Jude versus one through four.

Jude is servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

to those who are called, beloved in God the Father,

and kept for Jesus Christ.

May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation,

I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once

for all delivered to the Saints.

For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation,

ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God

into licentiousness and deny our only master

and Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude begins his little letter and ends it with very comforting words for Christians. Verse 1 describes these people to whom he's writing,

Christians, us, for example,

those who are called loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.

Notice those three verbs, they're all passive called loved kept.

The emphasis falls on God's action. God calls. God loves. God loves. God keeps. We are called. We are loved. We are kept. Jude is very eager to begin his letter

with a word of assurance, of confidence, of keeping.

Then look at the end, verse 24,

now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory.

The same emphasis here, the keeping power of God for his people.

So at the beginning and at the end, you have this stress on God's exertion of his omnipotence to keep his people for that great day when they'll be presented blameless to God in him.

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