Blood by Choice ...

You can’t pick your family … or can you?  Blood relations are supposed to be the strongest on earth.  But this is a myth quickly undone by simple logic.  Your parents chose each other.  No one compelled them (ideally), and no one dictates they stay together, or crumble apart.  It was and remains (ideally) a choice of two people to become one and remain that way.  Your parents are not related to each other by blood relation, unless that blood relation is quite distant.  Yet the bond a husband can have with his wife, and she with him, is a bond capable of being stronger than titanium dipped in Jesus more permanent than any other on earth; or as flimsy as the tissue paper of self-will that demonstration will show.  But the core of a family is at its core, a choice to love.  And where perhaps our hearts are still fickle in the choice of our partner for life, they seem less so in our choice of son, daughter, or parent.

Adoption is yet another choice to make blood, what inheritance failed to create.  Adoption does not diminish the love it states, it perhaps makes it greater.  It is a greater commitment.  Taking in a child, who is not blood, and make that child part of a family, is a statement about how deep the choice to love can truly be.  Even in the face of divorced couples, children remain children, adopted or not.  The love shown to them, the care taken of them, does not diminish because it began with a choice, it deepens because of it.  And over time, when the child’s curiosity about biological parents emerges, love for adopted parents remains a choice in nearly every life.  At the root of the bond between a parent and a child, is a choice to love, whether by inheritance or by fortune.  The choice begins the journey, the choice remains throughout the journey.

These choices do not only reveal themselves in marriage and in adoption of any form.  They can emerge in the relationships we form with our closest friends over time.  Because the choice to love is by definition a choice; other close relationships can form where brothers of no relation think of themselves as brothers in any case.  It may be a different kind of love, but it is a love nonetheless.  Situations where friends of the family become part of the family are common, blurring the definitions of family altogether; and frankly emulating more what heaven will ultimately be like.  Agape love is no less a love than any other kind of it.  And the love Jesus, The Father, and The Holy Spirit have for you is the pinnacle of what love can be defined as.  Not a romantic love, but a love so deep, the God of the Universe would die to save only you if that is what it took.  In every situation, love remains a choice.

This is a lesson the sons of Abraham were reluctant to learn in the time of Jesus, and perhaps we are today as well.  Jews in the time of Christ believed that bloodline led to salvation.  Christians in our day believe that tradition, church, and religion do the same.  Jews in the time of Christ were proud to call Abraham their father.  Christians in our day are proud to look back at the patriarchs of our faith and claim association with them over common beliefs.  But the average, or particular, or singular Jew in the Sanhedrin at the time of Jesus did not have the exact faith of Abraham.  It is why Abraham is remembered, and the average Jew is not.  It is the same with you and I.  Neither of us were pinning the list of church reforms on the door, knowing it was likely insuring our own death sentences today.  We like to look back at reformers like Luther, but we do not face Luther’s danger in the face of death in our world.  Strange though, the propensity to look backwards for assurance that salvation is ours, when all along, Jesus is right in front of us and how seldom we seem to look there.

But Jesus has different ideas about family, than perhaps the tradition Jew did in His day, or the typical Christian does in ours.  Matthew wrote of this in his gospel in chapter twelve picking up in verse 46 saying … “While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. [verse 47] Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.”  This is a simple situation.  Jesus is preaching, likely from inside Peter’s house in Capernaum.  Likely the crowds are thick there, inside and outside the house.  It makes it difficult for anyone to get inside the house.  You will recall the men who took the roof apart to get their friend close to Jesus for healing.  This is likely a standing room only crowd, and every single listener is intent to hear the word of God from the mouth of God Himself.

But despite this, the family of Jesus wanted to see Him.  Perhaps they had important news, perhaps they only wanted to socialize.  It did not matter.  They were unable to get anywhere near close enough to Jesus to accomplish what they had in mind.  The reason; too many other people were so desperate to hear what salvation was, and how it comes.  In spite of this, His family persisted.  They get a messenger to get the news to Jesus so He can remedy the situation.  Jesus responds in verse 48 saying … “But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? [verse 49] And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! [verse 50] For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Much to unpack here.  Jesus begins by questioning the messenger with a very strange question.  “Who” is His mother, and His siblings?  The answer should have been obvious.  But even in this question is an implication that “blood” does not grant one special privilege.  Beyond this, is a subtle message to our Catholic friends who so venerate Mary.  Jesus places His mother Mary in the same category as He does everyone else, nothing more special about her.  And Jesus is clear that He has siblings.  As Jesus had to be first born (according to Jewish tradition), having further brothers and sisters, makes Mary a normal wife, not a virgin for the length of her life.  But even the mothers who read this text cringe with the idea that their child might look at them with the same eyes He looks at the entire rest of the world.

Next, the ideas of Family are radically expanded in the view of Jesus.  Everyone who shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven … becomes the family of Jesus Christ.  Jesus does not just say, every Jew by birth.  Nor does He say, every Christian who claims to follow Jesus.  He states everyone who like Himself defers His own will, to do the will of the Father which is in heaven, becomes His idea of family.  Being Jewish by birth, or being Christian by faith, does not make you in harmony with the Father God.  It gives you a good start, but is nowhere near enough to finish the job.  For that you need a deference of your will, and an embrace of His will.  That only happens as you surrender the core of who you are to Jesus, so that He can bring you into harmony with God.  Doing what you think is right, is not enough.  Jews did that.  Christians still do.  And it is not enough.  The blood relatives of Jesus were doing what they thought was right, at the moment, and were going to be disappointed.  What Mary and the siblings of Jesus were thinking was the right thing to do, was not, at least not right then.  More important things were going on.  The salvation of others was going on.  On that scale, everyone can wait.

While Jesus has only One Father, He is quite liberal with titling anyone else who submits to the will of His Father in heaven as being “brother, sister, or mother”.  Here again His mother is not a title He makes sacrosanct above all others.  She is only another member of His family.  Here is where the ideas of family get radically expanded in the eye of Jesus.  In heaven, outside of the spousal relationship Jesus created at Eden, everyone else we encounter will be our family – by choice.  We will choose to love them as we love our siblings or parents or children, because we will choose to love them that much.  I can entrust my children with you in heaven, because I know you will love them as much as I do.  You can entrust your children with me, for the same reason.  I will not covet your wife, as you will not covet mine, not just because the Law forbids it, but because we love each other that much.

