Bethany to minister to his mourning family. When Jesus called out to Lazarus to come out of the tomb, he did. Jesus’ call to Lazarus was not an option to take or leave, nor was it a means for Lazarus’ cooperation to bring himself back to life. No, the call of Jesus was in itself producing the result of resurrecting Lazarus. In other words, when God calls, it is an effectual call, or an efficacious call and not just a cause leading to an effect.
God's word is seen in a powerful way in His creating the world. It was His word that was the effect of existing matter and human life. Nothing responded to His word in order for being to materialize, He simply made it. Just as God spoke the life into existence, so He also spoke life back into Lazarus.
It is exactly what Paul articulated so well in Ephesians 2 when he said that God “made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him” (v. 5) (emphasis mine). The human condition—brought about by Adam and Eve—is that every single man and woman who is born is as spiritually dead as Lazarus was physically dead and the only way that is changed is brought about by the initiating work of God’s sovereign call that regenerates a life, making him a new creation, and granting him faith (Eph 2:8) and repentance (Acts 11:18, 2 Tim 2:25). This calling of God in the present is the outworking of His plan of election from eternity past.
Paul rejoices in the Thessalonians because he knows that God “has chosen you” (1:4). To Titus, he wrote “for the sake of the faith of God's elect” (1:1).
The Apostle Peter wrote to the “elect exiles of the Dispersion” (1:1) and the Apostle John wrote to the “elect lady and her children” (1 Jn 1:1).
In each instance, the Greek word eklektos is used for elect and ekloge for chosen, though they can almost be used interchangeably. The words mean to “pick out” or are even used to designate the object itself that has already been picked out. It is a word identifying whom it is that is appointed to be or do something, which we see so clearly fleshed out in Acts 13:48 where “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”
When Jude refers to “the called” he is referring to those who have been divinely chosen by God to compose His church. In fact, the Greek word for church that we see translated in our English Bibles is ekklesia, which literally means “to call out and away.” Ek means “out/away” and klesia is a derivative of our aforementioned word kaleo. Its definition, though, connotes an assembly. In other words, the church is a gathering of citizens who have been called out from their homes and into a public place together. This is the church—the totality of those who have been called.
Ekklesia is a word similar to our modern medical terminology suffix -ectomy that a surgeon would use to describe what he is removing, e.g. appendectomy or cholecystectomy. So it is with God who calls us and removes us out of darkness and places us into His marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9). Like a surgeon making the proper incision for a Caesarean Section, even cutting the umbilical cord of a newborn baby, so God causes us to be born again (1 Pet 1:3) by taking us out of darkness and bringing us into the light of His Son.
For Jude to address his letter in this manner is a simple way for Him to affirm the sovereign election of God that has secured a people for His glory. This makes sense of his letter. An exhortation in the faith (v. 3) does not belong to the reprobate and unregenerate—it belongs to the called; a warning about the subtleties of false teachers and their doctrines (v. 4) does not belong to the world, but to the called; a doxology that anticipates the coming glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 24–25) does not find a common joy with the children of the Devil, but with the called children of God.
The important takeaway here for us is to be agreeable with Jude and the rest of the biblical writers in affirming the sovereignty of God and how He has saved of His own will and prerogative. He gave us the faith that we now own and stand on. Knowing this will leave us rightfully awestruck that we would receive any such unmerited grace and mercy. It will immediately stimulate pure and profound worship and will correct our view of evangelism as we trust the Word of God properly taught to be the means that God uses to waken dead sinners.
We will see next time what the logical outcome of God’s call is in the life of the believer. Stay tuned!
In Christ Alone,
Ben
