Jude 1:24-25

Jude 1:24-25

We end the Lord's Prayer with the words, “…for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” The same themes end this short letter. This benediction is an appropriate conclusion to the gathering of God's people, but it is also the timeless description of our Savior and God, who inhabits what was before time, the current time, and all the future even after time. He is the God who is there, literally everywhere all the time. This could be terrifying but for the description Jude gives us of God in this benediction.

Jude describes God as the one who is able. In two other places in the New Testament, God is described as “able.” In every description of God as able, there is a specific focus on His care for us. God is able to take care of us! His ability and character work together for our ultimate well-being. Once again we see Jude's triplet theme displayed.

God is able to keep you from stumbling. That word was used to describe a sure-footed horse or a man who did not fall into error. We must never say of our moral or doctrinal errors, “I couldn't help myself.” God is able to keep us from slipping back or falling over. But if we won't accept or allow His help, then the failure is on us.

God is able to make us stand in His presence blameless. The consistent pattern for those who come into God's presence is terror as they realize the extent of their sin. But we can come to His presence blamelessness; the word describes the flawless sacrifice given to God. Jude here indirectly refers to the atonement and the work of Jesus on the cross. God is able to bring us to Himself sinless and blameless by the merits and mercies of grace.

He is able to make us stand with great joy. Rather than fear or guilt or shame, we come to Him in joy. Life is hard; there are many occasions that are not joyous but rather are perplexing, painful, or perturbing. But regardless of the difficulties of this life and the apparent narrative to the contrary, God is able to bring us to a conclusion that is ecstatic with joy. Thank God he is able! 

“Lord Jesus, accept my offering of praise in this glorious word. AMEN”

Jude 1:22-23

Jude 1:22-23

Few matters are more difficult for a community of disciples than the matters of church discipline. It is never easy, it is rarely done well, and even in the best-case scenario, it will involve much personal suffering. The Christians to whom Jude is writing face a very dangerous threat, and non-confrontation is not an option. Jude wisely shows us that not all situations are alike and cannot be treated the same. He gives us three responses for the three stages for reaching the person who is slipping away.

First is “…mercy for those who are doubting.” These are people who are struggling or questioning what is right and what is true. They are beginning down the wrong path. To have mercy is also to take action, not merely to pity or offer a generalized forgiveness. Helping those who struggle is part of restoration. 

Second, is the person more advanced in immorality. If we are to use contemporary language, what Jude here offers is what we might call an “intervention.” “Snatching them out” carries the implication that we act in some ways against their will. To lovingly tell a person, “…we will be here for you every step of the way, but you must change or else,” is what Jude is presenting. There is no limit to God's love, but there is a limit to his patience and to the opportunity for repentance.

The third stage is perhaps the most dangerous; it involves the more advanced erring brother. To “…have mercy with fear…” is a warning to the disciples hoping to restore a fallen brother that the faithful disciple might be pulled into the fallen brother’s evil. Many disciples have ventured into morally dangerous places only to be pulled into the evil rather than rescue their fallen comrade. Our sinful natures will deceive us into thinking the danger is not very great and our spiritual strength is sufficient. A holy fear is a good antidote for both errors. It is worth noting that the verbs here are plural. Loan rescuers are likely going to end up going over into the sin they did not adequately fear.

Church discipline is always primarily restorative, but it also protects the rest of the flock. We must attempt to bring the wanderers back, but we must also protect the flock from the wolves that would like to enter.

“Lord, grant Your church holy well done church discipline. AMEN”

Jude 1:17-21

Jude 1:17-21

The reality is that the last days are here, beginning on Pentecost with the establishment of the church. The church age is “the last days,” the time of the last desperate expression of the enemy's rebellion. Into the fray the enemy sends his ministers. These ministers are marked by three characteristics. They are mockers; they teach with flippancy the holy things of God and the church. This flows out of and feeds their second characteristic: they follow their own lust. While sexual appetite is a big part of their evil, lust is more than just sex; it is the desire to fulfill their appetites, their inordinate desire for money, pleasure, or praise, for example. Any place where we are broken and messed up, if we don’t repent, is an opportunity for lust. Third, they are in fact devoid of the Spirit. Having set off on a journey to satisfy themselves, they have left the Spirit. One characteristic is they form a group or a following around themselves, resulting in divisions in the church.

