10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, "This is he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' ") 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only [Son], who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Dig Deeper
The annals of war are filled with leaders and generals who have led their men from a distance. They issue orders from the back and stay in comfortable lodging while their men fight the battles and stay in tents or other uncomfortable temporary housing. Generals like these can definitely be effective but they are rarely loved. It is the generals who go beyond those expectations and norms that are loved by their men. In 2 Samuel 11, we are given a sketch of just such a leader, Uriah the Hittite. David was back in his palace seeking after his own lusts and tries to entice Uriah back into town so that David's sin of adultery might not be noticed. He couldn't get Uriah to agree to it, however. When offered, for instance, to come home and be with his beautiful wife, Uriah replied that he could not do such a thing while his men were out in the field. This was truly a leader that was present in spirit with his men at all times. The generals that are loved are those who wait to eat until every single soldier under him has eaten; the general who waits to go sleep until all of his men are asleep; the general who spurns the comforts that would normally be given to a man of his stature and opts to stay in the same type of tent that his men are in.
That is precisely what made YHWH, the God of the Israelites so different from all of the other supposed gods. He wasn't distant; He wasn't unknown. He tabernacled in the presence of His own people. He went where they went and was with them through every circumstance, providing and caring for them. They knew His presence and could count on it. As they continued to reject Him, however, that presence lessened until it became virtually gone by the time of the minor prophets.
It is into this reality that John drops an incredible revelation. God did not stay distant like so many human leaders. He came as close to His people as He possibly could by becoming flesh. God was not a remote God, He tabernacled among His people in the most humble and intimate way possible. He came among them and became one of them.
He was in the world, the very world that was made through him. It's difficult for us to understand the humility that it would take to enter into a world that you had created as a normal human being with no special privileges. The closest thing I can think of is if a parent could suddenly become young again and enter into their own household as a child the same age as their own children. How would they be treated, especially if their kids didn't know that this new child was really their parent? That's exactly what John says took place when the Word entered into the creation that had been made through him. The world did not recognize him. There is, of course, a bit of clear irony that the very world that was created though the Word did not recognize him when he came to them in the flesh. The fact that they did not recognize him, though, was a sad bit of evidence of their estrangement from him and the will of God. It's a simple fact of human existence, we don't recognize what we don't know.
If the fact that the very world that the Word brought about rejected him is ironic, then the fact that he came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him, is bitterly ironic. Israel's very purpose was to be the people through whom the Messiah would come. It was the way that God would use them to put the world to rights. And now he was here, but they were rejecting the very purpose for their existence because they had other ideas of how God should have been working. It would be like the 2008 U.S. Men's Olympic basketball team that was put together to win a gold medal, refusing to get their gold medals because they had something else in mind for the winners. This should serve as instructive for us, though, because it is dangerously easy for us to do similar things. We can pray for God to do something in our lives, for instance, and then reject or fail to recognize His answer to that very prayer because it's not quite what we had in mind.
Yet, John offers a bit of hope and demonstrates that the ultimate purpose of his gospel is missional. All is not lost. He makes clear in 20:31 that he has written this gospel so "that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." In verse 12, John offers perhaps the climax of this entire prologue, as well as the thesis statement for the entire gospel. There are some who will receive him. The concept of someone's name in the ancient world went far beyond just being a title or something to call someone by. When the Jews of John's day spoke of someone's "name," they spoke of their authority, their character, in short, their life. So, when John says to all who believed in his name, he is referring to those who recognized that this was the one, true human being through whom God would restore His creation. Those who trusted in the life of Christ rather than their own are given the right to become children of God. These children are not born through normal human procreation, or through human decision (literally, "will of the flesh," meaning sexual desire or activity), nor of the husband's choice (who represented the family as the traditional leader of the family). In other words, birth into this family does not come about by any normal human means at all. John is not removing human choice from the equation of salvation, but is saying that this is a completely spiritual endeavor, one that could not be accomplished by humans through normal means.
It could only have come about by the Word becoming flesh. The Word, who was no less than God, became flesh and made his dwelling among us. In using the term "flesh" rather than "man" or "body," John counteracts groups at the time like the Docetists who were willing to concede that Jesus may have been the Christ but denied that there was any reality to his being human; it only seemed that way. John gives no such wiggle room. He is just as clear on the humanity of the Word as he is his deity. God did become flesh and lived among us. John literally uses a term that means that the Word "tabernacled" among us. This brings to mind God's presence in the tabernacle in the wilderness. Just as God came close His people then, the Word has come even closer. He has become flesh for the sake of his people.
The Word is certainly divine, John makes no mistake about that, but he again confirms his distinction from the Father as he denotes the distinguishing difference between the Father and Son. The Word is the glory of the one and only Son, but he is not indistinguishable from the Father. The somewhat controversial nature of The Word being referred to as the one and only Son of God should not be missed. In the Old Testament, either Israel or David (as Israel's representative) were the firstborn of God (Exod. 4:22; Ps. 89:27). By calling the Word the only Son, John is making another claim that serves as one of themes of his gospel; Jesus Christ came to replace Israel as the true representative of God, His only son (nowhere will this be more obvious than in 15:1 when Jesus takes one . He came from the Father, full of grace and truth, two primary characteristics of the Father. Grace is the unmerited favor that causes joy, a favorite word of the early church, and truth was a concept so closely connected with God, that Jesus could actually say in 14:6 that "I am . . . the truth."
Having connected the Word to the activities of God in the Old Testament as He tabernacled among His people, John will accomplish two important things in the concluding four verses of his prologue. He will show that the revelation of the Word is superior to the revelation of the Old Covenant under Moses, and he will, for the first time, clearly state that the man Jesus Christ is the Word of whom he has been so eloquently speaking.
John, generally considered the last of the prophets in the line of Moses, testified concerning the Son. He was the one who all of history had been pointing. He came after John, which in their culture would have indicated subservience to the older man, but in this case he surpassed John because he was before John, existing eternally. Because of his fullness we have all received new grace that has come on top of the grace given through Moses and the law. The law merely pointed to the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ.
In verse 18, John brings the prologue to a close, connecting it closely with his statements in verse 1. There the Word was God and was with God. Here the one and only Son is surely himself God and is with God in the closest relationship possible. The Son has made the Father known. In other words, if you want to know the Father and see the Father, then all you have to do is to stare at the Son.
Devotional Thought
God became flesh and tabernacled among the world that had rejected Him. He could not get any closer or get anymore involved in His creation in a more humble way than He did in Jesus Christ. Are you willing to get involved in difficult situations personally and help others out? Are you willing to spend the time, effort, and exercise the humility necessary to get truly involved in places that have rejected or failed to recognize God? God was willing to do that and He calls His sons and daughters in Christ to no less.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
John 1:1-9
The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
Dig Deeper
It seems like everywhere we turn these days, we see the idea of "karma" being put forth. Karma certainly has it's roots in Eastern religions, but it has moved well beyond that these days, with everyone seemingly giving their own spin to what the concept of karma is or what it means. If we were to boil it down to it's most simplistic and most universal roots, karma means something along the lines of a state of equilibrium that is present in the universe ensuring that justice will be done in the long run (kind of a what comes around goes around mentality). This concept has so deeply infiltrated our culture that there is even a television show named "My Name is Earl" (admittedly I have never seen the show but I have seen commercials and have read about it), whose entire premise has to do with a previously shady character going about trying to set things right from his past so that he can achieve good karma.
Most of us have a basic understanding of what karma is, and those who are truly familiar with the concept know that it is decidedly not Christian or biblical in it's popular understanding. What if I took the idea of karma, however, to preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ? What if I took the underlying idea that there must be something or someone that ensures that divine justice take place in the universe eventually, and applied that to Jesus? What if I made a statement that Jesus Christ was the true karma, and that only within him, in his life, can true karma ever take place? What if I boldly declared that real karma can be found in the living, breathing, person of Jesus Christ alone?
This may sound shocking but this is something of what John has done in the opening passage of his gospel. What is translated as "the Word" throughout his book is actually the Greek word logos. Logos was a well-known and much-discussed topic of religion and philosophy in the Greco-Roman world. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus used the word logos, which can simply mean "word" or "explanation," as a specific term that referred to the ordering principle of the universe. Later, the Stoics taught that logos permeated the universe and gave rationality and an order to all things. Greek philosophers argued that the logos within humans enabled them to move in harmony with the logos of the universe. Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, wrote that "The Logos is designed to distinguish the beneficial from the harmful, and thus also the right and the wrong. . . Man. . . alone has the ability to perceive good and bad and right and wrong [because only man can possess the Logos]." It is into this philosophical discussion that John steps and blows it all up with the controversial assertion that the logos, in a sense was a correct philosophy, but only in as much as people understood that Jesus Christ was the embodiment and the existence of the logos. The logos is not just some abstract principle, but a living breathing human (although he's more than that as well), and John is going to show us exactly who he is. He is the ordering principle of the entire universe and everything in it.
John opens his Gospel with an incredibly, almost poetic introduction that goes beyond Matthew and Luke's birth narratives. John's intention is to show us the place of the Messiah, the true logos, in the eternity of the universe. The whole of John's gospel is every bit as unique as his opening section. If the other three Gospels, known as the synoptics have walked us through the life and times of Jesus' birth, ministry, and death, then John has taken us to the top of the mountain, to a place where you can look down and see everything. In John we can look out at the whole landscape of Christ against the backdrop of eternity and let it take our breath away.
John doesn't give us a birth narrative put describes the living word in eternal terms. This section not only gives the eternal perspective of the word, but it serves as an introduction for many of the theological themes that John will develop throughout his gospel.
Even a casual reader of the Bible will see that as John begins with the phrase, In the beginning, that he intends for us to hear an echo of the opening verse of the book of Genesis. In John's mind what he is about to write is an act of new creation, one that hearkens back to initial formation of the universe. This new creation, however, has everything to do with the Word, whom John will reveal in the next section, is none other than Jesus Christ. The Word, John says, was both with God and was God. How can both of those statements be true? They only can be if we expand our understanding of the world and realize that we can apprehend God without ever fully comprehending Him. The Word is God in His essence, yet He is not synonymous with God; He is distinct because the Word can also be said to be with God. This also makes the point that the Word is eternal and is not created, but fully God in His essence. Right here in the first verse, then, we have two primary themes of John's gospel. The new creation is here in the Word, and the Word became flesh, he became human, but he is God. If, in other words, you want to see God, take a good, long, hard look at the Word.
In verse 3, having already declared the divine essence of the Word, John demonstrates his divinity through his mighty works. Through him all things were made. Again John stresses the eternity of the Word, as without him nothing was made that has been made, while at the same distinguishing the Word from the Father. John doesn't claim that the Word created, that was the role of the Father, only that everything was created through him. Thus, the Father and the Word are intimately connected, but not synonymous. They share the same essence but are not identical.
John continues the creation theme in verses 4-5, while introducing a double meaning, something that John does frequently throughout his Gospel. The Word was the light and life of the original creation, but also of the new creation. In him was life, says John, introducing yet another theme of the Gospel. Those who desire the life and light of the new creation must find that life in the Word. John will go on throughout his gospel of new creation to demonstrate how the Word is the only life. He is the only light of creation and the darkness has not overcome it. The Word challenged and defeated the darkness of the initial creation and now will do the same for the darkness and evil that is found within the fallen creation.
