The Insider Threat

An insider threat occurs when someone inside a company or organization with authorized access uses their inside position to cause harm to that organization or government or even, if you could believe it inside a church and generally among the wider Christian body. This was a problem in the early church, and it is in our Bible because we need the same warning today and we need to have the same strategy in place Jude gave to the early church.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance. (Jude1-2)

Jude was a missionary along the lines of the Apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 9:5 Paul mentions that Jude took his wife along with him on his missionary journeys. Although he is referred to as Jude, this is a nickname for his real name Judas. It may be preferable to use the name Jude because even though the name means praise, Judas Iscariot spoiled that name.

Jude begins his letter by mentioning his family. He tells us that he is the brother of James.

Since Jude himself mentioned his family, I want to just talk about the other Bible references we know about the family of Jude. His brother James wrote the book of James.

These two brothers were the sons of Joseph and Mary. Their older brother Jesus is their half-brother. All three have Mary as their same mother, but Jesus is the Son of God and Joseph is not Jesus biological father like he is for James and Jude.

“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? (Matthew 13:55) (Mark 6:3)

No other mother, except Mary has two sons who wrote books of the Bible. Two of her sons James and Jude wrote letters that became books of the Bible. Her son Jesus words also make up our New Testament. The writing and speaking of Mary’s three sons make up a significant part of our New Testament.

Of course, if you have seen a red-letter addition of the New Testament, which has all the words of Jesus in Red you see just how much Jesus said making up our New Testament even though Jesus did not write a book of the Bible. There are 65,000 words in the Bible spoken by Jesus.

The influence of Jude’s family does not end there. Some of the words of Jude’s mother are in our Bible and a significantly long song from his mother are in our Bible. Mary’s song Luke 1:46-56.

We have the interaction of Jude’s father, Joseph with the angel Gabriel in our Bible. His words are not recorded in the Bible, but his thoughts are recorded in the Bible. Joseph thought about divorcing Mary quietly, but then the Angel Gabriel appeared to him and instructed him not to do that. Jude’s father obeyed the Angel Gabriel after he delivered that message.

We have some record in the Bible of Jude’s cousin John the Baptist, preaching fiery sermons. He told the people, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is here”, and he said of Jesus, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

We have the words of Jude’s aunt Elizabeth in the Bible (Luke 1:41-45) and the words and the song of Jude’s crazy uncle Zechariah. (Luke 1:68–79)

There was much trouble in Jude’s family too. Before Jude was born his parents had to flee to Egypt. His cousin John was beheaded. His half-brother Jesus was crucified. According to history Jude and his brother James were both martyred for their faith.

Jude wrote to Christians, called, sanctified, preserved. This is not a letter to any particular church, but this is a letter to the scattered Christians. At the time Jude wrote this there was severe persecution to the scattered Christians. It was the time of Nero when Christians were thrown to the lions.

But Jude is warning about another threat here and his audience is those scattered Christians. It was the threat that comes from imposters inside the church. Jude begins by encouraging them by the hope of and abundance of mercy, peace and love.

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (Jude 3-4)