Jude Pt.1

The Underdogs: A Study of Jude, Philemon, Obadiah, 2nd + 3rd John

Hosted by Micah HArrison + Matt Winter

IN THIS EPISODE

• Fall is here | 2:45
• Why is Jude one of the least studied books of the Bible? What makes Jude unique? | 7:15 
  
• Jude uses Old Testament stories about judgment | 11:45
  
• Jude uses non-biblical material | 13:30
• Why is Jude writing? | 15:30
• Jude’s themes: disobedience, sexual perversion, and distorting the Truth | 18:15
• Jude uses Old Testament stories about rejecting authority | 25:45
• Jude uses 1 Enoch. Also, what do we do with these “other books” not in the Bible? | 38:45
• Takeaways. Appreciating poetry and judgment is coming. This is not new. | 44:00
• “How to Study the Bible”: Hyperlinking | 48:30

INSTANT TAKEAWAYS

1 | “How to study the Bible”: Hyperlinks

Bible authors will often quote, reference, or allude to other material. It can help to go back and look up those references and allusions. Sometimes the authors are just using it as an example that everyone would be familiar with, but sometimes the author drawing on a point in the Old Testament text. Studying a New Testament’s use of an Old Testament reference can be an extremely fruitful and worshipful study.

2 | People often distort God’s truth to justify their own behavior

Jude points out that the false teachers are distorting the truth to justify their own (often sexual) misbehavior. Our actions have a way of distorting the way we see reality. Where do you see this in our culture today? Where do you see this in your own life today?

3 | Who/what is your authority?

The false teachers were rejecting the authority of the Bible and the Holy Spirit and instead using their own “dreams/visions” as the authority for their lives. This distorts the truth and they were trying to influence others to do the same. What/who is the authority in your life? Is it yourself? Is it a political perspective? Is it a person you look up to in your life? Or is it Jesus Christ and the Word of God?

SHOW NOTES

We’re diving into the book of Jude! In this episode, we focus on the way Jude uses a lot of Old Testament and other literature in his letter. What is he doing? Why is he using so many other sources? Jude even quotes from a book called 1st Enoch, which is not in the Old Testament. What do we do with that? Jude is writing against false teachers, warning the church to watch out for people distorting the truth to justify their own disobedience. See the end of the episode for our segment “How to Study the Bible.”