The Power of Three

God’s Way of Reminding Us

Let us now turn to Jude’s remarkable epistle and listen carefully to what the Spirit of God has preserved for us. We begin with verse one. Notably, Jude opens his letter in a gentle, warm, and loving manner. Yet, as we shall soon discover, his words grow increasingly urgent and powerful, building toward a dramatic crescendo of solemn warnings. Before we reach that point, let us take a moment to appreciate the beauty and tenderness of his opening words.

Jude 1: Jude, a servant of Jesus the Messiah, and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus the Messiah. Using only three words, he describes much of their spiritual history: To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus the Messiah:

Notice the words: called, beloved and kept. This is one of the first of about 14 triads or triplets we encounter in this letter. This is Jude’s teaching method, and it is very effective. Today, psychologists even have a name for this. They call it chunking, the process of organizing information into small, meaningful groups that are easier to remember. The term was popularized in 1956 by cognitive psychologist Dr. George Miller. But perhaps Dr. Miller didn’t realize that, about 1,900 years earlier, another scholar had already put the principle to work: a certain Dr. Yehudah (Jude)!

Of course, Jude didn’t have a doctorate in psychology, but he certainly knew how to make his message memorable! This was also a rabbinical method. In the Jewish Oral Law, the Mishnah, which forms part of the Talmud, we find the same teaching style. In one book of the Mishnah, Pirkei Avot (Chapters of the Fathers), the opening begins similarly with a triad: three instructions appear right away: Be deliberate in judgment, raise many disciples, and make a fence of protection (Avot 1:2).

The very next verse says the word stands on three things: Torah, temple service, and acts of lovingkindness. Then, in the same chapter, Avot 1:18, it gives another triad: justice, truth, and peace. This mirrors Jude’s introduction and runs through the rest of the letter. Here in Jude, he speaks of mercy, peace, and love. Then, in vs. 5-7, he will give us three historical judgments: Israel, angels, and Sodom and Gomorrah. Then, in Jude 11, he gives three rebellious examples: Cain, Balaam, and Korah. Jude’s triplets are familiar to Jewish literary traditions.

Now, concerning the first triplet: The believers are called, beloved, and kept. There is a wonderful spiritual progression here. All believers are first called.  God takes the first step, otherwise, we could not have done it by ourselves. As Yeshua said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him”…for the Spirit says that we were dead in [y]our trespasses and sins… John 6:44, Ephesians 2:1-5. In that same passage, Ephesians 2:5 says God made us alive together with the Messiah, and this love is manifested in His Love toward us.

So, we are first called and loved because of love, and this matters; the word for love is agapeo, the strongest word for love in biblical Greek. This word is practically a biblical invention. In the ancient Greek world, it didn’t mean much. It expressed satisfaction or preference for one thing over another. It was a colorless word that seldom appears until the New Testament, where we are told that God is agapeo.

Throughout this letter, Jude emphasizes God’s love for us. He calls us beloved four times (vs. 1, 3, 17, 20). He asks us to remember God’s love twice (vv. 2, 21). Notably, these verses are strategically placed in the midst of very difficult passages.

So we are called, loved, and, because of this love, kept. This word means not only to be preserved, but also to be observed, watched over, and followed.

That is a wonderful assurance.

This is all God’s doing, but it also places a lot of responsibility on us, and together they raise some important questions. I have been called by God; but am I responding to His call and walking in His will? God loves me; but am I truly living in the joy and assurance of His love?

God keeps me; but am I resting in the security of His power to protect and preserve?

Now, moving on to the next verse, the tone of Jude’s letter shifts dramatically. He takes off his white gloves and puts on his boxing gloves! The tenderness of his greeting gives way to the urgency of battle. Jude is no longer merely comforting the believers; he is calling them to fight for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

Let us read these powerful words in Jude 3: Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write, appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith once for all handed down to the believers. That is quite an urgent letter. He begins by saying he made every effort to write; that is, he wrote it with haste, speed, and zeal. Something had happened that prompted him to write so quickly. Notice his state of mind as he wrote this letter. He says he felt compelled to write. The Greek word is anankē, meaning he felt a strong urge and obligation to do so. It was as though the Spirit would not let him rest until he delivered this warning.

Jesus uses the same word in His warning about the end times, when He says in Luke 21:23 that great distress will come upon the land and wrath upon this people. It is the same word, and the same kind of distress, that made Yehudah (Jude) so uneasy that he had to write this letter. The Spirit of God was mightily at work in Yehudah; he had a pastor’s heart.

After this, Jude introduces one of the most powerful words in his letter, “contend earnestly for the faith,” a phrase found nowhere else in the New Testament. The Greek word for contend must have surely attracted his readers’ attention: it is a term used for military combat and describes intense struggle.

At about the same time, the historian Plutarch wrote his Life of Fabius, describing how Hannibal, one of Rome’s formidable enemies, attacked the Roman armies. The Romans were called to defend Rome.

Likewise, Jude calls us to mobilize, hold our ground, and fight with everything we have to defend the faith once for all delivered to the believers. Something was going on that required immediate attention.

Before he describes those who cause problems in congregations, he first identifies what they aim for: the believer’s faith. Their faith, their beliefs! This is what was in danger.

Go to the video  – Jude Part 2 : The Last Days – How Apostasy Begins