New Series

Sample episode. Replace this file when the real show notes are ready.

The show takes its name from one verse. This series is an attempt to read the letter that verse belongs to, slowly enough that the verse cannot be kidnapped.

The turn in the letter

Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jude 3–4, World English Bible

Jude wanted to write about the salvation he shared with his readers. He changed the subject because something else could not wait. The faith he tells them to contend for is “once for all delivered.” It is a deposit, not a draft. The threat in verse 4 is already inside the room: people who reshape grace and deny the Master.

What this series will do

We will walk the letter in order. We will not start with today’s headline and then go hunting for a verse that agrees. The headlines can come in once the paragraph has been allowed to speak.

Three limits for the series:

• “Contend” stays an athletic word, the effort of keeping a trust, not the pleasure of a fight.
• The “certain men” are the ones Jude describes. We will not paste modern names onto them before the letter does its work.
• Grace is not the enemy of the command. The distortion of grace is.