You will note Jesus does not include husband or wife in His list of family members.  His “bride” is the church, as He loves it that much.  The church is special to Him and unique, and singular, even though it is made up of many of us who believe.  At the core of all of this remains a choice to love.  At the core of love itself is a definition that includes choice, or it can be no real love at all.  We were not created as robots for this very reason.  God is love.  God chooses to love.  We were created in the image of God.  We are capable of love, or not.  We must choose to love God, or not.  Our love for God cannot be forced and He will never force us to love anything or anyone.  We make a choice to do that.  This is how God wants it.  He reveals His love to us, long before He ever asks for ours in return.  There is every reason for us to love God, and only one not to.  Selfishness is the enemy of loving God.  It turns out you can only love yourself or God, not both. 

Many Christians believe that loving one’s self is healthy, and must be done before they are capable of loving others.  This is a lie, evidenced by the very life of Christ Himself.  Jesus did nothing to love Himself, and everything to demonstrate love for us.  Jesus never took vacation.  Jesus never ate all the food first, He gave everyone else the food first, served everyone else, and only then would consider eating.  Talk about not being strong enough.  But Jesus got His strength from doing the will of His Father, which like Him, was to love everyone else before anything resembling self-love.  Not a single evidence in scripture of self-love, or using His power to help Himself, not once.  And somehow, we think it is different for us?  It’s not.  The choice we make to love, is a choice we make to love someone else.  When instead we choose to love ourselves, divorces ensue, families dissolve, everything that ever really mattered is sacrificed on an altar of pleasing self that has no end to it. 

Family bonds are as strong as the depth of our surrender of will to Jesus Christ.  Choices to love that stem from this kind of surrender to Jesus are like titanium dipped in diamonds.  The choice to love self instead, can form bonds only as strong as tissue paper waiting the next form of self-gratification.  As for me, I prefer the permanence Jesus can offer, and the fulfillment only Jesus can bring; than the mess of things I know I make, and history is quick to reveal …

Lacking All Sense of Judgment ...

How does that guy end up with that girl?  Men think these questions to themselves, as from looking at the external beauty of the woman, and the relative comeliness of the man, the pairing just does not seem to make sense.  Could this beautiful woman truly not understand just how beautiful she really is?  Or could she truly not understand just how homely her partner is?  Does she just lack all sense of judgment or perhaps is her eyesight just that impaired?  Even the series of questions reveals a thinking about the judgment of men, that it is based in the appearance and little else.  Perhaps the judgment of the woman is based in something deeper, something more meaningful, something that will last.  But then …

Does this dress make me look fat?  I can’t wear that dress to the event because “she” is wearing one just like it.  The reasoning of women often seems grounded in insuring their own appearance remains at its peak condition, and cannot be confused with any other woman.  Having two women show up at the same event wearing the same dress is only acceptable if both are bride’s maids, and even then, both resent it.  Something about wearing the exact same dress is simply intolerable for women.  Yet as they examine the sea of men that accompany them to these events, they fail to realize that tuxedo’s, and even most formal suits, are so close in look and feel, that only designers can easily tell them apart.  Men are content to wear the same formalwear, without a second thought.  Women are content to allow them out of the house this way, in fact, most prefer it.  But two identical dresses require one women to go home and try again.  A self-imposed rule, but one as solid as any printed in a book of law.

Why a man questions the happiness of a couple where the woman is stunning and the man is at best “normal”; and why a woman constantly questions her own appearance; are questions of judgment Angels find great mystery in.  Would, that our lack of judgment only extended to our appearance.  But it does not.  Humans have a nasty way of taking what we have learned, and instead of building one brick of knowledge upon another, until we form a magnificent structure of understanding, we pick up our brick and run with it.  We ignore all other truth, even the question about how other truth might fit with our own to form greater truth.  Instead we grab the nugget of truth that makes up our brick … and we immediately proceed to slam someone else in the head with it.

We make our brick, the sole basis of our gospel.  We push aside any attempts at greater understanding, and we make our brick the determining criteria of whether others will find themselves in hell, or not.  Should they accept what we say, and how we see things, then they are fine for now.  Otherwise, hell and damnation are surely the punishment coming to anyone who would ignore the plain truth of our brick.  And since that is the eventual outcome they must face, slamming them in the head with our brick now, seems like the right thing to do.  And so, even in spiritual matters, we find ourselves lacking all sense of judgment.  We find our core doctrines as rigid as those of our Pharisee forefathers.  We find our propensity to curse any who refuse our beliefs, as natural and rigid as any zealot who ever walked the earth before us.  We may not kill others who disagree.  But we are comfortable condemning them in the afterlife to eternal death, believing they must convert or be eternally punished for their lack of insight.

But the truth of Jesus Christ is not found in the eye alone.  Nor is it found in the ear alone.  The eye and ear have radically different functions and perspectives and BOTH are correct.  The foot moves us to a better place.  The hand reaches out in comfort and affection.  The arms hold.  The brain discerns.  It takes every part of the body to even begin to understand the Truth of Jesus Christ.  Thinking the eye’s alone have it, makes the body deaf, and mute, and crippled.  Thinking the brain alone has it, makes the body cold, unfeeling, and unable to move at all.  But this kind of body analogy forces believers to begin to accept the reality that “their” brick is not the ONLY brick, that makes up a picture of truth.  It reveals that even in spiritual matters, we are ill equipped to judge.  And so Matthew continues recording the Sermon on the Mount in chapter seven of his gospel.

Jesus continues in verse 1 saying … “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”  When we judge others, we reveal something about ourselves.  It is automatic.  It is unavoidable.  No matter the subject, from bad fashion, to bad doctrine, what we use to judge others says MORE about us, than it will ever say about them.  And so, our Lord, the One we claim to follow, gives us a simple instruction that we should just not judge.  He continues in verse 2 saying … “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”  The brick of truth we use to slam others in the head, will eventually be the same brick that slams us.  As our insight into truth deepens we will come to realize the using truth to slam others is the wrong use of truth at all.  Truth without love, is “truth” outside of Jesus, and therefore less about truth and more about opinion.  Doctrines are meant to point people to Jesus, not divide people who claim His name from truly loving each other.

