If you have been studying the Book of Jude along with us this summer, you’ve doubtless been moved by the language of the fourth verse in the epistle. In this verse, Jude tells us what has prompted his letter, and what has triggered his exhortation to the members of the church to “contend for the faith” (v. 3).

If we were to summarize the situation in view, it would be that the pure, saving grace of the Gospel was being contorted and deformed into something very different. Jude says that the enemies of the Gospel have sought to “pervert the grace of our God” (v. 4). So, there it is. This is the emergency that led the brother of our Lord to pen his note to his fellow-believers in Christ.

The devil, our “ancient foe,” has a number of strategies he uses against the Church and the Gospel. Sometimes it is persecution. Sometimes it is by means of extreme temptation. And then there is his devilish attempt to pollute or change the Gospel message itself. This is the very thing that Jude’s readers were facing. Satan had deployed into the Church a cast of powerfully attractive spokesmen who did not explicitly disavow the grace of God, but sought to twist it into something else altogether.

On Sunday, we will learn more about this demonic strategy, and how we may guard our hearts and our fellowship from such a twisted grace.