Jude 1:17-25

A Call to Persevere

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in God's love and mercy of Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Doxology

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence wihtout fault and with great joy—25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.



Dig Deeper

One night while I was in college, it was well past midnight, and for some reason a bunch of us thought that it would be a great idea to go cliff diving at a place about twenty minutes from our campus. Once we got there, I realized, as it was my first time, that the cliff was about forty feet up from the water. Oh, and did I mention it was pitch black because it was well after midnight. At that point, I wasn't really planning on actually jumping, until I realized that a bunch of young ladies had also come to the cliff to watch the group of guys jump in. With that pressure, of course I had to jump. So I went in without being able to see the water at all. Once I got into the water, we were trying to swim out when one of the other guys yelled that there was a water moccasin, a type of poisonous snake common in Oklahoma, in the water. I quickly found my way to the shore and got out but one of my friends couldn't get himself out of the water. He had found a piece of shore that was a couple of feet above the water, and in the dark he couldn't find his way up the bank and out. He called for help, and although I wanted to get far away from the water and that snake, I went over to help him. I was in such a rush that I simply reached down to help him out without stabilizing myself first. As soon as he grabbed my hand and pulled, we both went right back into the water where the dangerous snake was lurking somewhere.

Many people read the book of Jude once or twice and then don't really go back to it very often, assuming that it is simply a tirade against false teachers that doesn't hold much value or interest for a church or individual that is not directly battling false teachers. That's not really true, though. Jude does spend a great deal of the letter dealing with characterizing and describing the false teachers but he also, in this last section, offers timeless advice for those dealing with false teachers; advice that is so wise and timeless that it offers great guidelines to anyone helping another Christian out of sin or struggles. Jude's basic advice in this section can be boiled down to this: Help others out of their struggles but because Satan is always lurking in the form of false teachers, temptations, etc., make sure that when you reach down to help someone else that you are firmly braced and ready for the task at hand. If you're not, you both might wind up in the water.

Jude makes it clear that he is turning his attention from the false teachers and fully onto his readers as he addresses them as dear friends, literally beloved ones (a word that finds its roots in the word agape). Jude specifically has three things that he urges believers to do. First, he wants them to remember that the apostles had predicted the kind of false teaching that they are now encountering. Second, they need to commit themselves to their own spiritual growth and security. Third, they need to be willing to reach out and help those who have been affected by the false teachings and have found themselves swayed by them.

When Jude tells them to remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold, we should remember that in the biblical thinking, to remember something was not just an act of the memory but also of the will and actions. If you remembered something, you lived in accordance with its ideals. Specifically he wants them to not be rocked by the appearance of false teachers who are denying the return of Christ and who are far more interested in exalting their own ungodly desires. They need to remember and order the life of their community as ones who know that false teachers will come and need to be dealt with. Jude appears to take his wording loosely from 2 Peter 3:3, but it is possible that this is something that other apostles who had helped establish or visited these churches also taught when they were there. The apostles taught that the days following Pentecost until Christ returned would be the last days and that they should be prepared for scoffers and false teachers. The men that are now threatening them fall into those warnings. They are the ones who divide the body and mock God. These men, says Jude, follow mere natural instincts, which is a single word that literally means "soulish." Paul uses this same word in a negative sense to contrast someone who is animated by their own soul and desires rather than someone whose will is animated by the Spirit. What Jude implies with the first part of verse 19, he states explicitly in the latter half. They do not have the Spirit. Based on Jude's earlier mention of their visions and dreams (v. 8), this may be a direct counter-claim to their assertions that they were more spiritual than others. Not only are they not spiritually advanced, they do not have the surefire mark of a Christian at all, the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:8-10).

The first thing that one must do when facing false teachers as these believers were, is to secure their own spiritual footing. If you are going to help others that have been affected by false teaching, as Jude calls them to, then you had better know what you believe firmly or you too might be drawn in. As a biblical teacher I have had to examine and confront many false teachings and have experienced this in reality. False teachers usually have well thought out arguments for their little niches, and quite often these are areas that Christians haven't thought through in detail. I have had to help several people who thought they were going to help someone out of a false teaching but who were not firmly established in their own biblical understanding and were sucked in by the very false teaching that they were hoping to counter. False teachings are so effective precisely because they are clever, usually very thorough, quite convincing, and they appeal to things that people like to hear or make sense to us. We must be rooted firmly in biblical truth in order to stand up to the assault of false teaching. 5th century theologian, Gregory Nanzianzus argued that for this reason only trained theologians and teachers should confront other teachings. Although it's probably not necessary to go that far in guarding against false teachings, each believer must be prepared in the truth before trying to help someone entangled in heresies.

Jude gives four separate commands to those preparing to help others. First, they are to build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Jude addresses this to the entire body, not just individuals, as the new Temple of God. The body must build itself up in the faith as those set apart from the world. Second, believers should pray in the Holy Spirit as opposed to those who don't pray at all or pray prayers that are directed by their own soul and desires rather than the Spirit. Third, he says to keep yourselves in God's love, meaning be careful to remain in the life of Jesus Christ, the full revelation of God's love, and not wander back to our old way of life (cf. Jn. 15:9; Eph. 4:22-24). Fourth, he urges them to remain in the life of Christ so that they will be brought to eternal life, the life of the age to come that believers are to partake in now, but look forward to full consummation of the age to come when Christ returns.

Jude urges the believers to specifically reach out to three separate groups. He says to be merciful to those who have heard the false teachings and have been thrown into confusion and doubt. Usually these are well meaning people who simply want to follow the truth but are not yet firmly established and have trouble discerning the truth for themselves. He also urges them to reach out and snatch up from the fire (Jude uses imagery here from Zech. 3:1-4) those who have gone past doubt and begun to embrace the teachings as their own. Because they have begun to embrace these heresies, they are literally standing on the brink of hell as they prepare to walk out of the genuine life of Christ. Finally, he says to show mercy mixed with fear for the influence of the false teachers that might influence others or even themselves. By showing mercy to this final group, Jude likely means to keep praying for them and show kindness where they can. What is this final group, though? Again using language from Zechariah 3, Jude describes those who have been corrupted by their own fleshly desires and are wearing clothes that have been soiled like a diaper. Christians, Jude is saying, must hate the false teachings and be uncompromising in their opposition to it, while at the same time, showing love and mercy to those entangled in the false teaching.

Jude brings his short letter to a close with one of the most beautiful doxologies in the entire Bible. He balances the earlier exhortation for believers to stay in Christ with the truth that God is able to keep us from falling and to present us in Christ without fault. God has given us all that we need if we will only remain in Christ. It is to God alone, accessible through the life of Christ, that we ascribe glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all ages, now and forevermore! What a God we serve!




Devotional Thought

Jude calls Christian to the incredible challenge of hating teachings that oppose the true gospel, while still showing mercy to those who hold to those teachings. Think about other religions or even other political views. Have you found the balance of biblically opposing those philosophies or teachings while still showing mercy and kindness to the people who espouse those beliefs?