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T H E
K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
J an u a ry 1925
Outline Studies in the Book o fjud e T. C. H orton
coming days of strife. The Jewish fath ers had invaded the church w ith th eir false teaching. He fought them w ith their, own weapons. While P eter deals largely w ith false teaching, Jude por tray s adversaries and heretics in general. The epistle is addressed to th e saints in general, and sug gests th e choice, separation, preservation, and personal call of believers before conscious life was given to them. (1) THE CALLED AND SANCTIFIED ARE SALUTED, vs. 1, 2. “ Jude, a servan t.” He is an apostle, bu t like P aul in his le tte rs to th e Philip- pians, th e Thessalonians, and to Philemon, he om its calling atten tion to his apostleship. This is a sure sign of the epistle’s genuineness. If he had been a forger, he would have claimed apostleship. The character of, tru e believers is described. They are “ sanctified,” or "sep arated ,”— having th e Divine n atu re th rough faith in Jesus Christ. Sanctified by th e indwelling Holy Spirit (Rom. 1 5 :16 ). Sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1, 2 ). All th e saints are all of one (Heb. 2 :1 1 ). He asks for th e sain ts th a t “blessing, mercy, peace and love” be m ultiplied to them. “Mercy”— from God to man. “Peace”—between God and man. “Love”—-of all to all. P ete r says, in his salutation, “Grace and peace.” P aul says, “Grace, mercy and peace.K “MERCY” equals “ kindness,” “ beneficence.” J u d e changes the order of “ Grace, mercy and peace” to VMercy, peace and love.” Grace is manifested in mercy. There could be no mercy save th rough His grace. Mercy is from th e F ath e r, for a central attrib u te of God is “His mercy” . (1 P et. 1 :3 ): “Blessed be th e God and F a th e r of ou r Lord Jesu s Christ, which according to his abund an t mercy h a th bego tten us again un to a lively hope by th e resu rrection of Jesus Christ from th e dead.” God is rich in mercy and kindness; iyhy no t we? (Eph. 5 :1 ): “B e ye th erefo re followers of God as d ear children.” P aul pleads for our mercy for th e unsaved (Rom. 11: 31 ): “Even so have th ese also now n o t believed, th a t th rough your mercy they also may obtain mercy.” The illu stratio n is found in Luke 10:30-37, in th e story of th e Good Samaritan. PEACE is th rough the Son (Isa. 5 3 :5 ): “B u t h e was wounded fo r ou r transgressions; h e was bruised fo r ou r iniquities; th e chastisem ent of ou r peace was upon him ; and w ith his strip es we are healed.” (Also, Eph. 2 :1 4 ): “Peace signifies “ un ity ” or “ concord.” The world knows no peace (Rom. 3 :1 7 ): “And th e way of peace have they no t known.” We have peace w ith God th rough our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5 :1 ; 14 :17 ). Let peace ru le in our h earts (Col. 3 :1 5 ), or “ garrison our h earts,” as in Phil. 4:7 : (Continued on page 32)
Suggestions and requests have come to us for some sys- tem atic outline studies of a portion of Scripture which would be helpful to pastors and teachers of Bible classes. As th e ed ito r has been giving a series of such studies to his Men’s Bible Class from the Book of Jude—which has a logical application to present world and church conditions — he has decided to give some outlines from th a t hook, beginning w ith th is issue, following w ith o ther Book Stu dies in due course. OUTLINE OP BOOK (1 ) The Called and Sanctified are Sainted, vs. 1, 2. (2 ) The Called are Charged to Contend fo r th e F aith , v. 3. (3 ) The Called are Cautioned Against th e Creeping C rit ics, v. 4. (4) The C ertain Judgm en t of th e Apostates, vs. 5-7. (5 ) The Corrupting Influence of th e F ilth y Dreamers, vs. 8-10. (6) The Comm itment of th e Corrupters to E te rn a l Doom, vs. 12, 13. (7) The Coming of th e Lord to Execute Judgm ent, vs. 14-16. (8) The Caution Against Mockers, vs. 17-19. (9) The Counsel to th e Saints to Build Up in F a ith , vs. 20 , 21 . (10) The Classification of Those Deserving Rebuke, vs. 22, 23. (11) The Comm itment of th e Saints to an All-Wise God, vs. 24, 25. In trodu ction : (If tim e allows, it would be helpful when using th is les son in a Bible Class, to give out th e references, to he read by members of the class when called for by the teacher; thu s intensifying the in te rest and helping to m aintain it.) Jude contains b u t twenty-five verses,— short, yet volum inous. The au tho r— Jude—was probably a b ro th er of James, the Bishop of Jerusalem , and au tho r of th e Epistle of Jam es (Luke 6 :1 6 ): L ittle is known concerning Jude. He was probably 70 years of age when th is le tte r was w ritten, which is of the same date as P e te r’s epistles. Jude must have had an intim ate knowledge of our Lord from infancy. He, w ith others of the family, sought to stay the work of Jesus (Matt. 12:46; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8: 19-21). The fam ily were probably unbelieving when they w ent up to th e F east of Tabernacles (John 7 :5 ), and con verted afte r the resurrection, a t Christ’s appearing to Jam es (1 Cor. 1 5 :7 ): “A fter th a t he was seen of Jam es; th e n of all th e apos tles.” or, perhaps, to the five hundred (1 Cor. 1 5 :6 ): “A fter th a t he was seen of above five h und red b reth ren a t once; of whom th e g rea ter p a rt rem ain un to th is present, b u t some are fallen asleep.” Jud e’s message is virile. It was w ritten in th e days when th e sins of th e church began to be m anifest,— the “And Ju d a s (Jud e) th e b ro th er of Jam es.” (See,, also, Matt. 13:55 and Mark 6:3.).,
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