Some people in the generation following Christ still exalted John the Immerser and thought that perhaps he was the Messiah. Maybe they thought, he was the light of the new creation. John, the evangelist, wants to make quite clear that that was not the case. John's role was vital, but he was not the light that overcomes the darkness of chaos. He came as a witness to that light. As he writes his gospel, John desires to make it clear to anyone who might be confused that John the Baptist clearly and consistently pointed away from himself and to the Word as the true light. John the Baptist was important but subordinate. Throughout his gospel John will stress the importance of the Baptist as a witness (1:7, 8, 15, 19, 32, 34; 3:26; 5:33). In the ancient world, the concept of a witness was importance as it established the veracity of an individual. John will show that there are seven (a thematic number that will pop up frequently throughout the gospel) witnesses to the Word: The Father (5:31-32, 34, 37; 8:18; Jesus himself (8:14, 18; cf. 3:11, 32; 8:37), the Spirit (15:26; cf 16:14); the works of Christ (5:36; 10:25; cf. 14:11; 15:24); Scripture (5:39, 45-46); John the Baptist; and various other human witnesses (4:39; 12:17; 15:27; 19:35; 21:24). Testimony substantiated the truth of the matter and John the evangelist is careful to show that Jesus had plenty of it. After all, the matter of the true light that gives light to every man coming into the world, is no small matter. It is an act of new creation that can be appropriately testified to.
Devotional Thought
Could it be said of your life that you serve as a witness to the light of the Word? If people were to examine your life for evidence of the new creation and the light of life that comes from entering into the life of the Word, would they find any? Determine today to live in such a way that you clearly demonstrate the new creation and life that has been made available to the world caught in darkness through the Word.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
Dig Deeper
It seems like everywhere we turn these days, we see the idea of "karma" being put forth. Karma certainly has it's roots in Eastern religions, but it has moved well beyond that these days, with everyone seemingly giving their own spin to what the concept of karma is or what it means. If we were to boil it down to it's most simplistic and most universal roots, karma means something along the lines of a state of equilibrium that is present in the universe ensuring that justice will be done in the long run (kind of a what comes around goes around mentality). This concept has so deeply infiltrated our culture that there is even a television show named "My Name is Earl" (admittedly I have never seen the show but I have seen commercials and have read about it), whose entire premise has to do with a previously shady character going about trying to set things right from his past so that he can achieve good karma.
Most of us have a basic understanding of what karma is, and those who are truly familiar with the concept know that it is decidedly not Christian or biblical in it's popular understanding. What if I took the idea of karma, however, to preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ? What if I took the underlying idea that there must be something or someone that ensures that divine justice take place in the universe eventually, and applied that to Jesus? What if I made a statement that Jesus Christ was the true karma, and that only within him, in his life, can true karma ever take place? What if I boldly declared that real karma can be found in the living, breathing, person of Jesus Christ alone?
This may sound shocking but this is something of what John has done in the opening passage of his gospel. What is translated as "the Word" throughout his book is actually the Greek word logos. Logos was a well-known and much-discussed topic of religion and philosophy in the Greco-Roman world. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus used the word logos, which can simply mean "word" or "explanation," as a specific term that referred to the ordering principle of the universe. Later, the Stoics taught that logos permeated the universe and gave rationality and an order to all things. Greek philosophers argued that the logos within humans enabled them to move in harmony with the logos of the universe. Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, wrote that "The Logos is designed to distinguish the beneficial from the harmful, and thus also the right and the wrong. . . Man. . . alone has the ability to perceive good and bad and right and wrong [because only man can possess the Logos]." It is into this philosophical discussion that John steps and blows it all up with the controversial assertion that the logos, in a sense was a correct philosophy, but only in as much as people understood that Jesus Christ was the embodiment and the existence of the logos. The logos is not just some abstract principle, but a living breathing human (although he's more than that as well), and John is going to show us exactly who he is. He is the ordering principle of the entire universe and everything in it.
John opens his Gospel with an incredibly, almost poetic introduction that goes beyond Matthew and Luke's birth narratives. John's intention is to show us the place of the Messiah, the true logos, in the eternity of the universe. The whole of John's gospel is every bit as unique as his opening section. If the other three Gospels, known as the synoptics have walked us through the life and times of Jesus' birth, ministry, and death, then John has taken us to the top of the mountain, to a place where you can look down and see everything. In John we can look out at the whole landscape of Christ against the backdrop of eternity and let it take our breath away.
John doesn't give us a birth narrative put describes the living word in eternal terms. This section not only gives the eternal perspective of the word, but it serves as an introduction for many of the theological themes that John will develop throughout his gospel.
Even a casual reader of the Bible will see that as John begins with the phrase, In the beginning, that he intends for us to hear an echo of the opening verse of the book of Genesis. In John's mind what he is about to write is an act of new creation, one that hearkens back to initial formation of the universe. This new creation, however, has everything to do with the Word, whom John will reveal in the next section, is none other than Jesus Christ. The Word, John says, was both with God and was God. How can both of those statements be true? They only can be if we expand our understanding of the world and realize that we can apprehend God without ever fully comprehending Him. The Word is God in His essence, yet He is not synonymous with God; He is distinct because the Word can also be said to be with God. This also makes the point that the Word is eternal and is not created, but fully God in His essence. Right here in the first verse, then, we have two primary themes of John's gospel. The new creation is here in the Word, and the Word became flesh, he became human, but he is God. If, in other words, you want to see God, take a good, long, hard look at the Word.
In verse 3, having already declared the divine essence of the Word, John demonstrates his divinity through his mighty works. Through him all things were made. Again John stresses the eternity of the Word, as without him nothing was made that has been made, while at the same distinguishing the Word from the Father. John doesn't claim that the Word created, that was the role of the Father, only that everything was created through him. Thus, the Father and the Word are intimately connected, but not synonymous. They share the same essence but are not identical.
John continues the creation theme in verses 4-5, while introducing a double meaning, something that John does frequently throughout his Gospel. The Word was the light and life of the original creation, but also of the new creation. In him was life, says John, introducing yet another theme of the Gospel. Those who desire the life and light of the new creation must find that life in the Word. John will go on throughout his gospel of new creation to demonstrate how the Word is the only life. He is the only light of creation and the darkness has not overcome it. The Word challenged and defeated the darkness of the initial creation and now will do the same for the darkness and evil that is found within the fallen creation.
Some people in the generation following Christ still exalted John the Immerser and thought that perhaps he was the Messiah. Maybe they thought, he was the light of the new creation. John, the evangelist, wants to make quite clear that that was not the case. John's role was vital, but he was not the light that overcomes the darkness of chaos. He came as a witness to that light. As he writes his gospel, John desires to make it clear to anyone who might be confused that John the Baptist clearly and consistently pointed away from himself and to the Word as the true light. John the Baptist was important but subordinate. Throughout his gospel John will stress the importance of the Baptist as a witness (1:7, 8, 15, 19, 32, 34; 3:26; 5:33). In the ancient world, the concept of a witness was importance as it established the veracity of an individual. John will show that there are seven (a thematic number that will pop up frequently throughout the gospel) witnesses to the Word: The Father (5:31-32, 34, 37; 8:18; Jesus himself (8:14, 18; cf. 3:11, 32; 8:37), the Spirit (15:26; cf 16:14); the works of Christ (5:36; 10:25; cf. 14:11; 15:24); Scripture (5:39, 45-46); John the Baptist; and various other human witnesses (4:39; 12:17; 15:27; 19:35; 21:24). Testimony substantiated the truth of the matter and John the evangelist is careful to show that Jesus had plenty of it. After all, the matter of the true light that gives light to every man coming into the world, is no small matter. It is an act of new creation that can be appropriately testified to.
Devotional Thought
Could it be said of your life that you serve as a witness to the light of the Word? If people were to examine your life for evidence of the new creation and the light of life that comes from entering into the life of the Word, would they find any? Determine today to live in such a way that you clearly demonstrate the new creation and life that has been made available to the world caught in darkness through the Word.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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?
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?
Jude 1:11-16
11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion. 12 These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 16 These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
Dig Deeper
"I can't believe you would do that to us." There was an annual competition between classes at the school at which I taught. The goal of the competition was to collect coins and raise money for charity. Each class competed against one another and it always created a bit of fun as the classes not only competed but strategized to try to outdo the other teams. They did this to the point of engaging in a bit of espionage against one another, and would even entice students from other classes to collude with their class in order to help them win in exchange for a share in the pizza party that the winning class received at the end of the week. The students from my class had, all on their own, convinced a young man from another class to tell them his class' strategy in order to counteract it and defeat them. He had agreed it and provided valuable information. His class was bluffing, trying to convince the other classes that they had a big stash of coins that they were going to drop into their jars on the final day of competition. The reality was, they didn't have much at all. This allowed my class to not worry about that class which we otherwise would have done, and concentrate on putting pennies, which counted as negative to a team's total points, into the jars of classes that were real threats. When the winners were announced and they began to celebrate their win with the pizza party, this young spy was welcomed into the party. A young lady from his class was somewhat miffed, however. She couldn't believe that he would have done that to his own class. He said that he knew his class wasn't going to win and so he wanted some pizza. She went on to call him names, somewhat with a good-nature, but names that made her point (some were more appropriate to the particular situation than others, but she wasn't exactly a history buff). She declared that he was a "Benedict Arnold," a "Hitler," a "snake." Everyone knew what she meant by these titles, because they carry a certain meaning in our culture to the point that they can be used as adjectives and almost everyone will understand the point. Certainly Benedict Arnold, the American traitor during the War for Independence, and snake made the point that he was a traitor. Hitler wasn't really appropriate technically, but even his name has become somewhat synonymous with wronging someone, so it fit somewhat.
As Jude continues to describe the character and natures of the false teachers, he does something very similar to that young lady at my old high school. He uses cultural examples that had become so familiar to everyone in his world that they had virtually become adjectives. Their names now carried much more of the symbolic meaning that had become associated with their previous actions. Thus, just as Hitler and Benedict Arnold have come to mean things that go far beyond the men themselves, such as evil and traitorous, Jude uses three examples from his day to show just what kind of men these false teachers are.
Woe, says Jude, to the false teachers. This was a word usually reserved for the judgment announced on a rebellious people or individuals by the prophet of God. Jude thus invokes the wrath of God on those who would teach the gospel falsely. Jude uses three cultural examples (a pattern of threes which should be quite familiar to us) to demonstrate in clear terms for the people exactly what kind of men these teachers are. They are nothing to be exalted or followed. Rather, they have taken the way of Cain. Cain had become a common cultural symbol for one who murdered his brother, one who corrupted others (Jewish historian Josephus claimed that Cain "inited to luxury and pillage all whom he met, and became their instructor in wicked practices."), as well as a selfish cynic and skeptic (The ancient document, the Jewish Targum presented Cain as believing that "There is no judgment, no judge, no future life; no reward will be given to the righteous, and no judgment will be imposed on the wicked"). Jude, then, makes the point that like Cain, who murdered his brother, the false teachers are murdering the souls of the believers that follow them, as well as corrupting others in the process, and denying the judgment of God. His other two examples continue the assault. They are like Balaam, who had become a notorious example of greed and inciting Israel into pagan practices (compare Num. 25:1-2 and Num. 31:16). They are also like those that were destroyed in Korah's rebellion. Jude makes two points with linking these teachers to Korah's rebellion. Just like those involved, they are engaged in heresy and rebellion against God-appointed leadership, and, he says, they have been destroyed in that rebellion. They will suffer the same fate, but in a sense, because they have gone the way of Korah, they have already been punished with those men. In other words, they are as good as punished; it's a done deal.