What are we to do in the face of these misguided, indeed evil, people? Jude gives us a three-part effective strategy for our own spiritual life in these last days. In verse 20 he says, “Build yourself up…”; we are to take personal responsibility for our spiritual diet and growth. He also calls us to ‘prayer’. Praying is the hardest discipline in the Christian life. We act as if we can go from novice to ‘faith hero prayer warrior’ by just being here. Learning to pray is a process. We earn by doing. Like a child learning to walk, it will take practice. We will learn to understand and perceive the Spirit’s promptings and will grow in our ability to pray with intensity by praying intensely. Third, we are to anticipate the mercy of the Lord that will take us to eternal life. There needs to be in our lives a daily awareness of our ultimate rescue at the Lord’s return. This daily remembrance will help us to be ready by knowing we will give an account of each day, indeed each moment, to the one whom God has appointed as our Judge. That is a terrifying thought if we live for our own flesh. It will be a thrilling thought if we are living fully for Him. 

Whenever the church has found itself in a pathetic state, you can be assured that it has slipped away from personal and individual responsibility for spiritual growth, faithfulness in real prayer, and hopeful anticipation of the coming Lord. Into such a church the divisive evil people have come in and wrecked the church both individually, congregationally, and generally.

“Lord, let me live in the hope of the judgment of Jesus for my life and actions. AMEN”

Jude 1:8-16

Jude 1:8-16

In scripture we are less likely to find “hell, fire, and damnation” lessons than we are to find lessons and warnings about evil men. This passage is a description of the evil men who had made their way into the church. For us there is a great danger that we will look at this page and imagine that it is a warning for others. It is not. It is a two-phase warning for us. First, we must be on guard about allowing these kinds of people to influence the church. Second, we must not become these people.

These people are every bit as evil as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jude lists three behaviors and then expands on these in reverse order: defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. First, let us consider what it means to revile angelic majesty. This is a most idiomatic passage. But rather than focus on angelic roles and battles that they may have fought, let us look at the application. In verse 10 we see that these men act as authorities on matters they do not understand. It seems that we are expected to have an opinion on everything. With the rise of social media, everyone offers an opinion, oftentimes about things of which they know nothing. This has crept into the church. We become aggressive advocates of things, even those things of which we are ignorant. There is a great danger when we become the deadly combination of arrogance and ignorance.

This combination often expresses itself in rejecting authority. Jude gives us examples of Cain, Balaam, and Korah. The combination of arrogance and ignorance is the perfect seedbed for a selfish agenda to take root. These types of men are not altruistically driven.

In fact, they are moved by their desires that will defile flesh. Such men will destroy the love feast, i.e., the fellowship of the church centered around the Lord's table. They are, in fact, useless in terms of practical help, while they bring up the evil from their own depths. Any church that allows these kinds of people in will be ruined; at best the church will close, at worst it will become a source of poison that will spread.

Jude describes their ruin using the literature of the day, a popular reference to Enoch. We each must ask, “Is the description in verse 16 a description of me?” We must guard and protect the church, but we must also take care to watch our own soul. The behaviors of wicked men are well within each of us and each of our churches, small groups, and fellowships. May the Lord have mercy on us.

“Lord, help me live a life that is both orthodox in doctrine and holy in behavior. AMEN”

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”

Jude 1:1-4

Jude 1:1-4

As disciples, we must live lives of astute alertness and vigilant attention. Our enemy has been using the same basic temptations since the garden of Eden. The powers of darkness will dress these differently for each age, but the lies and strategies are generally the same. 

Jude begins by being very clear about the relationship he has with the Lord: bond-servant. This carries both the description of absolute obedience and loving relationship. With the ownership and service of a slave, that is an extension of the master, and the love that binds him to his Lord, Jude will contend for the orthodox faith. Jude would like to write a description of our wonderful faith, perhaps what we might call a theology; but he feels compelled to write a polemic. Have no doubt about it, the evil faced by the early church, the evil faced by the church in every age, has the same source as the evil of the Old Testament times. Jude will show the evil for what it is, describe its results, and argue for the once and for all faith delivered for the saints. 

Jude warns the church that they have already been infiltrated. The presumption of most churches is that they are essentially good, filled with sincere believers who, although they sin occasionally, are basically godly people. Jude calls the church to question that assumption. 

In this book Jude frequently uses triplets, and he has a triplet for the false teachers who are in the church. 1, they are marked for condemnation, 2, they use grace as a license to sin, and 3, they deny Christ. When anyone joins that long line of false teachers that stretches back to the first sin, they join the company of the condemned. There is no other option for them. With great consistency these teachers find ways to use their “new understanding” of faith to indulge in their chosen sin. Ultimately they deny and reject the Savior Jesus Christ and the salvation He brings. The example of this practice is sadly long. From the strict ‘conservatism’ of Mormonism to the hard ‘liberalism’ of the Episcopal Church, there is always the permission for sin and the rejection of the faith. The arguments for evil all sound very appealing. But they always lead one away from the faith “once and for all delivered” from God by His Son to the saints. In reality all the arguments of the false teachers are anti-arguments, anti-scholarship, anti-compassion, and anti-love. 

“Help me, Lord, to remain faithful to the faith once and for all delivered for the saints. AMEN”