The book of Jude packs as important message in its few verses. The first verse, as we noticed last week, makes a radical statement about our being servants, but the radical notions of Jude don't end there.
Jude 1
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ...
The words, "To those who are called, beloved in God the Father..." are words that challenge our individualism. The love of God is first of all not for individuals but for a people called out of darkness and into his marvelous light. The words always assume a community of faith, a people who are called out to become part of a new community. There is no notion, understanding, or even room for a person to believe that he/she is a Christian by him/herself. Jude would not comprehend nor condone the idea that as long as I have my relationship with Jesus all is well. God's people are a called out people, a people who are to form and be part of community. What may surprise us even more is that there is only one place in all of the New Testament where we find love individualized: Paul, in the book of Galatians, talks about himself and says that God loved him and gave himself for him. Other than that one time God's love is spoken in the context of community. The reality of the words of Jude and pretty much everywhere else this topic comes up in the New Testament tells us we need to have a strong focus on the community when we speak of God's love (think of Paul's words in Romans 5.8, "--but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."). We can only imagine what would change in our lives and in our community of faith if we began to speak in ways and believe in ways that reflected "Christ died for us" rather than our overwhelming focus on "Christ died for me".
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