Rather than being a part of the body of Christ, loving one another (John 13:34-35), and proclaiming the message of the gospel in the death of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 11:26), these false teachers have become quite the opposite. They denigrate the very purpose of the love feast and the observance of the Lord's Supper that took place as a part of those feasts in the first century. The words that the TNIV renders "blemishes" also means "hidden reef" and is probably the better understanding. If it is "blemish" then Jude's point is that they are a stain on the fellowship rather than the spotless and blameless individuals that Christians are to be. If it is hidden reef, which seems to be more in line with Jude's context, then he is suggesting that they are like hidden reefs that rip open the bottom of a boat; they lie in wait, with designs of sinking the faithful.
Jude continues on with five more descriptions of these false teachers just so that there can be no misunderstanding what kind of people they were dealing with. They are shepherds who feed only themselves, meaning that rather than being godly leaders and caring for God's people, they were only concerned with their own interests. They are clouds without rain, promising something on things which they do not deliver (cf. Prov. 25:14). They are autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They had been dead in their sins, but made alive in Christ. Sadly, by rebelling against God's truth, they have returned to their state of spiritual death (cf. Heb. 6:4-8; 2 Pet. 2:18-22). They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame, by which Jude uses concepts from Isaiah 57:20, meaning that they continue to pile up their shameful ways with no end. Finally, Jude says they are wandering stars, for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever. Ancient people believed that anything in the sky should display order, so a wandering planet (which they had difficulty in explaining) came to be viewed as something for which there was no pattern, no accounting and was symbolically caused by evil angels (although some believed that literally). Jude may be connecting them again to evil angels, but his primary point is that they are unstable and unreliable. This instability will result in their own judgment.
Jude chooses to strengthen his overall point by turning once again to the ancient book of Enoch. The quote he takes from that writing makes sense for it backs up two things that Jude has claimed about these hucksters. They are ungodly and will suffer the condemnation of the Lord. Further stressing Enoch's righteousness and reliability as a prophet is that he was the seventh, or the complete number, from Adam (Jews often counted inclusively, meaning that Enoch is the seventh if Adam is included in the counting). Enoch clearly, according to Jude, prophesied about the certain destruction of ungodly men, and he makes the connection that these false teachers number among that group, but does not necessarily imply that they are the only ones. They are like the Israelites in the wilderness; they are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. They complain against God's leadership and the way that God has chosen to work, following their own fleshly lusts rather than the life of Christ. In fact, rather than following the genuine life of Christ which has everything to do with sacrificing one's own life for the benefit of others (cf. 1 Pet. 2-4), they do everything for their own desires, their own pleasure, and their own advantage. When set up against the genuine life of Christ to which believers are truly called, there simply is no comparison.
Devotional Thought
One of Jude's criticisms of the false teachers was that they made promises and claims on which they did not deliver. Christians, by virtue of our name, claim that we will be followers of Christ that love one another deeply. Do you and your Christians community truly do that in a biblical fashion, or is it closer to a rain cloud without rain?
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 16 These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
Dig Deeper
"I can't believe you would do that to us." There was an annual competition between classes at the school at which I taught. The goal of the competition was to collect coins and raise money for charity. Each class competed against one another and it always created a bit of fun as the classes not only competed but strategized to try to outdo the other teams. They did this to the point of engaging in a bit of espionage against one another, and would even entice students from other classes to collude with their class in order to help them win in exchange for a share in the pizza party that the winning class received at the end of the week. The students from my class had, all on their own, convinced a young man from another class to tell them his class' strategy in order to counteract it and defeat them. He had agreed it and provided valuable information. His class was bluffing, trying to convince the other classes that they had a big stash of coins that they were going to drop into their jars on the final day of competition. The reality was, they didn't have much at all. This allowed my class to not worry about that class which we otherwise would have done, and concentrate on putting pennies, which counted as negative to a team's total points, into the jars of classes that were real threats. When the winners were announced and they began to celebrate their win with the pizza party, this young spy was welcomed into the party. A young lady from his class was somewhat miffed, however. She couldn't believe that he would have done that to his own class. He said that he knew his class wasn't going to win and so he wanted some pizza. She went on to call him names, somewhat with a good-nature, but names that made her point (some were more appropriate to the particular situation than others, but she wasn't exactly a history buff). She declared that he was a "Benedict Arnold," a "Hitler," a "snake." Everyone knew what she meant by these titles, because they carry a certain meaning in our culture to the point that they can be used as adjectives and almost everyone will understand the point. Certainly Benedict Arnold, the American traitor during the War for Independence, and snake made the point that he was a traitor. Hitler wasn't really appropriate technically, but even his name has become somewhat synonymous with wronging someone, so it fit somewhat.
As Jude continues to describe the character and natures of the false teachers, he does something very similar to that young lady at my old high school. He uses cultural examples that had become so familiar to everyone in his world that they had virtually become adjectives. Their names now carried much more of the symbolic meaning that had become associated with their previous actions. Thus, just as Hitler and Benedict Arnold have come to mean things that go far beyond the men themselves, such as evil and traitorous, Jude uses three examples from his day to show just what kind of men these false teachers are.
Woe, says Jude, to the false teachers. This was a word usually reserved for the judgment announced on a rebellious people or individuals by the prophet of God. Jude thus invokes the wrath of God on those who would teach the gospel falsely. Jude uses three cultural examples (a pattern of threes which should be quite familiar to us) to demonstrate in clear terms for the people exactly what kind of men these teachers are. They are nothing to be exalted or followed. Rather, they have taken the way of Cain. Cain had become a common cultural symbol for one who murdered his brother, one who corrupted others (Jewish historian Josephus claimed that Cain "inited to luxury and pillage all whom he met, and became their instructor in wicked practices."), as well as a selfish cynic and skeptic (The ancient document, the Jewish Targum presented Cain as believing that "There is no judgment, no judge, no future life; no reward will be given to the righteous, and no judgment will be imposed on the wicked"). Jude, then, makes the point that like Cain, who murdered his brother, the false teachers are murdering the souls of the believers that follow them, as well as corrupting others in the process, and denying the judgment of God. His other two examples continue the assault. They are like Balaam, who had become a notorious example of greed and inciting Israel into pagan practices (compare Num. 25:1-2 and Num. 31:16). They are also like those that were destroyed in Korah's rebellion. Jude makes two points with linking these teachers to Korah's rebellion. Just like those involved, they are engaged in heresy and rebellion against God-appointed leadership, and, he says, they have been destroyed in that rebellion. They will suffer the same fate, but in a sense, because they have gone the way of Korah, they have already been punished with those men. In other words, they are as good as punished; it's a done deal.
Rather than being a part of the body of Christ, loving one another (John 13:34-35), and proclaiming the message of the gospel in the death of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 11:26), these false teachers have become quite the opposite. They denigrate the very purpose of the love feast and the observance of the Lord's Supper that took place as a part of those feasts in the first century. The words that the TNIV renders "blemishes" also means "hidden reef" and is probably the better understanding. If it is "blemish" then Jude's point is that they are a stain on the fellowship rather than the spotless and blameless individuals that Christians are to be. If it is hidden reef, which seems to be more in line with Jude's context, then he is suggesting that they are like hidden reefs that rip open the bottom of a boat; they lie in wait, with designs of sinking the faithful.
Jude continues on with five more descriptions of these false teachers just so that there can be no misunderstanding what kind of people they were dealing with. They are shepherds who feed only themselves, meaning that rather than being godly leaders and caring for God's people, they were only concerned with their own interests. They are clouds without rain, promising something on things which they do not deliver (cf. Prov. 25:14). They are autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They had been dead in their sins, but made alive in Christ. Sadly, by rebelling against God's truth, they have returned to their state of spiritual death (cf. Heb. 6:4-8; 2 Pet. 2:18-22). They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame, by which Jude uses concepts from Isaiah 57:20, meaning that they continue to pile up their shameful ways with no end. Finally, Jude says they are wandering stars, for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever. Ancient people believed that anything in the sky should display order, so a wandering planet (which they had difficulty in explaining) came to be viewed as something for which there was no pattern, no accounting and was symbolically caused by evil angels (although some believed that literally). Jude may be connecting them again to evil angels, but his primary point is that they are unstable and unreliable. This instability will result in their own judgment.
Jude chooses to strengthen his overall point by turning once again to the ancient book of Enoch. The quote he takes from that writing makes sense for it backs up two things that Jude has claimed about these hucksters. They are ungodly and will suffer the condemnation of the Lord. Further stressing Enoch's righteousness and reliability as a prophet is that he was the seventh, or the complete number, from Adam (Jews often counted inclusively, meaning that Enoch is the seventh if Adam is included in the counting). Enoch clearly, according to Jude, prophesied about the certain destruction of ungodly men, and he makes the connection that these false teachers number among that group, but does not necessarily imply that they are the only ones. They are like the Israelites in the wilderness; they are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. They complain against God's leadership and the way that God has chosen to work, following their own fleshly lusts rather than the life of Christ. In fact, rather than following the genuine life of Christ which has everything to do with sacrificing one's own life for the benefit of others (cf. 1 Pet. 2-4), they do everything for their own desires, their own pleasure, and their own advantage. When set up against the genuine life of Christ to which believers are truly called, there simply is no comparison.
Devotional Thought
One of Jude's criticisms of the false teachers was that they made promises and claims on which they did not deliver. Christians, by virtue of our name, claim that we will be followers of Christ that love one another deeply. Do you and your Christians community truly do that in a biblical fashion, or is it closer to a rain cloud without rain?
Monday, October 27, 2008
Jude 5-10
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time 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 proper dwelling—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.
8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10 Yet these people speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.
Dig Deeper
Everybody has a role. This is an important concept to remember. The tricky part, however, is usually not in remembering that in whatever we do, we each have a role. The hard part is often in sticking to the proper role. We have a tendency to want to define our own role, our own place rather than the one given to me. I know this all too well. One summer I had taken a job that I absolutely loved giving tours at a major historical site in my hometown called the Lincoln Tallman Restorations. The house is the only private residence still standing in Wisconsin today in which Abraham Lincoln stayed and spent time. I loved giving tours of this incredible historical site, but one weekend they were having a fundraising arts and crafts sale on the grounds. I did not at all agree with this and thought it was exploitative. What really angered me though, if I'm being honest, was that the female tour guides were placed in the house to give tours to the many visitors that weekend, while the male tour guides were asked to be in charge of picking up trash during the event. There was no way that I was going to do this. This was not the role I wanted and so, in essence, I refused to do it. I found quickly that I was not as valuable as I thought, and refusing to fulfill my proper role got me in trouble rather quickly. When we are given a role by an authority figure, not staying in that role is simply wrong.
Jude is certainly dealing with the dangers that false teachers are presenting to the recipients of his letters, but it seems that he is particularly concerned with them going outside of their bounds. Teachers in the kingdom of God have been given a serious role with a great deal of responsibility. When teachers go outside of that role and begin to teach things that appeal to their own desires rather than the truth, a major problem results. Jude is very clear that the Lord does not stand for or take kindly to those who go outside of their appointed role or domain, and, in fact, always brings the appropriate judgment on those that reject God by rejecting their proper roles.
Looking back through the Old Testament and Jewish traditional literature, one thing becomes quite clear. When people rebel against God and go outside the roles that Has has laid out for them, the only sure thing that will ensue is appropriate and just punishment. Jude makes this point quite clear as he again shows his affinity for describing things in threes. Here he describes three historic and well know, at least at the time, examples of rebellion against God and the subsequent punishment.
