Jude 1:5-7

Jude 1:5-7

How dangerous is it that disciples should become lax concerning holiness, both personal and in community? According to Jude, it is a matter of eternal consequences. While the libertines came with great-sounding arguments and the very appealing offer of sensuality and grace, Jude returns to the history of how God deals with rebellion. Never forget and never doubt that sin, even good-feeling sexual sin, is in fact rebellion against God. Jude offers three examples of how God dealt with rebellion among privileged people.

Example #1: Israel during the Exodus. During the greatest intervention in the Old Testament, God brings His people out of bondage by a series of fantastic miracles, but even with this evidence, many did not believe. Belief is more than acknowledging the evidence; it is also the obedience that God requires. On a number of occasions there were groups of people destroyed, not for their doubts, but for their disobedience. 

Example #2: rebellious angels This is clearly a reference to Satan's rebellion against God himself. These angels apparently had specific positions of authority but wanted more; they wanted to go beyond their assigned boundaries that God had given them. This is not promoting or referring to the mythology of human-angel hybrids. Because of their rebellion, they were bound, waiting for their final judgment. Jude is not giving a cosmology or a detailed angelology but an example of what happened in rebellion. 

Example #3: Sodom, Gomorrah, and their environs. It is worth noting how often movements of rebellion against God are tied up with our sexuality. If the Evil One can twist what is most personal to us, that which we are at our core, then he can twist all of our being to turn against God. The destruction of the cities was both their punishment and an example for us.

Jude is not springing new information on these disciples. They knew “all things once for all”; this may be a reference to the specific teaching of the early church. These false teachers did not come into a vacuum and begin to fill that vacuum with a libertarian heresy. The disciples knew what was right but were tolerating these false teachers rather than shutting them down. When we, as disciples, decide to compromise holiness, we are joining the side of the destroyed. There is grace for repentance, but live in rebellion long enough and you will not want to repent.

“Lord, give me a holy fear of any rebellion against You. AMEN”