What Jesus' Brother Jude Wanted Us to Know | Verse 3, Part 1 | A Holy Sense of Urgency
Excited anticipation welled up inside of our hearts as we waited. After half of a second I was sure the thing was broken, but then suddenly that famous second mark appeared on the felt test strip—the pregnancy test was positive. My wife and I looked at each other and beamed, embracing one another as our minds were flooded with imaginations and speculations of what life with a son or daughter would be like. Once we got our emotions under control we quickly resumed our household duties so we could read the newspaper in solitude without having to be distracted by thoughts of newborns, in fact we didn’t even tell anyone about it until it was too obvious to avoid discussing.
I hope that last part was awkward, confusing and perhaps slightly disturbing to read. Don’t worry—it isn’t true! Yes, my wife and I experienced all of the joy you can imagine when we found out we were pregnant for the first time, but we most certainly did not then stick the news in our back pocket like we had just found $20 in the back of the closet. Nope, the truth is that I started making phone calls immediately. The news necessitated it.
I didn’t just make a new friend, I just discovered that God is knitting an entirely new human being into time and it is going to be formed out of the unique DNA combination of both Emily and myself—something the world has never seen—turning a husband and wife into a father and a mother, simultaneously making even more grandparents, as well as a number of great-grandparents, aunts and uncles. This is massive news that would not be properly handled if it were not shared. It would be an incomplete and imperfect expression of joy to keep the news to ourselves. That said, I didn’t recite something similar to what I just wrote here as a way to arrive at an intellectual decision to share this news. No, my heart burned with a physical sensation and I felt the compulsory need to do so. There simply was no other option. It was because of this sense of urgency that we made the few important phone calls you would expect in order to make our joy complete.
When the biblical writers wrote, they wrote with a similar compulsion. They wrote with conviction—being carried along by the Holy Spirit—either with a sense of urgency to correct or warn, or with a desire for the mutual edification that comes with sharing in a common love. Indeed, not all biblical text is corrective.
The Apostle John told his readers plainly, “we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete” (1 Jn 1:4).
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians: “if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (2:1–2).
Even Jesus said, “I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (Jn 15:11).
The Thessalonian church probably received the most heart-warming of Paul’s letters when he wrote to them: “Being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thess 2:8).
This is the kind of letter Jude wanted to write! The feelings of endearment that Paul had for the Thessalonians were similar to what Jude felt for his friends, of whom he referred to as “beloved” three different times in his letter (vv. 3, 17, 20). Something, however, had suddenly been brought to his attention that left him with no choice but to temporarily shelve his letter of camaraderie. The new set of circumstances he had become privy to now necessitated a letter of a different nature—something that would ultimately be of more value to his beloved friends.
In his own words: “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (v. 3).
In order to understand just how serious this new issue was that Jude felt compelled to write about, you have to appreciate just how much he had wanted to write about their common salvation in the first place. In fact the very reason that Jude mentions he wanted to write about something else just elevates the urgency of the new priority. That was his point.
We just read that he was at first “very eager” to write about what unified them. The NASB reads “making every effort”. The Greek would render it as an earnest diligence, or even haste—this, just to enjoy the fellowship of their common salvation!
Many western Christians, especially in America, have never felt what Jude here felt. This desire for camaraderie over truth is rarely seen. We may constantly find ways to spend time with fellow Christians—as we should—but very seldom do we feel the need and intense desire to knit spirits together with a love of the truth outside of Sunday morning. Many conversations amongst Christians are not inherently Christian conversations. This is not to say that they always should be deep, theological conversations as even Paul alluded to the Thessalonians, but the presence of God in our hearts should be evident in our conversations and speech. Additionally, in our American context there is no pressure, no persecution, and no strain to survive like there often was back in Jude’s day for people who confessed Christ, or even in many, many other countries in the world even to this day.
As I write this, the President of the United States has been busy signing his latest Presidential Executive Order Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty on national television. This type of governmental support was unheard of in Jude’s day. We have to be careful not to take it for granted and not to become lazy in our efforts of uniting around the truth.
Even with Jude’s strong desire to write such a positive letter, this insightful and wise man of God recognized an even greater need that eclipsed his original want: “I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith.”
The Greek word for ‘necessary’ here is anagke and it means ‘a necessity imposed by the circumstances’. Interestingly enough it oftentimes can be translated as ‘distress’ or ‘hardship’. This is probably explained by the fact that anagke is akin to the word agkos, which means ‘ache’, which is something you can experience when a sudden response to a critical situation is needed. When there are potentially grave implications or ramifications at stake, you feel it.
The first year that our family moved to Maryland we decided to make a day trip into Washington D.C. with some friends and their kids to visit some of the Smithsonian Museums. We also had our son who was about two years old—so thankfully he could walk—and our first baby girl. It was the middle of the summer, so it was intensely hot and humid. We decided to stay and eat in the cafeteria of the Museum of Natural History for lunch. The place was packed! It was so busy and loud that we had to raise our voices all of the time just to hear each other as we made our way through the crowds in single file order.
After some time spent getting our food and weaving our way to some empty spots at some tables I suddenly felt an ache in my chest as I noticed something, turning to Emily in a panic: “Do you have Carter?”
We recited the “I thought you had him” phrase and checked to see if he was with our friends somehow who had to find a spot at another table. He wasn’t.
Friends, I cannot begin to explain what I felt in that moment, but I certainly didn’t sit down and eat my lunch first. Suddenly, my entire life was on a new mission with or without anyone or anything to help me. I was ready to start yelling from the cafeteria table, threatening the life of anyone who didn’t turn him up. The disbelief of my own carelessness for allowing this to happen intensified the heat in my chest that was increasing with each second that passed by. Was he even still in the cafeteria? I didn’t even know when I lost him! As I made my way through the crowd guessing where a lost toddler could have followed the flow of crowds I eventually saw him off to one side, playing with his lip, rocking casually from one foot to another as he looked around, obviously wondering where we were.
“Carter!” I picked him up and squeezed him tight. Another dad at a nearby table came up and said, “I was about to pick him up and yell out ‘who’s kid is this?’ because I could tell he was lost.” With a huge sigh of relief I thanked him for watching him—I’m still not sure if that makes sense, but he was obviously watching out for him.
Nothing in the world could have persuaded me to pursue another task before I had recovered my son.
In a similar way, Jude so felt an ache inside of his heart that all else had to be laid aside in order for him to address the circumstances at hand. His children were at risk of real spiritual danger. He was not there in person. He could not just hope for a different set of circumstances. His true understanding of their exposure to false teachers and their teaching moved him to action. For Jude to not have experienced this angst would show he did not actually love them, but he did love them and he loved them well, as we will see.
Our next post will start to unpack just what is being called to the spotlight by our beloved brother Jude. I encourage you to join me in prayerfully examining your own heart as we ask the Lord for the wisdom and discernment of Jude to be insightful enough to recognize the truth in any situation and thus be moved to the right action.
In Christ Alone,
Ben