Jesus continues in verse 3 saying ... “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? [verse 4] Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? [verse 5] Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”  This analogy is not just about fashion, or about whether a couple is evenly matched in beauty and physique.  It is about something deeper than this.  It is about doctrine.  The mote that is in our brother’s eye represents some misunderstanding our brother has in related to scripture, that we think we know better about.  The condition of our brother is not even made in dispute, Jesus does not even argue it.  But, the beam that is in our own eye, represents a FAR greater error by orders of magnitude than the little misunderstanding our brother has.  I dare say, it is the beam of doctrines, rigid and large and all-encompassing that have no sense of love within them.

While we take an unusual interest in the small error of our brother, we reveal our complete misunderstanding of love at all.  Love is not meant as an excuse to sin, it is meant as a motive to seek Jesus who can change our very desires to want sin no more.  Love does not destroy doctrine, it becomes the foundation for them.  For if doctrine cannot be forged in love, it is merely opinion, not truth.  Truth is unafraid of new thinking, of questions, of growing larger than it is today, because our understanding grows larger.  We begin to incorporate other perspectives of the body, the eyes, the ears, the fingers.  And instead of shrinking, our truth becomes greater and more beautiful.  The man sees himself through the lens of Christ and sees that love reflected and true, is a great attractive quality that any woman would cherish.  The woman sees herself through the lens of Christ, and realizes that perfection is not brought about by Maybelline, but by submission to Jesus who makes her of infinite value to His Kingdom and the heart of any man.  Families are formed, with Jesus as the foundation, and nothing Satan can throw can rip them apart.

We learn to obey the simple edict of our Lord, to judge not.  Then the strangest of things happens.  Jesus proceeds with a text that is nearly the exact opposite of the entire lesson He just lays out.  Jesus continues in verse 6 saying … “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”  Yikes.  We just went through the entire idea of Judging Not, His exact words, but now dogs and pigs are introduced.  How can we know who a dog or pig is?  Isn’t the point of the gospel to be shared with those who do not know Jesus?  If we begin by thinking they are all dogs and pigs, who would ever get to hear the gospel.  It makes no sense, or does it?

Take a closer look at the preceding texts.  The beams and motes, are in your “brother’s” eye and your own.  It would seem as though these verses are specifically targeted at members, at believers in Jesus.  We should be avoiding the doctrinal brick in the head between those who claim the name of Jesus, of those who believe in Him.  The generic admonition not to judge, allows us to spread the gospel of love to everyone without judgment.  Where the dogs and pigs begin to emerge is where love of others is rejected in favor of love of self.  Those who would twist the gospel of love, into blanket excuse and permission to love themselves with abandon, without limits, and at the expense of others.  Those who claim forgiveness is their get out of jail free card, while having no intention of change, or desire to change.  Those who would twist the life and sacrifice of Jesus as a way to sin and claim forgiveness, never even attempting to see if the sin itself might be transformed away from them, removed from their desires, and replaced by something more holy.

The pigs who would turn and rend you, cut you with sharp teeth and no concern, can easily be those whose version of life and philosophy is self-centric and do not want it disturbed.  They can certainly be out of the church, but they can populate it as well.  Those who do not understand love, may not want you to upset their perception of love for others.  They may be greedily feasting on doctrines who do not require them to love, only to obey the lists of do’s and don’ts outlined in the traditional interpretations of men.  It is not up to us to pre-determine who the dogs and pigs are.  It is up to us to be careful when we encounter them.  And to take heed not to become them.  The latter the far more dangerous outcome of our embrace of the rigidity of doctrine than the former.  To keep our pearls, and keep what is holy, we must center our love in Jesus Christ, and insure it always turns outward, away from ourselves, to those in need.  When our love is rejected on occasion, we must be more careful in its expression, and pray more for change.

In this way, we adhere to the counsel of Jesus, avoiding judgment, and still passionately pointing the world to Jesus to find relief from sin, not a continued embrace of it.

And the sermon was far from over …

 

John's Second Letter to the Church ...

John begins his second letter using a new way to identify the church of Christ, as being a ‘Lady’.  This may well have been an active reference to the book of Revelations where he writes many things about a “woman” who was persecuted by the dragon.  John, in the book of Revelations, compares the church to a good woman, and he compares the world to a woman like Jezebel, a harlot, who seduces many.  In this letter he begins by greeting the lady and her children, a reference to the little children he wrote about in the first letter, and admires them in truth.  His greeting then extends to include Grace, Mercy, Peace, Truth, and Love.  This was quite a wonderful blessing, something needed as much then, as it is now in our own churches.

In verses 4 to 6 He continues his appeal to the ‘lady’, and continues the over-riding theme of his first lengthier letter, that the foremost concern we must have as Christians is to love one another.  So as not to be misinterpreted as to what love is, he gives it a simple definition … “And this is love, that we walk after His commandments”.  Those who say that the commandments of Christ authored on the top of Mount Sinai were nailed to the cross of Calvary, apparently did not get the memo from John.  John continually measures our love for each other by our harmony with the laws of God.  When Christ Himself summarized the law He summed it up by saying the first and therefore most important law was to love God with everything we have; the second to love each other. 

To discard love on the cross makes no sense at all.  Why would the God of love, in the crowning act of love and service, be trying to make null the very love He was expressing for His creations?  If the goal of Calvary was to free us from the law, then it would be to free us from love itself – to embrace what?  Hate, vengeance, self-interest, these are the things of Satan and the reason why the law of love is constantly broken.  Evil is defined as the opposite of love.  And again here in a very short letter to the church of his day, John again measures our love by our harmony with the laws of God, the laws of love itself.

John further states that this is not something new, it is not a new commandment, it has been with them “from the beginning”.   ‘Beginning’ is another interesting word.  One could apply it to the day of Pentecost when the birth of the Holy Spirit poured out on the early church gave it the start the world had never seen.  Or one could go back further and apply the commandment to the point in the ministry of Christ when He had summarized the commandments to the questioning listeners trying to trap Him in which law is most important.  Or one could go back further to the birth of Christ, and His entry into the world.  But the beginning could be referencing all the way back to the mountain top at Sinai when the law of love was first documented for the benefit of mankind. 

