Jude 17-25 (Wednesday Evening Bible Study)

Jude 17-25

• Jude 17-19
• 17 But you, dear friends, remember what was predicted by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They told you, “In the end time there will be scoffers living according to their own ungodly desires.” 19 These people create divisions and are worldly, not having the Spirit.
  • Jude points out to his own people that nothing has happened which they might not have expected. The apostles had given warning that evil people would come and such people are now among them
    • The actual words of Jude’s quotation are not in any NT book. He may be doing any one of three things
      • He may be quoting from some apostolic book which we no longer possess
      • He may be quoting not a book but some oral tradition of the apostolic preaching, or some sermon which he himself had heard from the apostles
      • He may be giving the general sense of a passage like I Timothy 4:1-3, “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, 2 through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared. 3 They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods that God created to be received with gratitude by those who believe and know the truth.”
  • In any event, he is telling his people that error was only to be expected in the Church. From this passage we can see some of the characteristics of these evil people
    • They mock at goodness, and their conduct is governed by their own evil desires
      • These two things go together. The opponents of Jude had two characteristics, as we have already seen. They believed that the body, being matter, was evil; and that it made no difference if they satisfied their desires to the full. Further, they argued that since grace could forgive any sin, sin did not matter. These heretics had a third characteristic. They believed that they were the progressive thinkers; and they regarded those who observed the old moral standards as old-fashioned and out of date
      • That point of view is by no means dead. There are still those who believe that the once accepted standards of morality, especially in matters of sex, are quite out of date. Psalm 53:1 states, “The fool says in his heart, “There’s no God.” They are corrupt, and they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good.”
      • In that text, fools does not mean brainless individuals; it means people who are playing the fool. And the fact that they say there is no God is entirely due to wishful thinking. They know that, if there is a God, they are wrong and can expect judgment; therefore, they eliminate God. In the last analysis, those who eliminate the moral law and give free rein to their passions and desires do so because they want to do as they like. They listen to themselves instead of listening to God—and they forget that there will come a day when they will be compelled to listen to Him
    • These evil people have a second characteristic. They set up divisions—they are worldly, not having the Spirit
      • To set up divisions in the Church is always sin. These people set up divisions in two ways
        • As we have already seen, even at the love feasts they had their own little groups. By their conduct, they were steadily destroying fellowship within the Church. They were drawing a circle to shut people out instead of drawing a circle to take them in
        • But they went further. There were certain thinkers in the early Church who had a way of looking at human nature which essentially split people into two classes. To understand this, we have to understand a little bit of Greek psychology
          • To the Greeks, human beings were made up of body (sõma), soul (psuchē), and spirit (pneuma). Sõma was simply a person’s physical construction. Psuchē is more difficult to understand. It was simply physical life; everything that lived and breathed had psuchē. Pneuma, spirit, was quite different, it belonged only to human beings, and was the quality which made them thinking creatures, kin to God, able to speak to God and to hear Him
          • These thinkers went on to argue that everyone possessed psuchē, but very few really possessed pneuma. Only the really intellectual, the elite, possessed pneuma; and only the very few could rise to real religion. The rest must be content to walk on the lower levels of religious experience
          • They therefore divided people into two classes. There were the psuchikoi, who were physically alive but intellectually and spiritually dead. We might call them fleshly creatures. All they possessed was flesh-and-blood life; intellectual progress and spiritual experience were beyond them. There were the pneumatikoi, who were capable of real intellectual knowledge, real knowledge of God and, real spiritual experience. Here was the creation of an intellectual and spiritual aristocracy over against the common mass of people
          • Further, these people who believed themselves to be the pneumatikoi believed that they were exempt from all the ordinary laws governing conduct. Ordinary people might have to observe the accepted standards; but they were above that. For them, sin did not exist; they were so advanced that they could do anything and be none the worse. We may do well to remember that there are still people who believe that they are above the laws, who say in their hearts that it could never happen to them and who believe that they can get away with anything
        • We can now see how cleverly Jude deals with these people who say that the rest of the world are the psuchikoi, while they re the pneumatikoi. Jude takes their words and reverses them. “It’s you that are the flesh dominated ones; it is you who possess no pneuma, no real knowledge and no experience of God.” Jude is saying to these people that although they think of themselves as the only truly religious people, they have no real religion at all. Those whom they despise are much better than they are themselves
        • The truth about these so called intellectual and spiritual people was that they wanted to sin and twisted religion into a justification for sin
• Jude 20-21
• 20 But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
  • In the previous passage, Jude described the characteristics of error; here he describes the characteristics of goodness
    • Good people build up their lives on the foundation of the most holy faith
      • That is to say, the lives of Christians are founded not on something which they manufactured themselves, but on something which they received. There is a chain in the transmission of the faith. The faith came from Jesus to the apostles; it came from the apostles to the Church; and it comes from the Church to us
      • That means the faith which we hold is not merely someone’s personal opinion; it is a revelation which came from Jesus and was preserved and transmitted within His Church, always under the care and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, from generation to generation
      • The faith is a most holy faith. Again and again, we have seen the meaning of this word holy. Its root meaning is different. That which is holy is different from other things, as the priest is different from other worshipers, the Temple is different from other buildings, the Sabbath is different from other days, and God supremely different from men and women
      • Our faith is different in two ways
        • It is different from other faiths and from philosophies in that it is not made by us but is God-given, not opinion but revelation, not guessing but certainty