Jude makes clear that he is going to talk about things that he expects his readers already know, but he wants to remind them of these things. They need to be on their toes and not think that because they have entered into Christ that their subsequent behavior doesn't matter. It will matter for the false teachers and it would matter for them if they step outside of their domain, which is the life of Christ. At one time, God delivered His people out of Egypt, and that might have seemed like the end of things, but it wasn't. This wasn't, we should note, because of some failing on God's part, but because they did not believe. Their appointed role was as the people of God but when they stepped outside of that role, they received the just punishment of not being able to enter into God's promise land. Indeed the whole generation was kept out of the promised land, save for Caleb and Joshua.
For the second example, Jude turns to something mentioned briefly in Genesis 6:1-4, but is expounded upon in the book of 1 Enoch, a very popular book during the first century. Jude refers to the sons of God of Genesis 6, the fallen angels who left their appointed domain and went in and had offspring with human women. The angels that are in heaven (that is those that remain in God's presence and loyal to their appointed role) were not to marry (Matt. 22:30; Mark 12:25), but these angels did and were punished with everlasting chains, being kept for judgment on the great Day. These angels rebelled, motivated by pride and lust, and did not keep their positions of authority that had been given to them by God. Instead, they abandoned their proper dwelling. And so, they discovered the same thing that the Israelites of the Exodus did. Those who rebel against God and step outside of their proper domain will suffer the consequences of those choices.
Jude's third example also comes from the Old Testament, the account of Sodom and Gomorrah. In a similar way that the angels previously referred to stepped outside of their proper domain due to arrogance and lust, so did the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. As the account in Genesis 19 makes clear, the men of these towns went outside of their proper domain and gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. The stepped outside of God's created domain by engaging in the unlawful behavior of homosexuality and, although they didn't know it, were so full of lust that they attempted to have sex with angels. Because of this, the punishment of these towns by fiery destruction stands to this day as an example of the eternal fire that awaits those who rebel against God.
In the very same way that the beings in the three examples Jude has given rejected God and stepped outside of their proper domain, so have the false teachers. Jude is not claiming that the sins are the exact same, although, there certainly are similarities. He is saying that just as they rebelled against God, so have the false teachers. His charges against them are threefold, which at this point, should come as little surprise.
First, Jude says that these ungodly people pollute their own bodies on the justification and strength of their dreams. They certainly would not have thought of themselves as ungodly or in rebellion against God, false teachers rarely do. Often part of their appeal is that they appear so sincere and are always so confident. Why would they be so confident and what does Jude mean when he talks of their dreams. The term he uses clearly refers to spiritual visions. These men were evidently claiming to have had revelatory visions that served as the basis for their teachings which included sexual freedom.
Second, they rejected authority and slandered angels, particularly fallen angels. We simply don't know how they were slandering celestial beings, but it may have had to do with either a denial of their existence or a denial that they would ever find themselves in the situation of judgment that these beings did. Even the archangel Michael, Jude says, wasn't so foolish as to slander the devil when they were in dispute over the body of Moses. Again, with this story, Jude steps outside of the Biblical testimony and appeals to the Jewish traditional book, The Assumption of Moses, that has since been lost to history. It is from there that Jude draws the point that the great angel Michael would not slander Satan, but left that for the Lord to do. Jude's point is that Michael wouldn't slander things that he well understood, but these men are so ridiculous that they slander things about which they clearly do not understand. If the greatest of the archangels would not speak evil of the most evil of beings, then any human should tread lightly when thinking of speaking evil of any angel.
Third, these men have so given into their own desires and unthinking lusts that they have reduced themselves so far below the standard of being a human being that they can be compared to nothing more than unreasoning animals that live by instinct. Their preference for their own base lusts over their God-appointed domain will lead to their own judgment and destruction.
Devotional Thought
What are the roles in your life that God has placed upon you. We have many roles and domains that stretch from our roles in marriage, to the moral and ethical restraints God has placed on His people. Do you embrace those roles or do you constantly seek to subvert and get around those roles? Spend some time thinking about the roles that God has given you and how you can bet fulfill them?
8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10 Yet these people speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.
Dig Deeper
Everybody has a role. This is an important concept to remember. The tricky part, however, is usually not in remembering that in whatever we do, we each have a role. The hard part is often in sticking to the proper role. We have a tendency to want to define our own role, our own place rather than the one given to me. I know this all too well. One summer I had taken a job that I absolutely loved giving tours at a major historical site in my hometown called the Lincoln Tallman Restorations. The house is the only private residence still standing in Wisconsin today in which Abraham Lincoln stayed and spent time. I loved giving tours of this incredible historical site, but one weekend they were having a fundraising arts and crafts sale on the grounds. I did not at all agree with this and thought it was exploitative. What really angered me though, if I'm being honest, was that the female tour guides were placed in the house to give tours to the many visitors that weekend, while the male tour guides were asked to be in charge of picking up trash during the event. There was no way that I was going to do this. This was not the role I wanted and so, in essence, I refused to do it. I found quickly that I was not as valuable as I thought, and refusing to fulfill my proper role got me in trouble rather quickly. When we are given a role by an authority figure, not staying in that role is simply wrong.
Jude is certainly dealing with the dangers that false teachers are presenting to the recipients of his letters, but it seems that he is particularly concerned with them going outside of their bounds. Teachers in the kingdom of God have been given a serious role with a great deal of responsibility. When teachers go outside of that role and begin to teach things that appeal to their own desires rather than the truth, a major problem results. Jude is very clear that the Lord does not stand for or take kindly to those who go outside of their appointed role or domain, and, in fact, always brings the appropriate judgment on those that reject God by rejecting their proper roles.
Looking back through the Old Testament and Jewish traditional literature, one thing becomes quite clear. When people rebel against God and go outside the roles that Has has laid out for them, the only sure thing that will ensue is appropriate and just punishment. Jude makes this point quite clear as he again shows his affinity for describing things in threes. Here he describes three historic and well know, at least at the time, examples of rebellion against God and the subsequent punishment.
Jude makes clear that he is going to talk about things that he expects his readers already know, but he wants to remind them of these things. They need to be on their toes and not think that because they have entered into Christ that their subsequent behavior doesn't matter. It will matter for the false teachers and it would matter for them if they step outside of their domain, which is the life of Christ. At one time, God delivered His people out of Egypt, and that might have seemed like the end of things, but it wasn't. This wasn't, we should note, because of some failing on God's part, but because they did not believe. Their appointed role was as the people of God but when they stepped outside of that role, they received the just punishment of not being able to enter into God's promise land. Indeed the whole generation was kept out of the promised land, save for Caleb and Joshua.
For the second example, Jude turns to something mentioned briefly in Genesis 6:1-4, but is expounded upon in the book of 1 Enoch, a very popular book during the first century. Jude refers to the sons of God of Genesis 6, the fallen angels who left their appointed domain and went in and had offspring with human women. The angels that are in heaven (that is those that remain in God's presence and loyal to their appointed role) were not to marry (Matt. 22:30; Mark 12:25), but these angels did and were punished with everlasting chains, being kept for judgment on the great Day. These angels rebelled, motivated by pride and lust, and did not keep their positions of authority that had been given to them by God. Instead, they abandoned their proper dwelling. And so, they discovered the same thing that the Israelites of the Exodus did. Those who rebel against God and step outside of their proper domain will suffer the consequences of those choices.
Jude's third example also comes from the Old Testament, the account of Sodom and Gomorrah. In a similar way that the angels previously referred to stepped outside of their proper domain due to arrogance and lust, so did the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. As the account in Genesis 19 makes clear, the men of these towns went outside of their proper domain and gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. The stepped outside of God's created domain by engaging in the unlawful behavior of homosexuality and, although they didn't know it, were so full of lust that they attempted to have sex with angels. Because of this, the punishment of these towns by fiery destruction stands to this day as an example of the eternal fire that awaits those who rebel against God.
In the very same way that the beings in the three examples Jude has given rejected God and stepped outside of their proper domain, so have the false teachers. Jude is not claiming that the sins are the exact same, although, there certainly are similarities. He is saying that just as they rebelled against God, so have the false teachers. His charges against them are threefold, which at this point, should come as little surprise.
First, Jude says that these ungodly people pollute their own bodies on the justification and strength of their dreams. They certainly would not have thought of themselves as ungodly or in rebellion against God, false teachers rarely do. Often part of their appeal is that they appear so sincere and are always so confident. Why would they be so confident and what does Jude mean when he talks of their dreams. The term he uses clearly refers to spiritual visions. These men were evidently claiming to have had revelatory visions that served as the basis for their teachings which included sexual freedom.
Second, they rejected authority and slandered angels, particularly fallen angels. We simply don't know how they were slandering celestial beings, but it may have had to do with either a denial of their existence or a denial that they would ever find themselves in the situation of judgment that these beings did. Even the archangel Michael, Jude says, wasn't so foolish as to slander the devil when they were in dispute over the body of Moses. Again, with this story, Jude steps outside of the Biblical testimony and appeals to the Jewish traditional book, The Assumption of Moses, that has since been lost to history. It is from there that Jude draws the point that the great angel Michael would not slander Satan, but left that for the Lord to do. Jude's point is that Michael wouldn't slander things that he well understood, but these men are so ridiculous that they slander things about which they clearly do not understand. If the greatest of the archangels would not speak evil of the most evil of beings, then any human should tread lightly when thinking of speaking evil of any angel.
Third, these men have so given into their own desires and unthinking lusts that they have reduced themselves so far below the standard of being a human being that they can be compared to nothing more than unreasoning animals that live by instinct. Their preference for their own base lusts over their God-appointed domain will lead to their own judgment and destruction.
Devotional Thought
What are the roles in your life that God has placed upon you. We have many roles and domains that stretch from our roles in marriage, to the moral and ethical restraints God has placed on His people. Do you embrace those roles or do you constantly seek to subvert and get around those roles? Spend some time thinking about the roles that God has given you and how you can bet fulfill them?
Friday, October 24, 2008
Jude 1:1-4
1Jude, 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:
2Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
The sin and doom of Godless men
3Dear 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. 4For 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.
Dig Deeper
Last year I was preparing to teach at a biblical teaching conference in the Midwest known as the UnConference. It was the second annual gathering of this conference and I had very much enjoyed the first one. From the completion of the first UnConference, I had known what I wanted to teach about at the second one. I spent the next several months preparing the material that I was going to teach. Not everyday of course, but from time to time. As the time for the second UnConference approached, something became very clear to me. I was praying one morning and I had the very clear realization that I needed to teach on something else that was more pressing. Although I was personally invested in my original topic, I realized that God had other plans, and that the young college students who attended this conference had differing needs than what I originally planned. So, with this growing realization in mind, I changed the topic of my entire teaching track and taught on this entirely different subject. I had been eager to teach on one topic, and I still hope to get a chance in the future to teach on that topic as thoroughly as the format of the UnConference allows, but through the leading of the Holy Spirit and from discerning the current state of affairs, I felt that I needed to teach students on how to correctly discern the word of God and contend for the faith despite the morass of false and confusing teaching that young people will face everyday.
Apparently, Jude, while sitting down to write this letter, went through a similar process. His original intent was to write about something encouraging and uplifting. And although that is important, God had clearly laid something on his heart. Jude likely had the same choice to make that I did. He could go ahead and write about what he wanted to originally, effectively ignoring the leading of the Spirit and disregarding his own better judgment in favor of doing what he might prefer. Or he could do what he did. Rather than going with his original intent, Jude writes to warn his readers of false teachers and urges them to be on their guard against such poisonous venom.