I believe John was referring back even farther, to the creation of mankind itself, which in essence was ‘our’ beginning.  At that time the institutions of marriage, the seventh day Sabbath, and a daily personal fellowship with God walking in the evenings in the Garden of Eden were established.  Before sin entered the picture, love was already present.  It was present in the marriage of Adam and Eve.  It was present in weekly rest of the Sabbath God had given them.  And it was present in the daily talks with God Himself.  It would take another 2800 years after the fall of man, before a hardcopy of the basic law of God would be needed for man to even remember what love is.  But here John calls us to remember, that the commandments of God, are the basis for our measurement of love to each other.

In verses 7 to 11 John addresses a new growing threat to the infant church of Christ.  The idea of a literal Jesus Christ, who came and died in the flesh, began to be replaced as being merely an idea, or a Spirit.  This dangerous doctrine would seek to undo the sacrifice Christ made to redeem us, and therefore to diminish the cost of our redemption; to cheapen grace.  To acknowledge that Christ was a literal person, cast blame upon the Jews and Romans who ended up killing Him.  It pointed out in stunning clarity that the very organized religion of God, was the vehicle to kill the Messiah they had so long waited for.  And further, when looking in the mirror, we realize our own accountability for the death of Christ, as He had to die for the choices we made, and continue to make.  The Roman guard who nailed the hands of Christ, shares his hammer with me, each time I decide my own pleasure supersedes the laws of love John writes about.  That is not a pleasant thought.  So in his day, John encounters those false ‘teachers’ who would rather ascribe the life of Christ as being too good to be true, and therefore more of a Spirit, Ghost, or idea, than a man born in the flesh.  John states that Christ was real, and only by accepting this truth, can we ever hope to reach the Father who is also real.

John goes further, and draws a line about supporting this kind of nonsense.  He asks the believers not to receive these false teachers into their homes, or offer them blessings in their work.  John does not want those who hold to the truth, to have their own faith or ideas shaken by the various counterfeits of Satan.  Any teaching that would demean Christ, or attempt to elevate a human to the position only Christ could hold was based in error.  We are redeemed only by the singular work of Christ performed within us, the perfecting of His love inside of us.  This is a work only Christ is qualified to do.  No spiritual leader is able to reach inside of you and change what you want, who you are, and therefore what you do.  A spiritual teacher may influence how you think, but they cannot change who you are. 

This is a work of perfection only Christ can do.  It is yet another service our God does for us.  So many leaders, even inside of Christianity attempt to become agents of salvation, rather than pointing us to the only true means of salvation.  They falsely tell us to look to ourselves and make better choices to remove our sins, and that we can be responsible for our own perfection.  In so doing, they deny the work of service only Christ can perform within us, and encourage us to make ‘self’ our God instead of Christ, all under the name of Christianity.  And so is born the doctrine of antichrist.  It is possible even within the name of Christianity to lose focus on Christ as our only method of redemption from evil, replacing Him with a ‘partnership’ with ourselves, or worse a wholesale replacement based on our own ‘good works’. 

In so doing we no longer feel the need to humble ourselves, and submit to the transforming love of Christ.  Love is never our real motivation.  Control, and status with others, in short pride of being a ‘righteous’ person tempts us away from the humility it would require to go to Christ and admit we ‘cannot’ and need Him to save us from us.  This dangerous doctrine forms the basis of every false religion in the world – that man can save man from the creature he is, by what he does.  Self-denial is not the key to Christianity.  Self-control is not the key to perfection.  Self is the very enemy of anything in harmony with God.  It is the death of self in us, that must be achieved, before others can take a higher priority in our motivation than ourselves.  This lack of self, or freedom from self, can only be achieved by the divine work of Christ within us.  It is not something we are able to do for ourselves.  We do not keep the commandments of God to achieve our perfection; we keep them because the perfection Christ creates inside of us, can think of no other way to live.

John concludes his letter by telling his readers he has much more to say, but he intends to visit them personally to say it.  Then he salutes his readers with a greeting from the children of “thy elect sister”.  Again John uses the idea of a chaste woman to represent the church of Christ.  This distinction is important as much of Revelation cannot be understood without it.  It is also interesting that John uses the imagery of a woman to define the church rather than a righteous man.  In his day, a woman was much more dependent on her husband for her survival.  Our church then must be dependent on Christ for our survival.  A woman was protected by her husband, as our church is protected from the assaults of the devil by our Lord Jesus Christ.  John does not present the church of Christ as a strong figure able to sustain itself based on the strength it inherently has.  Instead, he presents the church as being chaste, but still in a state of dependence.  The characteristics of how a woman loves and how she gives her whole heart to just one, is more important to John to describe the church, than the image of a mighty man of war who could defeat his enemies by his strength of arms and will.  John would rather call it like it is, he would rather keep it ‘real’, by talking to little children, and comparing the church to a good woman. 

I wonder what images we conjure in our minds today to describe our churches?  I would bet a playground full of trusting, happy, loving, playful toddlers is not the first image that comes to mind.  Our American idealism has crept into our churches and brought with it the spirit of self-reliance, and independence – rather than the pure dependence a child must have on its parent to survive, and the freedom this dependence offers.  Our Lord teaches community, not isolationism.  Our Lord teaches us to reach out in love, particularly to those who do not deserve it.  Our national pride teaches us to give only as it makes budgetary sense, and hold accountable those who make bad decisions to suffer the fate of their decisions.  Were this true in how our God thinks about us, redemption would be impossible, and perfection something we could never know.  The true strength of the Christian church can only be found when our weakness is admitted, and then taken to Christ.  Our actions can only be in harmony with the law of love, when we allow the Author of that law, to change who we are from the inside out.  This is not an act of strength on our part; it is an act of divinity on the part of Christ.  Our dependence must be complete, as only that reality will see perfection completed within us.

Jude ...

What would you say to those of the Christian faith today if you only had 7 paragraphs and 25 verses to save the world?  Herein was the epistle of Jude.  Jude who may well have been the half-brother of Christ penned 25 verses to try to remind the church of his day what it means to be saved.  He opens in verse one with a greeting identifying himself as the brother of James, followed by the most salient words in the entirety of the Bible – a phrase that often is overlooked as merely part of a cordial greeting between Christians.  But the phrase that follows is … “to them that are sanctified by God the Father”.  Here Jude identifies the entirety of truth, the whole of how salvation works – we are sanctified by God the Father.  Jude does not say to those who have achieved sanctification by the multitude of good works they have done, or by obtaining a mastery of self-control such that they have avoided the doing of evil.  Sanctification is NOT a work we do for ourselves – it is a work God does for us (sometimes in spite of us).  God makes us sanctified, we receive the benefit of that work.  We do NOTHING to earn it. 

