Judges 1:1-13
A trumpet may be played purely for the enjoyment of those who listen to it. However there are times when, as an alarm, it sounds to rally soldiers. Jude would have liked to talk to his brethren on more edifying subjects. Sadly, faced with a growing evil which was already creeping in amongst the faithful, his task is to raise the alarm his words are confined to commanding them to fight for the truth at all cost. How many children of God have to be told the basics of Christian truth over and over again, when the Spirit would rather be telling them about greater blessings (Hebrews 5:12). "Though ye once knew this . . (v. 5). Have we made progress since being converted or have we, on the contrary, gone backwards?
As in the second Epistle of Peter, Jude’s Epistle uses solemn examples from the Old Testament to describe the moral apostasy of the last days. Two things characterise apostasy: departure from grace and despising of authority (2 Peter 2:10-11). That last tendency is already evident in families, in schools, in both social and working life. How can a child who is not subject to his parents accept the Lord’s authority in later life?