We don't really know all that much about Jude, the author of this short letter. We do know that there are six separate men identified in the New Testament as Jude, but it would appear that this Jude is none other than the younger brother of Jesus. As he begins this letter, though, he curiously does not identify himself as such, but only says that he is a brother of James. It would have been a bit unusual in the first century to mention a brother at all in the opening of a letter rather than your father unless your brother was uniquely significant. James certainly would fit that bill. He was not a follower of Jesus during his lifetime but quickly became one following the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15:7). James became well known as the leader of the church in Jerusalem and a primary pillar of the early Christian church. His reputation was so good, even among non-Christian Jews that he was known by them as James the Just. Certainly James was an important figure, but no would argue that he was more important the Jesus Himself. So, why then does Jude only call himself a servant of Jesus Christ rather than a brother. The most likely explanation is that being his brother was of little importance in the kingdom of God. It didn't confer any type of special status or privilege. Being a servant of Christ, however, was important. In fact, it is noteworthy that neither James nor Jude make mention of their status as brothers of Jesus, but both call themselves servants. The fact that they were Jesus' siblings was of no spiritual importance, but that they were servants was important. The word for "servant" could also be translated "slave," and certainly signified a status of humility and subservience to Christ. The title also could be used, however, to indicate a role of leadership, following the examples of Old Testament leaders who were also called servants such as Moses (Josh. 14:7; 2 Ki. 18:12) and David (Ps. 18:1; Ezek. 34:23). Thus, Jude is certainly indicating that he is a fellow humble Christian, but he writes this letter as a leader, one who serves and represents Christ and has something important to impart to the Master's sheep.
Jude writes to those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. Notice as we go along in this short letter, Jude's affinity to describes things in trios. Here he writes to those called, loved, and kept. Those who have been called are those who have received God's call of salvation in Christ Jesus and have entered into the life of Christ. They are the ones that are in Christ and are loved by God as His own sons and daughters. Those who are loved by the Father are those that are preserved spiritually in Christ until He returns and brings to completeness our transformation into the image of God (Col. 3:10). It is Christ who will bring those in Him into eternal life, the age to come (Jude 1:21). It is to these beloved Christians that Jude blesses them with mercy, peace, and love. . . in abundance (note again the trio of categories). Mercy likely refers to the undeserved grace and favor that God lavishes on those in Christ. He also blesses them with the peace that comes from a restored relationship with God as ones who have taken part in the new creation, and to understand and embrace the love that God has for His children.
In the first two verses Jude has masterfully summarized the comfort and benefits of the salvation that belongs to those in Christ. This is what he wanted to talk about. This is clearly what motivates Jude and makes his soul soar. He has entered into the life of Christ, receiving and experiencing the reconciliation between God an man. Sometimes, though, maybe even oftentimes, God calls us to do what He wills rather than what we will. As much as Jude wanted to write a letter of comfort and encouragement, one that would strengthen their faith and love for God, and no doubt, do his soul a bit of good as well, God had other plans. He has called to Jude's attention to a dangerous false teaching that has emerged.
Scholars are divided as to why 2 Peter and Jude are so similar, but they certainly are connected in one way or another. It is not of the greatest significance of how they are related and we will likely never know the answer for sure, but the scenario that seems likeliest to me is that Jude found himself dealing with a groups of churches that were facing the same or very similar kind of heresy that Peter had written about in 2 Peter. Rather than reinventing the wheel, Jude borrowed liberally, and where appropriate from 2 Peter, while adding his own thoughts and crafting the material to meet his particular needs. From here on out, however, we will consider Jude by itself rather than constantly look back and attempt to find significance in it's similarities and differences with 2 Peter.
If there is a singular theme in Jude, we find it in verse 3. Jude urges his readers to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. The word that Jude uses here that is translated "contend" comes from the world of sports. It was a word used when someone competed fiercely to win or for their position (cf. 1 Cor. 9:25). The word came to be used often in the New Testament for those who made an vigorous defense of the true gospel (cf. Col. 1:29; 1 Tim. 4:10; 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7). It is the general faith, the truth of the gospel message, then, that Judge urges them to fight energetically for.
Why do they need to contend for the faith? Because there are false teachers, wolves in sheep's clothing (Matt. 7:15), who have concealed their real nature and purpose and have secretly slipped into the fellowship. These men, although seemingly sincere (and these men may have even thought that they were sincere), were more concerned with their own pride, egos, and drawing followers than with defending the faith. Jude says four important things about these false teachers. First, as is clear from the Old Testament (vv. 5-8, 11), from traditional Jewish literature (vv.9, 14-16), and from apostolic teaching (vv. 17-18), the condemnation of these men has long been written about and established as something that would take place. No one should be surprised that there were false teachers then. Second, They are godless, meaning they deny God practically by their actions and teachings. Third, they have changed God's grace into a license for immorality. Fourth, they deny the sovereignty and lordship of Jesus Christ by calling people to live in a manner not in keeping with the life of Christ. Clearly, Jude knew not just Jesus as a sibling, but he knew the life of Christ as a servant and did not take kindly to men who would deny the truth of that life to the followers of Christ.
Devotional Thought
Do you so greatly value the life of Christ that you would instantly drop what you were doing to help someone who was struggling with a false teaching? Would you be equipped to help them? Would you show the same love, care, and concern that Jude shows here? Would you be prepared to do so?
To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:
2Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
The sin and doom of Godless men
3Dear 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. 4For 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.
Dig Deeper
Last year I was preparing to teach at a biblical teaching conference in the Midwest known as the UnConference. It was the second annual gathering of this conference and I had very much enjoyed the first one. From the completion of the first UnConference, I had known what I wanted to teach about at the second one. I spent the next several months preparing the material that I was going to teach. Not everyday of course, but from time to time. As the time for the second UnConference approached, something became very clear to me. I was praying one morning and I had the very clear realization that I needed to teach on something else that was more pressing. Although I was personally invested in my original topic, I realized that God had other plans, and that the young college students who attended this conference had differing needs than what I originally planned. So, with this growing realization in mind, I changed the topic of my entire teaching track and taught on this entirely different subject. I had been eager to teach on one topic, and I still hope to get a chance in the future to teach on that topic as thoroughly as the format of the UnConference allows, but through the leading of the Holy Spirit and from discerning the current state of affairs, I felt that I needed to teach students on how to correctly discern the word of God and contend for the faith despite the morass of false and confusing teaching that young people will face everyday.
Apparently, Jude, while sitting down to write this letter, went through a similar process. His original intent was to write about something encouraging and uplifting. And although that is important, God had clearly laid something on his heart. Jude likely had the same choice to make that I did. He could go ahead and write about what he wanted to originally, effectively ignoring the leading of the Spirit and disregarding his own better judgment in favor of doing what he might prefer. Or he could do what he did. Rather than going with his original intent, Jude writes to warn his readers of false teachers and urges them to be on their guard against such poisonous venom.
We don't really know all that much about Jude, the author of this short letter. We do know that there are six separate men identified in the New Testament as Jude, but it would appear that this Jude is none other than the younger brother of Jesus. As he begins this letter, though, he curiously does not identify himself as such, but only says that he is a brother of James. It would have been a bit unusual in the first century to mention a brother at all in the opening of a letter rather than your father unless your brother was uniquely significant. James certainly would fit that bill. He was not a follower of Jesus during his lifetime but quickly became one following the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15:7). James became well known as the leader of the church in Jerusalem and a primary pillar of the early Christian church. His reputation was so good, even among non-Christian Jews that he was known by them as James the Just. Certainly James was an important figure, but no would argue that he was more important the Jesus Himself. So, why then does Jude only call himself a servant of Jesus Christ rather than a brother. The most likely explanation is that being his brother was of little importance in the kingdom of God. It didn't confer any type of special status or privilege. Being a servant of Christ, however, was important. In fact, it is noteworthy that neither James nor Jude make mention of their status as brothers of Jesus, but both call themselves servants. The fact that they were Jesus' siblings was of no spiritual importance, but that they were servants was important. The word for "servant" could also be translated "slave," and certainly signified a status of humility and subservience to Christ. The title also could be used, however, to indicate a role of leadership, following the examples of Old Testament leaders who were also called servants such as Moses (Josh. 14:7; 2 Ki. 18:12) and David (Ps. 18:1; Ezek. 34:23). Thus, Jude is certainly indicating that he is a fellow humble Christian, but he writes this letter as a leader, one who serves and represents Christ and has something important to impart to the Master's sheep.
Jude writes to those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. Notice as we go along in this short letter, Jude's affinity to describes things in trios. Here he writes to those called, loved, and kept. Those who have been called are those who have received God's call of salvation in Christ Jesus and have entered into the life of Christ. They are the ones that are in Christ and are loved by God as His own sons and daughters. Those who are loved by the Father are those that are preserved spiritually in Christ until He returns and brings to completeness our transformation into the image of God (Col. 3:10). It is Christ who will bring those in Him into eternal life, the age to come (Jude 1:21). It is to these beloved Christians that Jude blesses them with mercy, peace, and love. . . in abundance (note again the trio of categories). Mercy likely refers to the undeserved grace and favor that God lavishes on those in Christ. He also blesses them with the peace that comes from a restored relationship with God as ones who have taken part in the new creation, and to understand and embrace the love that God has for His children.
In the first two verses Jude has masterfully summarized the comfort and benefits of the salvation that belongs to those in Christ. This is what he wanted to talk about. This is clearly what motivates Jude and makes his soul soar. He has entered into the life of Christ, receiving and experiencing the reconciliation between God an man. Sometimes, though, maybe even oftentimes, God calls us to do what He wills rather than what we will. As much as Jude wanted to write a letter of comfort and encouragement, one that would strengthen their faith and love for God, and no doubt, do his soul a bit of good as well, God had other plans. He has called to Jude's attention to a dangerous false teaching that has emerged.
Scholars are divided as to why 2 Peter and Jude are so similar, but they certainly are connected in one way or another. It is not of the greatest significance of how they are related and we will likely never know the answer for sure, but the scenario that seems likeliest to me is that Jude found himself dealing with a groups of churches that were facing the same or very similar kind of heresy that Peter had written about in 2 Peter. Rather than reinventing the wheel, Jude borrowed liberally, and where appropriate from 2 Peter, while adding his own thoughts and crafting the material to meet his particular needs. From here on out, however, we will consider Jude by itself rather than constantly look back and attempt to find significance in it's similarities and differences with 2 Peter.
If there is a singular theme in Jude, we find it in verse 3. Jude urges his readers to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. The word that Jude uses here that is translated "contend" comes from the world of sports. It was a word used when someone competed fiercely to win or for their position (cf. 1 Cor. 9:25). The word came to be used often in the New Testament for those who made an vigorous defense of the true gospel (cf. Col. 1:29; 1 Tim. 4:10; 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7). It is the general faith, the truth of the gospel message, then, that Judge urges them to fight energetically for.
Why do they need to contend for the faith? Because there are false teachers, wolves in sheep's clothing (Matt. 7:15), who have concealed their real nature and purpose and have secretly slipped into the fellowship. These men, although seemingly sincere (and these men may have even thought that they were sincere), were more concerned with their own pride, egos, and drawing followers than with defending the faith. Jude says four important things about these false teachers. First, as is clear from the Old Testament (vv. 5-8, 11), from traditional Jewish literature (vv.9, 14-16), and from apostolic teaching (vv. 17-18), the condemnation of these men has long been written about and established as something that would take place. No one should be surprised that there were false teachers then. Second, They are godless, meaning they deny God practically by their actions and teachings. Third, they have changed God's grace into a license for immorality. Fourth, they deny the sovereignty and lordship of Jesus Christ by calling people to live in a manner not in keeping with the life of Christ. Clearly, Jude knew not just Jesus as a sibling, but he knew the life of Christ as a servant and did not take kindly to men who would deny the truth of that life to the followers of Christ.