        • It is different in that it has the power to make those who believe it different. It is not only a mind changer but a life changer, not only an intellectual belief but also a moral force
    • Good people are people who pray
      • It has been put this way: “Real religion means dependence.” The essence of religion is the admission of our total dependence on God; and prayer is the acknowledging of that dependence, and going to God for the help we need. Christians must be men and women of prayer for at least two reasons
        • They know that they must test everything by the will of God; therefore they must take everything to God for His approval
        • They know that of themselves they can do nothing, but that with God all things are possible; therefore they must always be taking their insufficiency to God’s sufficiency
      • Jude says prayer is to be in the Holy Spirit. What he means is our human prayers are at least sometimes bound to be selfish and blind. It is only when the Holy Spirit takes full possession of us that our desires are so purified that our prayers are right. The truth is that we are bound to pray to God; but He alone can teach us how to pray and what to pray for
    • Good people keep themselves in the love of God
      • Jude is thinking of the old covenant relationship between God and His people as described in Exodus 24:1-8. God came to His people promising that He would be their God and they would be His people; but that relationship depended on their accepting and obeying the law which He gave them
      • “God’s love has it’s own terms of communion” James Moffatt. It is true in one sense that we can never drift beyond God’s love and care; but it is also true that if we desire to remain in close communion with God, we must give Him the perfect love and the perfect obedience which must always go hand in hand
    • Good people wait with expectation
      • They wait for the coming of Jesus Christ in mercy, love, and power; for they know that Christ’s purpose for them is to bring them to live eternal, which is nothing other than the life of God Himself
• Jude 22-23
• 22 Have mercy on those who waver; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
  • Even to the worst heretics, even to those most far gone in error, and to those whose beliefs are most dangerous, Christians have a binding duty to not destroy but to save. Their aim must be not to banish them from the Christian Church but to win them back into the Christian fellowship. James Denny of Glasgow Free Church College said that at its simplest, Jesus came to make bad people good. The historian Sir John Seely said: “When the power of reclaiming the lost dies out of the church, it ceases to be the church.” Jude divides those who cause trouble for the Church Ito three classes, to each a different approach is necessary
    • There are those who are flirting with falsehood
      • The are obviously attracted by the wrong way and are on the brink of committing themselves to error, but are still hesitating before taking the final step. They must be argued out of their error while there is time. From this, two things emerge as a duty
        • We must study to be able to defend the faith and to give a reason for the hope that is in us. We must know what we believe so that we can meet error with truth; and we must make ourselves able to defend the faith in such a way that our graciousness and sincerity may win others to it. To do this, we must banish all uncertainty from our minds and all arrogant and intolerance from our approach to others
        • We must be ready to speak in time. Many people would have been saved from error of thought and action if someone else had only spoken in time. Sometimes we hesitate to speak; but there are many times when silence is cowardly and can cause more harm than speaking out could ever cause
    • There are those who have to be snatched from the fire
      • They have actually started out on the wrong way and have to be stopped, forcibly and even against their will. It is all very well to say that we must leave people their freedom and that they have a right to do what they like. All these things are in one sense true, but there are times when people must be saved from themselves
    • There are those whom we must pity and fear at one and the same time
      • Here Jude is thinking of something which is always true. There is danger to the sinner; but there is also danger to the rescuer. Anyone who aims to cure an infectious disease runs the risk of infection. Jude says that we must hate the garment stained by the flesh. He is probably referencing the regulations in Leviticus 13 where it is said that the garment worn by a person discovers to be suffering from leprosy must be burned. The old saying remains true—we must love the sinner but hate the sin. Before we can rescue others, we must be strong in the faith ourselves. Our own feet must be firm on the dry land before we can throw a life vest to the person who is likely to be swept away
      • The simple fact is that the rescue of those in error is not for everyone to attempt. Those who would win others for Christ must themselves be very sure of Him; and those who would fight the disease of sin must themselves have the strong antiseptic of a healthy faith. Ignorance can never be met with ignorance, nor even with partial knowledge; it can be met only by the affirmation; “I know whom I have believed”
• Jude 24-25
• 24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
  • Jude comes to an end with a tremendous ascription of praise
  • Three times in the NT, praise is given to the God who is able
    • In Romans 16:25, Paul gives praise to the God who is able to strengthen us. God is the one person who can give us a foundation for life which nothing and no one can ever shake
    • In Ephesians 3:20, Paul give praise to the God who is able to do far more than we can ever ask or even dream of. He is the God whose grace no one has ever exhausted and on whom no claim can ever be too much
    • Here, Jude offers his praise to the God who is able
      • God is able to keep us from stumbling
        • The word is used both of a sure-footed horse which does not stumble and of a person who does not fall into error. To walk with God is to walk in safety even on the most dangerous and the most slippery path
      • He can make us stand blameless in the presence of His glory
        • The word for without blemish is characteristically a sacrificial word; and it is commonly and technically used of an animal which is without spot or blemish; therefore it is fit to be offered to God. The amazing thing is that when we submit ourselves to God, His grace can make our lives nothing less than a sacrifice fit to offer to Him
      • He can bring us into His presence triumphant
        • Surely the natural way to think of entry into the presence of God is in fear and shame. But by the work of Jesus and in the grace of God, we know that we can go to God with joy and with all fear banished. Through Jesus, God the stern judge has become known to us as God the loving father
  • We note one last thing. Usually we associate the word Savior with Jesus; but here Jude attaches it to God. He is not alone in this, because God is often called Savior in the NT. So we end with the great and comforting certainty that at the back of everything there is a God whose name is Savior. Christians have the joyous certainty that in this world they live in the love of God and that in the next world they go to that love. The love of God is both the atmosphere and the goal of all their living