Jude continues … “and preserved in Jesus Christ”.  We do not remain sanctified of our own accord, we are preserved by Jesus.  Our faithfulness is weak, and failing, but our Lord is faithful on our behalf, and preserves our salvation, the work His Father has done for us.  Jude completes his thought with the words … “and called.”  He reminds us that we are called of Christ to be His.  Our response, our acceptance of His call, or heeding the call, this is the role we have to play.  The work of salvation is done by God.  We are preserved by Christ, and called home to the redemption He offers.  This single sentence gives such a beautiful and poignant picture of the message of the gospel from end to end.  Our God has saved us, through Jesus Christ.  Jude begins his letter with a summary of the gospel, with a single sentence that says it all.

Then Jude completes his opening with a blessing on those who read these words.  He did not know his words would be preserved by Christ, and read by many a subsequent generation of believers.  He had no idea that a Bible would be constructed, and books of various authors would be compiled into the Old and New Testaments.  He did not know his little letter of 25 verses would be placed right before the book of Revelations in this New Testament, and considered part of the sacred and inspired writings of the Word of God.  Jude was simply blessing his readers, the audience he presumed would be made up of the early Christian faith of his time.  These were people like him.  They knew poverty.  They knew slavery and persecution.  They knew hunger.  They knew what it meant to be cold when it was cold outside.  They lived in his world.  And so Jude thought to bless them with a blessing he knew they would need.

Jude offers in verse 2 … “Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.”  The people who would read Jude’s epistle lived in this ultraviolent world where they were physically tortured and persecuted for what they believed.  They had no wealth, no ease, no comforts.  And so when Jude thinks to bless them, he focuses on what is most important to him and to them – their spiritual needs.  He does not offer them wealth, ease, or comforts.  He offers no fame, no power, not even freedom from their oppression.  Instead he begins with Mercy or unmerited favor.  Here again Jude restates the nature of why we are saved; we are saved by the Mercy of our God, not by what we have done.  He then offers peace.  Not peace with the world as this would be impossible while Satan seeks only to destroy.  Instead I believe he offers us peace within our faith, within our ranks, with each other, those who claim the name of Christ but do not always see eye-to-eye.  Lastly he offers love, the essence of the character of Christ Himself, and what is more, Jude asks that it be multiplied.  Jude is not just looking for an extra measure of love; he is looking for a quantum leap of love.  He wants it to be rapidly and measurably increased to those who believe.  For it is love that marks the life and ministry of Christ, and love that is the one characteristic of those who have given themselves over to Christ and are in the process of being made sanctified.

With his opening summary of the gospel, and offer of blessing complete, he begins his second paragraph in verse 3 and wishes to address a concern he has for the early fellowship of believers that now comprise the Christian church.  He writes of a “common salvation” and the need to “exhort” his readers that they should … “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”  Jude reminds them that even faith itself is something that was “delivered” to them, not earned, not something that originated within them, but something that was given them.  How does one “contend” for a gift?  Perhaps by being willing to receive it.  Perhaps by being humble enough to know it must be received as a gift, and not as wages for works performed.  Or Perhaps Jude only meant that they should not give up praying or asking for the faith they were daily given.  Then Jude offers the reason why seeking the gift of God of faith is so important to them.

In verse 4 there … “are certain men who have crept in unawares.”  These men were of bad intent, or of self-concerned focus from before.  They were ungodly.  These men who had infiltrated the ranks of the Christian faith were a great danger to them because they were … “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness”.  Ever heard the phrase “cheap grace”?  Even in our early Christian church the concept that being made sanctified by God had been misapplied by these evil men, twisted for them to believe that being sanctified by God allowed them to do anything they pleased.  They took the grace of God as a license to lust, a license to please themselves, and in so doing earned Jude’s assessment of them as “ungodly”.  For our God loves us, His creations, not Himself.  These men love only themselves and not others and as such they are the reverse of God or ungodly.  They twisted grace from the freedom from sin that God offers, to a warped freedom “to” sin instead.  They thought to please themselves sexually, and use grace to excuse it.  But they did not stop there with their errors.

He continues … “and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”  In this, I do not believe that Jude is saying these men verbally deny God, and the divinity of Christ.  They may have when it suited them, perhaps in the middle of committing nefarious deeds.  However if they denied Christ around other Christians, they would not have been able to infiltrate the early church.  I think that Jude is here referring to them doing a far worse act.  I believe Jude is calling them out for denying God his ability to sanctify them, and the Lord Jesus Christ’s work of preserving them and saving them from the slavery of self.  Our God offers them salvation despite their deeds, and they deny Him, or reject his offer.  This happens outside of our eyesight and within their hearts.  As they reject God’s offer of salvation, they replace the role of God, with what “they think” should be the nature of salvation.  When the focus is removed from God and placed on self, the pleasing of self takes priority, and it is not uncommon to see lascivious acts follow.

Jude begins his third paragraph in verse 5 with a series of analogies to illustrate that having been once saved, it is possible to reverse this condition, by taking the eyes off of God, and placing them back on self.  He reminds them in verse 5 of how God saved His people out of Egypt, but those who did not believe were destroyed.  This did not happen all at once; instead it happened little by little.  Those who refused to put the lamb’s blood over their doorways even after witnessing the power of God 9 times through horrific pestilences designed to melt the heart of proud Pharaoh, would still perish for having ignored God yet again.  Those who would not cross the parted Red Sea would have died.  Those who forsook God because Moses was delayed on the top of Mt. Sinai and even when he confronted them, they chose to worship the golden calf instead of God, died.  Those who refused to enter the Promised Land died in the desert of old age wandering.  Those who refused to just “look” at the serpent on the cross died of the snake bites they had received instead of accepting the healing God offered.  Every time the children of Israel refused to believe, they suffered the results of their choice.  Every time salvation is rejected, death follows.  This was the lesson of Israel.  It did not matter if you had put blood over your doorstep in Egypt and were spared, if you now had decided to refuse to look at the serpent on the cross after having been bitten by a snake.  Because you were saved at one time through your belief in God, does not sustain you forever if you lose sight of that belief, or refuse to keep believing.  This was the lesson Jude was trying to remind his audience of.  The same is true of us today.