Devotional Thought
Do you so greatly value the life of Christ that you would instantly drop what you were doing to help someone who was struggling with a false teaching? Would you be equipped to help them? Would you show the same love, care, and concern that Jude shows here? Would you be prepared to do so?
Thursday, October 16, 2008
2 Peter 3:14-18
14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Dig Deeper
"Okay, thanks for help. We’ll see you soon." I had just gotten off the phone with my friend’s wife. She had given me directions to meet them at their new house for the day. Truth be told, though, I had a little trouble understanding her directions. They sounded pretty difficult to follow. I don’t consider things like "go down about a mile or two and turn at the left just after the big brown house," as legitimate directions that can be followed by any normal human being. What she had given me, though, was the address of our destination. With this information I was able to go on the internet and get directions that included distances, cardinal directions, and street names. Now these were directions that made sense. These were directions that could be understood and followed. As we were leaving, however, I realized that I was pretty tired and was going to catch a little nap while my wife drove. She looked at the hand-written directions and the printed set from the internet, and actually grabbed the hand-written ones. "What are you doing," I asked her. She responded that she was grabbing the driving directions and was ready to go. She actually preferred the directions that I found to be rather confusing. I kind of laughed, and it was then that I realized that the directions were actually the same. They were saying the same things, just in very different ways. If followed properly, they would both get us to the same exact place.
As Peter concludes his letter of exhortation, reminding his readers that they should hold tightly to the promise of the return of Christ and the reality of the age to come. His letter, if we were to put it side by side with any of Paul’s letters, is quite different and unique in the scope of the New Testament. Yet, Peter tells us something quite instructive. The things that he has written about are the same sorts of things that Paul has written about in his letters. They might look very different on the surface, but they are actually the same in all of the ways that matter. Peter and Paul, we soon realize, share a common theology, they just say it in very different ways. If followed properly, they will both get us to the same exact place.
Once again Peter reminds his readers that the genuine Christian community orders themselves according to the hope of resurrection and the age to come. Paul echoes that sentiment in 1 Corinthians 15:58 when, after a long explanation of the resurrection and the coming age, he says that Christians should, "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." The point of these two great Christian apostles is not so much that Christians should keep things ship-shape because Christ is coming back one day and we don’t want to be found out-of-order (although that is certainly true). The primary point is that the Christian communities hold tightly to the belief that Christ will return one day and bring the restoration of the universe with him, the age to come. Our lives and communities in the present age should be lived in light of that reality and anticipate it. The way we live now should demonstrate for people and be a shadow of the values of heaven and the age to come.
This is why we should make every effort of be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him. As communities that are called to live out and demonstrate the love and forgiveness of God and be people who do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven, imagine what damage we do when we spiral instead into petty jealousies, lack of forgiveness, gossip, bitterness, selfishness, and become people perfectly comfortable with doing our own will rather than His. It would be about as effective as a light that is not plugged in. A light that offers no light is worthless. A Christian community that offers no taste of the age to come is equally pointless. The fact that Jesus has yet to return in the fullest sense should not cause us, as it did the false teachers that Peter has been referring to, to imagine that God will not eventually judge the entire universe against the standard of His holy presence. Instead we should realize that the delay in the onset of the age to come means salvation for many. It gives us all the more opportunity to demonstrate God’s ministry of reconciliation to the world (2 Cor. 5:16-21) and draw them into His great plan of setting the world to rights.
Peter’s words in the second half of verse 15 and verse 16 serve as quite instructive for those who would interpret what he has written in chapter 3 as being a description of the fiery end of the entire physical universe as we know it, ushering in a purely spiritual existence. Peter says that Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. Not only does this inform us that Peter’s recipients had at least some of Paul’s letters and were quite familiar with them, he also reminds his readers that Paul writes the same things concerning the same matters that Peter has. Nowhere in any of Paul’s letters do we find anything remotely like the fiery destruction of the physical universe. Rather, Paul speaks often of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15; 2 Cor. 5), the age to come (Eph. 2:7; 1 Tim. 6:19), the renewal of the universe (Rom. 8:18-25), and the reconciliation and new creation (2 Cor. 5:16-21). What we quickly realize is that Peter has been speaking of the same sorts of things that Paul wrote about but in a very different way. Paul, as the apostle to the Gentiles, became immersed in Gentile language and culture and tended to speak and write in terms that Gentiles could understand. Peter, on the other hand, has written about the same things, but in a very Jewish way, using very Jewish terminology and imagery. We have very different looking writings, but they get us to the exact same place. Christ will return and bring the resurrection and the age to come with him.
Peter also warns that Paul’s letters contain some things that are hard to understand. This should serve as a bit of a solace for those who find the Scriptures difficult to comprehend at times. Even an apostle, a man who spent three years learning from Christ, concedes that Paul’s writings can easily be taken the wrong way. This is why it is so vital for Christians to be firmly established in the truth and people who take study of the Bible as a serious calling for every believer. It is ignorant and unstable people who distort Paul’s letters, as they do the other Scriptures. With this, Peter has informed us of two important details; one of which is clearly stated and one can be implied. First, is that Peter, writing around 62 or 63 AD, already considers Paul’s writings as Scripture, meaning they were seen on par with the Old Testament Scriptures, a remarkable situation when we consider how early this was written. The second thing that we can imply from Peter’s statement is that the false teachers were apparently the types of ignorant and unstable people to whom Peter was referring, meaning that they were twisting Paul’s writings for their own benefit and gain. It appears that this was not an uncommon occurrence in the early church. 2 Thessalonians may have been written as a corrective to those who misunderstood 1 Thessalonians; Paul himself needed to correct things the Corinthians were saying that may have been twisting his own teachings (cf. 1 Cor. 6:12)’ James may have written the second chapter of his letter to, in part, correct those who were twisting Paul’s teachings on grace and justification. Those who twist Paul’s writings, or any Scriptures, for their own benefit, will find, sadly that it really does no benefit to them in God’s reality, but leads to their own destruction.
Peter concludes his letter with incredibly wise advice for any saints any where. We must always be aware and on guard for those that would twist the Scriptures. If we do not exercise discernment and a constant desire to know the Scriptures better, we will be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from our secure position, it’s really just a matter of time for believers that don’t take the study of the word of God seriously. Rather than being in constant danger like this, we should know the word of God and allow ourselves to grow in the grace and knowledge of the life of Christ that God has made available to us. What an amazing God we have. To him be the glory both now and forever! Amen.
Devotional Thought
Would you be able to recognize as false, teaching that was 98 % correct. Our society seems to be quite comfortable with something that is 98 % pure. Yet, biblical teaching that is anything other than 100% pure is quite dangerous. What steps do you take regularly to firmly establish yourself in the truth of the word of God? Do you spend as much time doing that a you do watching TV, movies, or talking on the phone?
17Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Dig Deeper
"Okay, thanks for help. We’ll see you soon." I had just gotten off the phone with my friend’s wife. She had given me directions to meet them at their new house for the day. Truth be told, though, I had a little trouble understanding her directions. They sounded pretty difficult to follow. I don’t consider things like "go down about a mile or two and turn at the left just after the big brown house," as legitimate directions that can be followed by any normal human being. What she had given me, though, was the address of our destination. With this information I was able to go on the internet and get directions that included distances, cardinal directions, and street names. Now these were directions that made sense. These were directions that could be understood and followed. As we were leaving, however, I realized that I was pretty tired and was going to catch a little nap while my wife drove. She looked at the hand-written directions and the printed set from the internet, and actually grabbed the hand-written ones. "What are you doing," I asked her. She responded that she was grabbing the driving directions and was ready to go. She actually preferred the directions that I found to be rather confusing. I kind of laughed, and it was then that I realized that the directions were actually the same. They were saying the same things, just in very different ways. If followed properly, they would both get us to the same exact place.
As Peter concludes his letter of exhortation, reminding his readers that they should hold tightly to the promise of the return of Christ and the reality of the age to come. His letter, if we were to put it side by side with any of Paul’s letters, is quite different and unique in the scope of the New Testament. Yet, Peter tells us something quite instructive. The things that he has written about are the same sorts of things that Paul has written about in his letters. They might look very different on the surface, but they are actually the same in all of the ways that matter. Peter and Paul, we soon realize, share a common theology, they just say it in very different ways. If followed properly, they will both get us to the same exact place.
Once again Peter reminds his readers that the genuine Christian community orders themselves according to the hope of resurrection and the age to come. Paul echoes that sentiment in 1 Corinthians 15:58 when, after a long explanation of the resurrection and the coming age, he says that Christians should, "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." The point of these two great Christian apostles is not so much that Christians should keep things ship-shape because Christ is coming back one day and we don’t want to be found out-of-order (although that is certainly true). The primary point is that the Christian communities hold tightly to the belief that Christ will return one day and bring the restoration of the universe with him, the age to come. Our lives and communities in the present age should be lived in light of that reality and anticipate it. The way we live now should demonstrate for people and be a shadow of the values of heaven and the age to come.
This is why we should make every effort of be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him. As communities that are called to live out and demonstrate the love and forgiveness of God and be people who do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven, imagine what damage we do when we spiral instead into petty jealousies, lack of forgiveness, gossip, bitterness, selfishness, and become people perfectly comfortable with doing our own will rather than His. It would be about as effective as a light that is not plugged in. A light that offers no light is worthless. A Christian community that offers no taste of the age to come is equally pointless. The fact that Jesus has yet to return in the fullest sense should not cause us, as it did the false teachers that Peter has been referring to, to imagine that God will not eventually judge the entire universe against the standard of His holy presence. Instead we should realize that the delay in the onset of the age to come means salvation for many. It gives us all the more opportunity to demonstrate God’s ministry of reconciliation to the world (2 Cor. 5:16-21) and draw them into His great plan of setting the world to rights.
Peter’s words in the second half of verse 15 and verse 16 serve as quite instructive for those who would interpret what he has written in chapter 3 as being a description of the fiery end of the entire physical universe as we know it, ushering in a purely spiritual existence. Peter says that Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. Not only does this inform us that Peter’s recipients had at least some of Paul’s letters and were quite familiar with them, he also reminds his readers that Paul writes the same things concerning the same matters that Peter has. Nowhere in any of Paul’s letters do we find anything remotely like the fiery destruction of the physical universe. Rather, Paul speaks often of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15; 2 Cor. 5), the age to come (Eph. 2:7; 1 Tim. 6:19), the renewal of the universe (Rom. 8:18-25), and the reconciliation and new creation (2 Cor. 5:16-21). What we quickly realize is that Peter has been speaking of the same sorts of things that Paul wrote about but in a very different way. Paul, as the apostle to the Gentiles, became immersed in Gentile language and culture and tended to speak and write in terms that Gentiles could understand. Peter, on the other hand, has written about the same things, but in a very Jewish way, using very Jewish terminology and imagery. We have very different looking writings, but they get us to the exact same place. Christ will return and bring the resurrection and the age to come with him.
Peter also warns that Paul’s letters contain some things that are hard to understand. This should serve as a bit of a solace for those who find the Scriptures difficult to comprehend at times. Even an apostle, a man who spent three years learning from Christ, concedes that Paul’s writings can easily be taken the wrong way. This is why it is so vital for Christians to be firmly established in the truth and people who take study of the Bible as a serious calling for every believer. It is ignorant and unstable people who distort Paul’s letters, as they do the other Scriptures. With this, Peter has informed us of two important details; one of which is clearly stated and one can be implied. First, is that Peter, writing around 62 or 63 AD, already considers Paul’s writings as Scripture, meaning they were seen on par with the Old Testament Scriptures, a remarkable situation when we consider how early this was written. The second thing that we can imply from Peter’s statement is that the false teachers were apparently the types of ignorant and unstable people to whom Peter was referring, meaning that they were twisting Paul’s writings for their own benefit and gain. It appears that this was not an uncommon occurrence in the early church. 2 Thessalonians may have been written as a corrective to those who misunderstood 1 Thessalonians; Paul himself needed to correct things the Corinthians were saying that may have been twisting his own teachings (cf. 1 Cor. 6:12)’ James may have written the second chapter of his letter to, in part, correct those who were twisting Paul’s teachings on grace and justification. Those who twist Paul’s writings, or any Scriptures, for their own benefit, will find, sadly that it really does no benefit to them in God’s reality, but leads to their own destruction.
