JUDE

Part One

Survival in the Day of Apostasy

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

©  God’s Breath Publications

 

JUDE 1-7

 

“1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:

 

2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

 

3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

 

4 For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

 

5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

 

6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home — these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

 

7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”

 

Jude is not a common book of the Bible that is read, studied or preached, but it has lots of application for our world today. This book has the name of its writer, Jude, who was the half-brother of Jesus. We learn in verse three that the content of the letter is not what Jude had intended to write at first. Someone or something interrupted his thought process and convicted him to write a letter of drastic importance to address a critical spiritual situation in the local churches. Whether it was the Holy Spirit or someone with news of a serious problem in the early church, there was danger sneaking into the fellowships of Christians that had to be confronted.

 

“1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ: 2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.”

 

Jude begins his letter by describing those he is writing to as being “called,” “loved” and “kept.” This is a precious and godly greeting that describes not only the Christians that Jude was writing to, but also is very descriptive of who we are in Christ as Christians living in the 21st Century. We are “called” by God to live a holy life, serve others and contend for the faith. We are “loved” by our Heavenly Father and this motivates us to love others in His name. We are also “kept” by Jesus Christ because He died for us and paid our debt of sin. We are called, kept and loved by our Heavenly Father and we need to be reminded of this. We need to be reminded because just as the first century Christians were faced with the influx of false teachers that wished to distort their perception of who they were in Christ, we have the same problem today.

 

3 “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”

 

In verse three Jude reveals the fact that he changed his mind on what he was going to write to these first century Christians. Like a mother who rushes to the rescue of an endangered child or a soldier who dives into battle to save a comrade, something diverted Jude from his original intent and it must have been a very serious concern to change his course of writing. He says in verse three:

 

Here we see that Jude, with extreme desire, instructing the Christians to contend for the faith.  In other words, he is calling them to attention and commanding them to get suited up for battle. The reason for his concern is that subversive and evil individuals were sneaking into their fellowships.

 

While the phrase, “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” doesn’t appear to be of any great significance, nothing could be further from the truth. That was the main problem with these sneaky, self-serving, unholy false teachers that were creeping into the churches. They were teaching new man-made unholy doctrine and practicing sinful lustful behavior that could destroy the church. Jude was reminding these Christians that the faith that they had been taught in the past was all they needed to know. There was nothing new they needed to be taught, especially not any doctrines of men that did not reflect the gospel of Christ and truth of God.

 

This brings up an important point for us today. Currently there are many false teachers that are not only circling our churches, like ravenous wolves, but they are also infiltrating the church and portraying themselves as truthful godly men, which they are not. They twist scripture and outright lie. They introduce “new” doctrines that have nothing to do with the Word of God. They appeal to the basic needs of people and attempt to lead them astray. They deceive and take advantage of people. They portray themselves as godly representatives of Jesus Christ when in actuality they either have no relationship with Christ at all, or if they do, live for themselves by using their ministries to gain power, prestige and possessions. These false teachers have misled and confused thousands of individuals who in turn, infiltrate churches to cause further division and turmoil. They will consume Christian fellowships from the inside out if not confronted. Listen to Jude write about these men that are sneaking into the local church like subversive terrorists.

 

4 “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

 

Notice the threefold description of these deceiving individuals. They are first of all godless. This means they are wicked, irreverent and in constant opposition to God and His will. They have nothing resembling godlike thoughts, motives or behavior in their lives.

 

Secondly they change the grace of God into license to sin. In other words, they say that God’s grace covers all sin, so they can sin all they want with no consequences. There was a Gnostic influence in the first century which is rising again in our world today. The Gnostics believed that the physical world, including a person’s body, was evil and the spirit of a person was good. This false belief caused them to deduce that anything they did with the “evil” body was fine since what was important and good was the spiritual. Thus, they participated in all forms of lustful and sinful practices that they justified because it was covered by the grace of God. We will see later that this false reasoning is foreign to the gospel that Christ and the Apostles taught.

 

Thirdly these men denied the Lordship of Christ and rebelled against His teaching. The same is true of false teachers today. While they may talk about Christ and refer to His teachings, they do not live as if He were Lord and Master of their life. They talk a good talk, but their walk does not reflect a relationship with Jesus.

 

Jude next begins to give examples of people in history that faced judgment because of rebellious acts and he uses these examples to substantiate the fact that God will punish such behavior. The rebellious unholy false teachers that were sneaking into the local churches were going to face discipline and punishment from God and Jude did not want the Christians to follow after them to face the same judgment.

 

First he mentions how Israel rebelled against God after He had saved and delivered them out of Egypt. Their bickering and rebellion was rewarded with discipline from God. Jude mentions this example because he does not want Christians to follow these false teachers and reap the same punishment that Israel did in their rebellion. Many times we become like those we follow and associate with. We are to be in the world but not of the world (1 John 2:15-17). We can’t help being around non-believers or worldly individuals and we are to make ourselves available for God to use us to witness to them, but we need to use caution in how they might influence our walk with our Lord. Jude is concerned that if these Christians do not contend for the faith and confront and expose these false teachers there will be horrible repercussions. Contending for the faith means standing up to those who slip into church fellowship to cause discord and confusion. This protects not only yourself, but also others younger in the faith. Contending for the faith is done in love, through proper channels of authority, with scriptural support and lots of prayer.

 

Jude next gives the example of the angels who rebelled against God with Satan. He states in verse six that they “did not keep their positions of authority.” The punishment for their rebellion was being bound in everlasting chains for judgment. The question arises, “If these angels are bound in chains, what are the demonic forces we battle as Christians?” It is not completely clear according to various commentators, but the most common opinion is that while these angels are bound in chains they can still war against the saints and cause all sorts of havoc. Let us be glad that God has bound them to limit their power and influence. But whatever the meaning behind their God imposed imprisonment or restriction in power, the fact remains that they are being punished for their lack of respect for God’s authority and the same punishment will be laid upon the false teachers. These false teachers will be roommates with the demons in hell for their deceptive teaching and unholy lifestyle.

 

Jude moves on to one of the most well known examples of punishment for rebellion and a godless lifestyle. In verse seven he shares about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. We all know the account of the sexual perversion of individuals in Sodom and Gomorrah, how they craved to have intercourse with the angels visiting Lot. While homosexuals today attempt to reinterpret this passage to say that what was punished was the lack of a “love commitment” among same sex relationships. It is obvious from the original language and Biblical context that what was judged was a desire for an inappropriate sexual union and a rebellion against the boundaries God had laid down for normal biblical relationships.

 

While Jude was written hundreds of years ago, false teachers are still with us today. We still need to contend for the faith and question the teachings and beliefs of those who are not in agreement with “the faith once and for all entrusted to the saints.” The next portion of verses will continue with Jude’s concerns as well as his colorful and accurate description of these false teachers.

 

Matthew 7:15-16

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them.”