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Peter and Jude

  1. Lesson One
    Overview of 1 Peter
    21 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  2. Lesson Two
    Something Old, Something New (1 Peter Review)
    18 Activities
  3. Lesson Three
    2 Peter
    16 Activities
  4. Lesson Four
    Jude
    14 Activities
  5. Lesson Five
    Case Study: Peter (1 and 2 Peter Review)
    18 Activities
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

Participants 12

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Peter and Jude Jude In | Workbook: “These People”
Lesson 4, Activity 7

In | Workbook: “These People”

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Grab your Workbook Journal!

[Record your answers in the workbook provided at the beginning of this course.]

At the center of Jude is a good old-fashioned rant. After opening his letter with a salutation and greeting to “Dear friends,” Jude turns his attention to a scathing critique. 

Read Jude 4-16, paying attention to how enemies of the church are described.

  1. Jude 4-16 provides a long list of vivid descriptions of enemies of the church, which are included in your workbook table. Briefly scan the table, and suggest four or five contrasting descriptions of believers (called Jude’s “dear friends” in this letter). For example, where the enemies of the church may “pollute their own bodies,” believers may be expected to “keep their bodies pure.” Don’t spend too much time on this, just record those contrasts that most immediately come to mind.
“These people”“Dear friends”
Pollute their own bodies
Reject authority
Heap abuse on celestial beings
Slander whatever they do not understand
Are blemishes at your love feasts
Shepherds who feed only themselves, eating with you without the slightest qualm
Clouds without rain, blown along by the wind
Autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead
Are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame
Wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever
Are grumblers and faultfinders
Follow their own evil desires
They boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage

Table adapted from: Ben Witherington III, Letters and Homilies for Jewish Christians, 2007, p. 626.