Peter concludes his letter with incredibly wise advice for any saints any where. We must always be aware and on guard for those that would twist the Scriptures. If we do not exercise discernment and a constant desire to know the Scriptures better, we will be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from our secure position, it’s really just a matter of time for believers that don’t take the study of the word of God seriously. Rather than being in constant danger like this, we should know the word of God and allow ourselves to grow in the grace and knowledge of the life of Christ that God has made available to us. What an amazing God we have. To him be the glory both now and forever! Amen.
Devotional Thought
Would you be able to recognize as false, teaching that was 98 % correct. Our society seems to be quite comfortable with something that is 98 % pure. Yet, biblical teaching that is anything other than 100% pure is quite dangerous. What steps do you take regularly to firmly establish yourself in the truth of the word of God? Do you spend as much time doing that a you do watching TV, movies, or talking on the phone?
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
2 Peter 3:8-13
8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
Dig Deeper
He had messed up in a big way this time and he knew it. The young man had made a poor choice and had disobeyed his parents and now he knew that he was going to face the wrath of their judgment. That might have been bad enough but what made it even worse in his mind was waiting for his punishment. His parents told him that they needed to talk things over and would let him know "later" what his punishment would be. Later? Didn’t they know the mental anguish that he was going to go through having to wait and wonder? His little sister was also waiting. Except she had been the offended party in this whole situation and she couldn’t wait for her parent’s punishment to come down on her older brother. For both of them, the waiting seemed like forever. In fact, the parents were intentionally waiting, giving their son some time to think about what he had done and giving him a little more chance to repent for his behavior. The first day went by with no punishment handed down, and by the afternoon of the next day, the boy’s anguish began to turn to comfort, thinking that perhaps his parents had forgotten and there would be no judgment. At the same time, the little sister became more and more anguish. Where was the rightful and just punishment? Had she been forgotten? Would there no justice? They both underestimated their parents. They had said that there was going to be a reckoning and, in fact, there was. It was just on their own time for their own reasons.
False teachers had developed theories that didn’t at all coincide with the apostolic teachings of the gospel. They were claiming that Christians needn’t worry about God intervening into human affairs through judgment and that there would be no such thing as the return of Christ to inaugurate the age to come. After all, history had been rolling on for thousands of years with no discernible judgment from God. The present age, they claimed, was all there is, all there was, and all there ever would be. Yet, Peter is very clear. Do not mistake the Lord’s patience in brining final judgment to mean that He had forgotten, or that there would be no judgment at all. Like wise parents, God has reasons for delaying His justice. They are His reasons and He will not be rushed. As Peter describes the certainty of that judgment, he does so in terms that are very Jewish and apocalyptic (a very specific type of literature that used very symbolic, colorful, and cosmic language.)
The first thing that Peter reminds his dear readers is that God views time very differently from human beings. If we don’t get the justice we think we deserve in a day or two, we grow impatient. God is outside of time, however, and can see the whole scope of history. He sees the big picture. Think of it like a train. Time is like a train whizzing by. We are inside a tunnel and can only the small portion of the train that is directly in front of the tunnel at the moment. God, though, is on top of the tunnel and can look down and see the entire train of time all at once. Thus, what might seem like an incredibly long time of waiting for us, is nothing for God. He understands, we don’t. In fact, with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. Peter is teaching here about the patience of the Lord in judgment and this verse (which is a quotation from Psalm 90:4) should not be taken out of context and be applied to things like the length of the six days of creation or anything else that is outside of Peter’s point. Peter defends God’s righteousness against human impatience by pointing out that the Lord is not slow in keeping His promises. Rather, His delay in judgment is for the benefit of those very people who would stand in rebellion against God and mock His patience. He wants everyone to come to repentance and will allow just the right amount of time for that to happen for the most people possible.
Peter says that just when people are getting comfortable, thinking that the judgment of God is not coming, it will come like a thief (1 Thess. 5:2)). The day of the Lord, he ways will come quickly, with no warning. Some get confused here thinking that because the day of the Lord was a clear Old Testament concept of the righteous judgment of God being brought to bear in the physical universe that there is one Day of the Lord that must be identified. The fact is that there were many days of the Lord that all point to the ultimate, but clearly not the only, day of the Lord. The destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD was clearly a day of the Lord that fulfilled many aspects of Old Testament prophecy but it was only a pointer. It could not and should not be considered as the final and ultimate day of the Lord, a mistake that those of the full preterist school of biblical interpretation make today. It is quite clear in passages like 1 Corinthians 5:5 and 2 Corinthians 1:14, that the day of the Lord does not refer to the destruction of the Temple, but looks forward to the return of Christ, the end of the present age, and the onset of the age to come.
In fact, Christ will return to judge the entire cosmos, which Peter describes in the inclusive categories of the heavens, the elements, and the earth. His point, using very apocalyptic language, is that the present age will come to an end. The heavens, or the spiritual realm, as a distinct and separate category will disappear. But what about the elements being destroyed by fire? Doesn’t that mean that God is going to destroy the entire earth by fire and usher in a new spiritual age where we all go to the location of heaven forever? Not quite actually. Peter has made clear in his first letter, that the salvation for which we hope is being kept in heaven until the day of it’s coming (1 Peter 1:3-5). That is the day when God’s presence will fill the earth, reuniting the realms of heaven and earth. Much of our understanding of this passage hinges on how we understand "elements" and "laid bare" in verse 10. The term that Peter uses for elements is used in five other biblical passages (Col. 2:8, 20; Gal. 4:3, 9; Heb. 5:12). Although the word can mean the basic elements and atoms that make up the universe, in all of the other biblical passages in which it is used, it refers to the basic principles that the world operates by. As we have already seen in previous passages, God was the consuming fire of the Bible (Deut. 4:24; Isa. 33:14; Heb. 12:29). But what about "laid bare"? Other older versions have this word translated as "burned up," but the TNIV gets closer to the meaning with "laid bare." The way that this word is used commonly in Jewish texts and other first century writings seems to indicate that this is a word that implies judgment and purging. NT Wright says of this passage in "The Resurrection of the Son of God," that "the writer wishes to stress continuity within discontinuity, a continuity in which the new world, and the new people who are to inhabit it, emerge tested, tried and purified from the crucible of suffering." He goes on to say that Peter is not describing the physical destruction of the universe, that the consuming fire of God is "not simply to consume, but also to purge."
Verse 11 becomes clear then, if we recall that Peter has used "destroyed" to denote the revealing judgment of God throughout this passage. He’s certainly not that God will return one day to destroy the physical universe, annihilate it, and begin an age of solely spiritual existence. This, in fact, would encourage the false teachers who were arguing just that point, saying that what was done in the physical realm did not matter. No, says Peter. What we do now, should be done in light of God’s reality in the age to come because everything and everyone will be judged in the presence of God and only the pure will stand up to that fiery judgment. The day of the Lord will bring about the revealing judgment of the heavens by fire, and the principles of the world will melt in the heat (cf. Mal. 3:1-5).
We look forward to the time of the coming of this salvation, when God will renew and restore his creation and put things to right (Matt. 19:28). This will be the time of the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-5; Rom. 8:18-25). It is the restored universe, the new heaven and earth that is the home of righteousness and the hope of all of those who love God. This is the reality in which Christians should live in light of, anticipating with our actions, realizing that when the consuming fire of the presence of God comes, the heavens, the elements and principles of the world, and the earth will be laid bare in judgment, with only those things in Christ will remain in the age to come (cf. Col. 1:15-20).
Devotional Thought
Take at look at your own life; a good, long, hard look. Will the things with which you have filled your life stand up to the consuming fire and judgment of the presence of God? Peter says that we should live holy and godly lives because of this coming day. How are you doing?
10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
Dig Deeper
He had messed up in a big way this time and he knew it. The young man had made a poor choice and had disobeyed his parents and now he knew that he was going to face the wrath of their judgment. That might have been bad enough but what made it even worse in his mind was waiting for his punishment. His parents told him that they needed to talk things over and would let him know "later" what his punishment would be. Later? Didn’t they know the mental anguish that he was going to go through having to wait and wonder? His little sister was also waiting. Except she had been the offended party in this whole situation and she couldn’t wait for her parent’s punishment to come down on her older brother. For both of them, the waiting seemed like forever. In fact, the parents were intentionally waiting, giving their son some time to think about what he had done and giving him a little more chance to repent for his behavior. The first day went by with no punishment handed down, and by the afternoon of the next day, the boy’s anguish began to turn to comfort, thinking that perhaps his parents had forgotten and there would be no judgment. At the same time, the little sister became more and more anguish. Where was the rightful and just punishment? Had she been forgotten? Would there no justice? They both underestimated their parents. They had said that there was going to be a reckoning and, in fact, there was. It was just on their own time for their own reasons.
False teachers had developed theories that didn’t at all coincide with the apostolic teachings of the gospel. They were claiming that Christians needn’t worry about God intervening into human affairs through judgment and that there would be no such thing as the return of Christ to inaugurate the age to come. After all, history had been rolling on for thousands of years with no discernible judgment from God. The present age, they claimed, was all there is, all there was, and all there ever would be. Yet, Peter is very clear. Do not mistake the Lord’s patience in brining final judgment to mean that He had forgotten, or that there would be no judgment at all. Like wise parents, God has reasons for delaying His justice. They are His reasons and He will not be rushed. As Peter describes the certainty of that judgment, he does so in terms that are very Jewish and apocalyptic (a very specific type of literature that used very symbolic, colorful, and cosmic language.)
The first thing that Peter reminds his dear readers is that God views time very differently from human beings. If we don’t get the justice we think we deserve in a day or two, we grow impatient. God is outside of time, however, and can see the whole scope of history. He sees the big picture. Think of it like a train. Time is like a train whizzing by. We are inside a tunnel and can only the small portion of the train that is directly in front of the tunnel at the moment. God, though, is on top of the tunnel and can look down and see the entire train of time all at once. Thus, what might seem like an incredibly long time of waiting for us, is nothing for God. He understands, we don’t. In fact, with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. Peter is teaching here about the patience of the Lord in judgment and this verse (which is a quotation from Psalm 90:4) should not be taken out of context and be applied to things like the length of the six days of creation or anything else that is outside of Peter’s point. Peter defends God’s righteousness against human impatience by pointing out that the Lord is not slow in keeping His promises. Rather, His delay in judgment is for the benefit of those very people who would stand in rebellion against God and mock His patience. He wants everyone to come to repentance and will allow just the right amount of time for that to happen for the most people possible.
Peter says that just when people are getting comfortable, thinking that the judgment of God is not coming, it will come like a thief (1 Thess. 5:2)). The day of the Lord, he ways will come quickly, with no warning. Some get confused here thinking that because the day of the Lord was a clear Old Testament concept of the righteous judgment of God being brought to bear in the physical universe that there is one Day of the Lord that must be identified. The fact is that there were many days of the Lord that all point to the ultimate, but clearly not the only, day of the Lord. The destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD was clearly a day of the Lord that fulfilled many aspects of Old Testament prophecy but it was only a pointer. It could not and should not be considered as the final and ultimate day of the Lord, a mistake that those of the full preterist school of biblical interpretation make today. It is quite clear in passages like 1 Corinthians 5:5 and 2 Corinthians 1:14, that the day of the Lord does not refer to the destruction of the Temple, but looks forward to the return of Christ, the end of the present age, and the onset of the age to come.