Jude continues in verse 6 by pointing out this is not even just a human phenomenon.  Angels who were once perfect but made a choice to leave that perfection, are now destined, or “chained” or enslaved to the service of self, and heading to a destruction they will not escape.  Jude points out in verse 7 that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah whose level of slavery to self, had so degenerated to the point where any form of rape was considered commonplace, were destroyed by “the vengeance of eternal fire.”  Jude is reminding his readers that these pretend Christians, who deny the salvation of Christ, and engage in the pleasing of self, that use grace as a license to fornicate, are not destined to anything other than self-destruction.  When one denies Jesus, one cuts off the only mechanism by which freedom from sin can be achieved, and the darkness that results is akin to how bad Sodom and Gomorrah were.  Those cities were not burned merely because there were homosexuals within them.  If that were true, no city in the world would still be standing before or since.  They were burned because the level of depravity had sunk so low, that rape and crimes of sexual nature, were considered the norm.  Nothing was out of bounds, not even murder.  Life was worth nothing in those cities, as life without the salvation of God is worth nothing in the end.  Jude attempts to remind his audience that grace is designed to lift us out of our depravity not sink us down to its lowest depths.

It is also worth noting the phrase … “the vengeance of eternal fire.”  As we look out across the Middle East we see no continued rain of fire from heaven over the former locations of these corrupt cities on the plains.  They were burned to the ground, and then the fire stopped.  They are not “still” burning.  The punishment was eternal in the sense that they were wiped out, their inhabitants exterminated.  But the flames did not need to keep burning to prove the point.  When the work of the fire was complete, the fire was extinguished.  The flames came from the eternal source, they had eternal consequences, but did not need to keep burning to prove it.  Perhaps Jude is making a more subtle point about the nature of hell itself, perhaps Jude is drawing the analogy that the flames of hell will have eternal consequences, but do not need to burn for all eternity just to prove it.

In his fourth paragraph beginning in verse 8, Jude continues … “Likewise also these filthy dreamers, defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.”  These pretend Christians that Jude is concerned about carry lust in their minds, that lust finds an outlet in how they “defile” the flesh.  Whether these acts be fornication, adultery, homosexuality, or masturbation – they are predicated on lust.  The second two phrases carry a greater condemnation.  “Despising dominion” is not about wishing to be free from the Roman yoke of bondage.  It is about the condition required where salvation takes place.  As we are made sanctified by God, it is not something we do, but something we accept.  We must give up our ideas of self-control, and self-based-righteousness, and accept the gift of God on our behalf.  This is a humbling experience.  It is humbling to admit that you “cannot” do it, and must accept it as a gift instead.  To remove the sin from your life, you must yield control to God.  To despise dominion is to hate the idea that God must be in control, and not you.  This is something the pretend Christians have a hard time accepting. 

Further, speaking evil of dignities is about how we talk to each other, and what we value.  Judas did not like Mary Magdalene pouring out such expensive oil on the feet of his Lord.  He would rather have had the money himself, to use as he saw fit.  Those Christians who speak ill of giving to the poor follow the path of Judas.  They reveal where their hearts truly are, and in so doing, they speak evil of dignities.  In verse 9, Jude gives the example of how we speak, even when confronting evil which is clearly in the wrong.  We do not need the use of railing accusations, but can be content with the simplicity of … “the Lord rebuke thee”.  

In verse 10, Jude makes the contrast of how they speak evil of things they know not, and instead follow what is natural to them, comparing them to “brute beasts.”  Jude points out again that the lust they cherish within them, leads them to corrupt themselves.  In verses 11 thru 13, Jude tries to warn them of path they are on.  He compares them to Cane, Balaam, and Core.  He makes the analogy of the dead fruit tree, waterless clouds, and foaming waves on the sea.  In this he points out they have no fruit as they have rejected the root of their religion (Jesus) and are therefore dead.  They are directionless, carried around like clouds or aimless waves, with fury perhaps, but no purpose, no meaning, no worth to others only to themselves.  The three Biblical characters he compares them to all had a knowledge of God, and all sought to use God in a way that suited themselves, instead of allowing God to be in control.  All 3 sought to gain something personally from the service of God, instead of blessing others by following the guidance or character of God.  This is what happens when “love” is turned inward towards self and away from the real “love” of others.

Jude’s fifth paragraph is an interesting one.  He quotes scripture (again remembering he only had the Old Testament writings as a reference) and in this case quotes from a book that is not a part of our Biblical compilation.  He quotes from the book of Enoch, believed to have been written by Enoch the great-grandfather of Noah, and preserved through the flood, perhaps passed down after Moses somewhere.  Parts of it were located in the Dead Sea scrolls along with the book of Daniel.  It is considered canonical only by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and was not generally accepted by the Jews because of its incorporation angels in its topics.  But here Jude makes reference to it and appears to accept it as a part of what he decries in reference to these pretend Christians.  The theme of what Jude quotes from the book of Enoch is not only found there, there are similar warnings in other works.  But Jude uses it to show that these ungodly men, need to be convicted that what they do is ungodly, and how they speak is ungodly.  The murmuring and complaining, and walking after their own lusts is a problem.  It is also a problem to speak “great swelling words” for the sake of pleasing those who have money or as Jude puts it … “having men’s person in admiration because of advantage.”  Jude is contrasting the ministry of Christ our God, with how these men behave and noting that what they do is the opposite of what Christ did, making them ungodly.

Finally Jude returns in his sixth paragraph beginning in verse 17 thru 19 by reminding his audience that warning of these kinds of pretenders were issued by the Apostles as well, not just in the Old Testament.  They too warned of “mockers”, or those who seek to use the grace of God, to give them an excuse to please themselves … “walk after their own ungodly lusts.”  Jude warns that these people tend to separate themselves, being … “sensual, having not the Spirit.”  How often in our isolation do we find ourselves free to pursue our evil intentions without the burden of someone else witnessing our selfish acts.  It is not the act of sexual intimacy that Jude warns of, it is the act of self-indulgence that leads to a void of intimacy and a path of self-destruction that rejects the Spirit of God.  Jude is warning his brothers in the faith, not to pursue self, but to remain compliant, humble, and willing to be saved.  He contrasts those who would keep their faith centered in Christ, with those who put faith in themselves, and points out how far that depravity will run.  Jude counsels them, and tries to warn them, about where a Christian in name only, will find himself over time.

