JUN 19

Jude 1–25
Memorise Jude 17
“…to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen…”

In studying an epistle, it is a good practice to read through the whole epistle and come up with an outline for it before delving deeper into its contents. The divisions into chapters that we have in our Bibles were not there in the actual letters and so may not represent the best divisions when we consider the context. Therefore, we should form our own headings for each section of the epistle to help us analyse it better.

Jude is a short epistle and thus, is a good example to start with. It can be outlined as such:

1. Salutation and greetings (v.1-2)
2. Purpose of writing the epistle (v.3)
3. Warning of false teachers within the church (v.4)
4. Description of false teachers and how they will be judged (v.5-16)
5. Exhortation and encouragement to the believers (v.17-23)
6. Benediction (v.24-25)

Of course, there is no one single fixed way of outlining an epistle; you may choose to break the sections down in a different way, or you may wish to break the larger sections down into smaller sub-sections. The purpose is to help you better understand and meditate on the Word.

By breaking an epistle into sections, it makes it more manageable to study. You can study each section in detail and see how the writer expands on his main point. When studying the Bible, try to meditate on the words and understand the passage for yourself before turning to commentaries. You always learn more by thinking deeply upon a passage, rather than taking the easy way out by relying on commentaries. Of course, there is nothing wrong with referring to a good commentary to double check your own understanding or if you need help with verses that are more difficult to comprehend. Yet remember that all commentaries, no matter how trustworthy, were written by man and can be fallible. Only God’s Word is perfect and always true. By studying God’s Word for ourselves, we can better contend for the faith in these last days.

Thought: How would you outline the book of Jude for yourself?
Prayer: Dear Lord, grant me diligence and guidance from Thy Spirit to “study to shew [myself] approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).