A single urgent chapter: contend for the faith, and be merciful to the ones who are wavering.
Jude, the brother of James, urgently appeals to believers to 'contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints,' prompted by the infiltration of ungodly persons who pervert grace into licentiousness and deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Drawing on three Old Testament examples (Israel in the wilderness, fallen angels, Sodom and Gomorrah) and two intertestamental texts (1 Enoch's prophecy of judgment and the Assumption of Moses's dispute over Moses' body), Jude builds a devastating case against the false teachers. The letter closes with one of the New Testament's most magnificent doxologies.
Jude's explicit citation of 1 Enoch (vv. 14-15) and apparent allusion to the Assumption of Moses (v. 9) raise important canonical questions about the status of intertestamental literature. The extensive verbal parallels with 2 Peter 2 indicate a literary relationship, with most scholars viewing Jude as the earlier source. The identification of Jude as 'brother of James' links him to the family of Jesus.
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