In verse 20 Jude tells them how to avoid this fate for themselves.  He tells them to build themselves up on their most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.  Remember that this was the faith that was given to them.  It is not a faith they earned, but rather a faith they were humble enough to receive.  It is on this faith, this gift, that is outside of themselves, that Jude says is safe to build upon.  He is telling them to “let” Christ continue the work that has been started in them.  He tells his listeners to continue to pray in the Holy Ghost.  Even their prayers should be something assisted by someone outside of themselves.  In this verse Jude highlights a belief in the three-part personage or nature of God.  Jude clearly articulates a difference in God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and here the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.  While it may be difficult to ever understand the entire nature of God, Jude seems content in his understanding that there are three united in one purpose for the salvation of mankind.  Three who are One.

In verse 21 he continues … “Keep yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”  Jude reminds us that our focus should always be first and foremost on the LOVE OF GOD.  Again it is hallmark of a Christian when they reflect the love God has for others.  God loves without discrimination or limit.  He does not restrict His love from those who do not deserve it because of the evil they have or are committing.  Instead He longs to free them from this evil through the power of His love.  He reminds us of our dependency of the mercy of Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.  Jude reminds us of our great need of mercy, of unwarranted favor, of forgiveness.  Jude points out our imperfections not to glorify them, or excuse them, but to again remind us of our need of His mercy to see them removed from us.

In verses 22 and 23 Jude keeps the focus on our great commission, our great mission as Christians – to share the testimony of our salvation with the world around us.  He tells us to have compassion, and that our compassion will make a difference.  He also tells us that some may only come to see love after having initially encountered fear, that we might actually pull them out of the fire.  But not by engaging in their wickedness with them, instead … “hating even the garment that is spotted by the flesh.”  Jude does not intend for us to try to go around attempting to scare people into the kingdom.  But he does point out, that some people will only seek God when they fear for their lives.  For some, they only go after a miracle when they are in need of one.  A patient waiting on the results of a cancer assessment, a soldier in a foxhole, a person like Mary caught in the act of adultery and facing the condemnation from what she has done.  Some people only seek something outside of themselves when facing these fearful situations when they are forced to confront the fact that they are NOT truly in control of themselves.  Jude tells us not to leave them in their fear, but instead to pull them out of the fire.  Show to them the power of love, and help them to see for themselves, what allowing God to change them can truly accomplish.

Jude starts to conclude his letter the same way he opened it, with a description of how salvation works.  In his last paragraph beginning in verse 24  he writes … “24.) Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25.) To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”  The only one who is “able to keep us from falling” is Jesus.  But in these words Jude reminds us that our failure is assured outside of the power of Christ.  Sin is removed from us by Christ, not by our own actions or power of will.  And this is not a work Christ regrets, or only performs as a sense of obligation to fulfill His word and promise to us – instead it is a work that brings Him … “glory with exceeding joy”.  The glory of our God is defined in how much He loves us; in how much He does for us; in how much our God serves us, His lowly creation.  This is how glory is defined.  It is not defined by how much we appreciate what He does, but rather is a testament of the fact He does it.  Our appreciation of the work of Christ and our resulting worship does not glorify Him, it only recognizes the glory of what He has already done.  His glory predates our worship.

Jude then concludes with honoring our God, recognizing that ONLY He is a wise God.  Glory, Majesty, Dominion, and Power are His already, both now and forever.  These are characteristics that Jude sees in the God he serves.  Jude offers this in the form of a prayer and concludes with Amen.  Jude may well have understood these aspects of God from following Christ as a disciple those many years.  Perhaps he saw it reflected in him during the time they spent together as a family before He was called to His ministry at His baptism.  Perhaps the half-brother of Christ knew him like only family could.  But no matter, Jude does not use his familial connection as a method of assuring his own salvation.  Instead he offers the same message of hope in Christ to his brothers as well as himself.  Sharing Mary as their mother was not Jude’s claim to fame, instead it was the sharing of the love of God.  It is the love of God that unites the entirety of the Christian family.  It is the love of God that can transform a life of slavery to self to a life of service and love to others.  It is a submission to God that results in the perfection of our characters such that we begin to hate even the garment that is spotted by the flesh.  It is the love of God that we are to focus on and share with EVERYONE.  With those who are in fear for their lives, to those who know not the name of Christ, to those who are steeped in their wrong doing.  For it is only the power of the love of God that can reclaim those lost lives, and preserve them to the coming of our Lord.  Our salvation is found only in Jesus.  This is the message of Jude.  Do not look for salvation within yourselves, look for it in Christ.  For only there will it be found.

The short and succinct book of Jude speaks to Christians.  It warns those who would use grace to pursue the evil of self-indulgence and mock grace by attempting to use it to excuse the sin they love.  It tells us to remain humble and accept salvation as the gift that it is.  And it exhorts us to ever keep our focus on the LOVE of God.  In just 7 paragraphs and 25 short verses, Jude summarizes the entirety of the purpose of both Old and New Testaments.  What else might we find when we open the Book and take a second look …

The Disciples of Christ

And then there were twelve: The story of Christ unfolds first from those who were with him from the start.  It was common practice in the time of Christ that when a great philosopher or theologian or prophet became known, those who wished to learn more became disciples.  The hope was often to become an apprentice much like Elisha did with Elijah in older times.  John the Baptist was born close to the time of Christ, in fact he was His cousin.  But John began his ministry earlier than when Christ became publicly known.  John was called to prepare the way of the Messiah.  He spoke with power and conviction, and the Holy Spirit blessed his work.  John had a weird diet.  He lived away from the cities and out in the wild.  He dressed funny.  He spent most of his time calling for the people to repent of their sins and be baptized in anticipation of the soon coming of the Messiah.  And due to the blessing of the Holy Spirit, this wild man speaking from the rivers became widely known throughout the region.  As usual the established religious leadership felt threatened by John and did not approve of a ministry they could not control.  When John rebuked them as hypocrites, their animosity for him only increased.  But despite the prevailing wisdom and long history of formal education of scriptures, it was John who was called to prepare the way of the Lord, not the current priests or religious leaders.  The establishment had failed.  And as it happens two young men became the disciples of John to learn more of the coming Messiah.  When Christ entered the scene, John directed them to follow Him, the One they had waited for.  It was from this humble beginning that two who were seeking God found Him.

