“Beloved, … I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed… ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1:3-4)
Jude exhorts his Christian audience to contend earnestly for the faith. Why? Because false teachers (apostates) had infiltrated the church unnoticed.
Apostates are those who are promoting religious beliefs contrary to the true faith, while often pretending to accept and profess the truth faith.
It’s amazing the church didn’t discern these apostates until Jude exposed them!
How can they be recognized? They are ungodly – they live lives unsubmitted to God’s authority. They use God’s grace as an excuse for loose living. They don’t confess or possess Jesus as Lord. Perhaps if Jude were writing this epistle today, he would not only warn of apostates in the church, but also in the media and politics!