The story of the first two disciples has a commonality with many past Biblical patriarchs.  Abraham searched for the true God, rejecting the customs of his family and the practice of worshipping idols in favor of something real.  And Abraham found God.  Paul too had a religious fervor, and truly believed He was serving his God, until on a road to Damascus, he found Him.  Paul knew this was God, and from that moment on, He served only the God He found on that road.  The point of many stories throughout scripture is that when man goes looking for God, He generally finds Him.  Christ did not pick His first two disciples at random, they picked Him.  At the time, all those two men had was the word of their current teacher, that this stranger was the Son of God.  No proof, no evidence yet, no miracles to rely on, just the word of John.  Once they saw the Baptism of Christ, they saw their first evidence that indeed this was someone new.  But they did not begin to follow Christ until He had returned from His torturous 40 days in the desert.  By then Christ was emaciated.  His appearance would have been near death from the ordeal His humanity endured to know what temptation for us is like.  But despite the physical changes, John knew Him right away, and again sent his disciples to be with Christ. 

The two would grow to a number of twelve over time.  Some of them would pick Christ, some He would pick.  The number could have been more than 12 if the rich young ruler had accepted the call of Christ to sell his belongings, give it to the poor, and follow Christ.  An esteemed offer from the God of creation, rejected because of the lure of wealth.  One could count Lazarus, Mary, and Martha as disciples as well, but it appears Christ counted them as more than that, He counted them as friends.  John was given the honor of being called the beloved.  Perhaps that is because John loved Christ more than he loved himself.  It was only John, who stood next to Mary the mother of Christ at the terrible crucifixion.  He had slept in the Garden of Gethsemane, and fled at the betrayal of Christ, like all the others.  But at some point he must have decided nothing else mattered, he had to be with his Lord, and in so doing found himself comforting Mary at the cross.  Again it looks as though John did not earn the title of beloved because Christ loved John more than He loved the others, but perhaps because John loved Christ more than the others.  How we become disciples of Christ may well be just like those 12 came to know Him; because we look for Him.  We choose to follow Him.  We choose to love Him.   And in so doing we become “the beloved” as well.

We start with an examination of the works of the disciples simply because they had the closest proximity to Christ for the longest period of time.  I make a distinction between disciples and apostles in that I consider apostles as those who had great ministries and lived at the time of Christ, but may not have been part of the original 12.  Matthias the replacement for Judas for example had only a limited time with Christ before He ascended; whereas John knew Him from that day at the river some 3 and half years earlier.  I would bet that some of the apostles named later in scripture were a part of the 70 others who Christ had called in His ministry.  Perhaps Stephan, Apollos, and maybe a few others named in the New Testament were a part of that crowd. 

When most Christians think of who the twelve disciples were, the names of the first four gospels spring to mind – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  In point of fact, only Matthew and John were actual disciples of Christ.  It is believed that the gospel of Mark, may well have been dictated to him by the disciple Peter.  And the Gospel of Luke as well as the book of Acts were written by a well-educated, well-traveled, Jewish literate physician who was a companion of Paul.  The twelve disciples of Christ who were with Him the longest in His ministry included:

·         Simon Peter (also called Simon Bar Jonah/Jochanon, and Cephas) he was the brother of Andrew

·         Andrew who was the brother of Peter and the former disciple of John the Baptist

·         James the son of Zebedee and brother of John (sons of thunder)

·         John the son of Zebedee and brother of James (sons of thunder) and the beloved

·         Phillip from the Bethsaida of Galilee region

·         Bartholomew (also called Nathaniel) son of Talemai

·         Matthew (also called Levi) the tax collector

·         Thomas (also called Didymus) famous for doubting

·         James (also called James the lessor, or James the Just) the son of Alphaeus

·         Thaddeaus (also called Jude or Lebbaeus)

·         Simon (the Zealot)

·         Judas Iscariot the one who betrayed Him

Whether they were called by Christ to follow Him, or took the initiative on their own to do so, they were welcomed and given the opportunity to spend every waking moment in close proximity to our God.  Though the conditions were far from ideal; they were poor, they were outcast, and they were perpetually in motion – either chased by or requested by the people; they were also spending all their time at the feet of our God.  They knew His love personally.  They knew it as a direct expression of a personal relationship each one had with our God.  This is why their testimonies remain so powerful even today.  The personal testimony of a life directly touched by God, saved by Christ, has something to say to the world.  The words carry weight when they come from a place that is real, that is personal, that has a meaning only you can know.  We too can be a part of this close-knit group, this one to one fellowship with the Savior of the world, and of ourselves.  It is what He calls us yet to be.  Our only part is to accept His call, and receive the gifts He offers, including a close-knit fellowship that can begin today that will one day reach fulfillment face to face in His eternal kingdom.

For now, we begin our re-examination of His Word, beginning with what just may be family.  While Mary the mother of Christ was a virgin at His conception and remained so until His birth, there is nothing to indicate that Mary and Joseph did not have a normal married life following the birth of Christ.  There are several references to Mary as being the mother of more than just Jesus.  The other children who are mentioned in the New Testament include: James, Joses, Juda/Judas, Simon, and Salome (likely His sister).  These siblings would have only been half-brothers and sisters by blood as God was the Father of Christ, not Joseph.  But this familial distinction was hardly relevant from Christ’s perspective.  He welcomed anyone who chose to believe in Him as family.  It is however believed that the book of James may well have been written by the half-brother of Christ.  There are other competing theories about the origin and authorship of the book of James, but as it may have been written by a family member it is worth examining sooner rather than later.  Another book in our New Testament that may well have been written by another half-brother of Christ was the general epistle of Jude.  As with many of the books included in our Bible, the authorship traces back to several different theories, but it appears the most likely, that this was the brother of James, and half-brother of Christ.  As such we will begin our examination with the books of Jude and James.