In fact, Christ will return to judge the entire cosmos, which Peter describes in the inclusive categories of the heavens, the elements, and the earth. His point, using very apocalyptic language, is that the present age will come to an end. The heavens, or the spiritual realm, as a distinct and separate category will disappear. But what about the elements being destroyed by fire? Doesn’t that mean that God is going to destroy the entire earth by fire and usher in a new spiritual age where we all go to the location of heaven forever? Not quite actually. Peter has made clear in his first letter, that the salvation for which we hope is being kept in heaven until the day of it’s coming (1 Peter 1:3-5). That is the day when God’s presence will fill the earth, reuniting the realms of heaven and earth. Much of our understanding of this passage hinges on how we understand "elements" and "laid bare" in verse 10. The term that Peter uses for elements is used in five other biblical passages (Col. 2:8, 20; Gal. 4:3, 9; Heb. 5:12). Although the word can mean the basic elements and atoms that make up the universe, in all of the other biblical passages in which it is used, it refers to the basic principles that the world operates by. As we have already seen in previous passages, God was the consuming fire of the Bible (Deut. 4:24; Isa. 33:14; Heb. 12:29). But what about "laid bare"? Other older versions have this word translated as "burned up," but the TNIV gets closer to the meaning with "laid bare." The way that this word is used commonly in Jewish texts and other first century writings seems to indicate that this is a word that implies judgment and purging. NT Wright says of this passage in "The Resurrection of the Son of God," that "the writer wishes to stress continuity within discontinuity, a continuity in which the new world, and the new people who are to inhabit it, emerge tested, tried and purified from the crucible of suffering." He goes on to say that Peter is not describing the physical destruction of the universe, that the consuming fire of God is "not simply to consume, but also to purge."
Verse 11 becomes clear then, if we recall that Peter has used "destroyed" to denote the revealing judgment of God throughout this passage. He’s certainly not that God will return one day to destroy the physical universe, annihilate it, and begin an age of solely spiritual existence. This, in fact, would encourage the false teachers who were arguing just that point, saying that what was done in the physical realm did not matter. No, says Peter. What we do now, should be done in light of God’s reality in the age to come because everything and everyone will be judged in the presence of God and only the pure will stand up to that fiery judgment. The day of the Lord will bring about the revealing judgment of the heavens by fire, and the principles of the world will melt in the heat (cf. Mal. 3:1-5).
We look forward to the time of the coming of this salvation, when God will renew and restore his creation and put things to right (Matt. 19:28). This will be the time of the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-5; Rom. 8:18-25). It is the restored universe, the new heaven and earth that is the home of righteousness and the hope of all of those who love God. This is the reality in which Christians should live in light of, anticipating with our actions, realizing that when the consuming fire of the presence of God comes, the heavens, the elements and principles of the world, and the earth will be laid bare in judgment, with only those things in Christ will remain in the age to come (cf. Col. 1:15-20).
Devotional Thought
Take at look at your own life; a good, long, hard look. Will the things with which you have filled your life stand up to the consuming fire and judgment of the presence of God? Peter says that we should live holy and godly lives because of this coming day. How are you doing?
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
2 Peter 3:1-7
1Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Dig Deeper
She had been divorced since her son was two years old. He was now ten and it had been just this newly-single mother and her son living alone for eight years. She had not given a second thought to the prospect of raising her son alone. She was sure that she well knew what was best for her son and how to best raise him. Her philosophy was simple. He was going to know nothing but love, which also meant that she did not want to discipline the young man at all. That seemed to work well enough for the first year or two, but things quickly began to turn sour. She found that her parenting techniques weren’t working and now she had a rude, disrespectful, and increasingly violent young man on her hands. His father, was sure that his wife had no clue how to parent, and he was equally sure that he he did know how to do it well. So, he convinced the boy’s mother to let the boy come and live with him. The father’s approach was almost the exact opposite. The boy didn’t need a bunch of love and affirmation, he needed discipline and to be toughened up. So he set about providing a stern environment that would whip this ten year old boy into shape. The problem is that that extreme didn’t work either. Truth be told, neither of the parents were right. The truth of what was needed didn’t lie in the extremes but somewhere in the middle of the two.
As people have approached this passage in Peter, there are two primary interpretations of this passage and the continuation of it that we will examine tomorrow. One group says that Peter is writing a prophecy of the time when Christ will return and destroy the present earth with fire, taking His people into heaven with him to reign with him in a spiritual state of existence forever. The other interpretation says that that interpretation is completely wrong. Rather, they say, Peter was referring symbolically to the destruction of Jerusalem (which came to pass in 70 AD) that Jesus predicted in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. They argue that rather than being the end of the world, it is simply a symbolic description of the judgment of Jesus that came on Jerusalem in 70 AD and the final end of the Old Covenant. So which one is correct. In the full sense of things, I don’t believe either view is correct completely. The truth lies somewhere in between.
Peter has clearly laid out the character, motivations, and effects of the false teachers, but it wouldn’t be the most effective thing to do that for the entirety of the letter. So, he now turns to teaching some truth to balance the false teachings. He hasn’t clearly delineated the false teachings but he wouldn’t have had to because his initial readers were already familiar with them and subsequent readers don’t really need the details, even if we might like them. What we do need is precisely what Peter has given us, the truth.
Peter points out to his dear friends (literally the "beloved ones," showing that they are children of the beloved one) that this is his second letter to stimulate them to wholesome thinking. Somewhat obscured in the TNIV is that Peter is actually telling them that he is writing to stimulate or kick into gear their "pure minds." He is, in other words, giving them a compliment that basically means he wrote his letters to remind them of how great they are in Christ and to live up to that status. Peter refers to this as his second letter to these recipients, but that does not necessarily mean that the first letter to which he refers is what we know as 1 Peter. For instance Paul apparently wrote at least four letters to the Corinthians but only two were preserved as part of the Bible. One circumstantial piece of evidence that 1 Peter is not the letter to which Peter refers is that he appears to know the recipients of 2 Peter quite well, while that is not the case in 1 Peter. Ultimately, the best that can be said is that we don’t know whether he is referring to the letter that we have in our Bibles or another letter.
To what does he want to stimulate their pure minds? To the great motivating hope of the Christian faith. The time when God would once-and-for-all restore His perfect creation and fill His world with His presence (Matt. 19:28; cf. 1 Cor. 15; Rev. 21). He particularly calls their minds to the fact that this is not some brand new teaching. The prophets in the past spoke often of that day (for one example see Mal. 3:1-5; Isa. 65:17-25; 66), as have the apostles of the New Covenant. What is the command given by our Lord that Peter speaks of? He does not use the plural of the word, so doesn’t appear to be referring to any list of rules. Most likely, Peter refers to the totality of conforming to the life of Christ and being transformed into the image of Christ (Col. 3:10) which is at the very heart of the Christian gospel (cf. Matt. 5:48; Heb. 12:14).
After urging his readers to remember the truth in the first two verses, Peter warns them again of the false teachers, particularly in verses 3 and 4 of those who will scoff at the second coming of Christ. The early church used terminology indicating that the last days was the time beginning at Pentecost, so Peter makes it clear that just because Jesus has come to earth as a man doesn’t mean that scoffing against God’s plan of redemption for the world will end; it will just take a different form. Mockers like these men don’t generally lay out thorough and logical arguments against the truth of God’ reality, as much as they do belittle it and try to make those who believe in it feel stupid or superstitious. Peter probably views these men as particularly dangerous because mockers who come from without pose a certain set of problems, but mockers from within, who claim to hold to the same teachings and faith that the Christian community does, pose a far more dangerous set of problems. Just as a clock that is five minutes off will fool many more people than one that is three hours off, false teachers from within the Christian community that hold to parts of the faith while denying and mocking others, can be especially dangerous and deceiving.
These men were mocking the coming and justice of the Lord by claiming that the world was at it always was and always will be. They were apparently denying the belief that the present age would, at some point, come to a close and be transformed by God into the glorious age to come. This is where the two teachings mentioned earlier miss the point. It’s not that Jesus is coming back some day to destroy the physical universe, replacing it with a spiritual existence. Nor is it true that Peter is referring here to simply the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD. Jesus will return and judge the earth but not by annihilation by fire. He did certainly come in judgment on Israel in 70 AD but that served as vindication of Jesus as the Messiah and a guarantee that he would return one day as the king of His whole creation. The mistake comes in one side going to the extreme of thinking that Jesus’ coming will only be spiritual while the other side goes to the other extreme, claiming it to be only physical. Both are wrong because His return will involve the very act of brining the heavens (the spiritual realm) and the earth together again.
The false teachers were going to the extreme of claiming that God would not return in a physical way. To sum up their beliefs, it seems that they believed that Jesus would rule in a spiritual sense from heaven, would never return physically to earth, and that those in Christ were spiritual beings and did not need to constrain themselves physically and morally. They deliberately forget, says Peter, that long ago God did intervene in the physical universe. Hearkening back to Genesis 1, Peter says that God formed the earth out of water. He also deluged and destroyed the earth by flood in the days of Noah. This makes clear that Peter is using the word translated as "destroyed" here in the sense of judgment, because God clearly did not annihilate the earth in the time of Noah’s flood. He laid it bare in judgment, destroying the evil elements that had been judged by Him to be unacceptable.
Just as God intervened physically in the universe then, so He will again as He has promised. By the same word that created the universe and brought the great flood, so will the present age, both spiritual and physical be brought under judgment. The earth will be filled with fire, which is common biblical language for the presence of God (Deut. 4:24; Ps. 97:7; Heb. 12:29). In 1 Peter 1:4-5, it says that Christians have an "inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." The consuming fire of God will be a refining moment for the people of God but a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men (Mal. 3:1-5). This is a moment that will lay the entire universe bare in judgment before a holy God, as we will see in the next section.
Devotional Thought
Do you go about your day-to-day decisions with the coming presence and judgment of God in mind? How does remembering that one day the earth will be filled with the consuming presence of God effect the way we go about our lives?
3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Dig Deeper
She had been divorced since her son was two years old. He was now ten and it had been just this newly-single mother and her son living alone for eight years. She had not given a second thought to the prospect of raising her son alone. She was sure that she well knew what was best for her son and how to best raise him. Her philosophy was simple. He was going to know nothing but love, which also meant that she did not want to discipline the young man at all. That seemed to work well enough for the first year or two, but things quickly began to turn sour. She found that her parenting techniques weren’t working and now she had a rude, disrespectful, and increasingly violent young man on her hands. His father, was sure that his wife had no clue how to parent, and he was equally sure that he he did know how to do it well. So, he convinced the boy’s mother to let the boy come and live with him. The father’s approach was almost the exact opposite. The boy didn’t need a bunch of love and affirmation, he needed discipline and to be toughened up. So he set about providing a stern environment that would whip this ten year old boy into shape. The problem is that that extreme didn’t work either. Truth be told, neither of the parents were right. The truth of what was needed didn’t lie in the extremes but somewhere in the middle of the two.
As people have approached this passage in Peter, there are two primary interpretations of this passage and the continuation of it that we will examine tomorrow. One group says that Peter is writing a prophecy of the time when Christ will return and destroy the present earth with fire, taking His people into heaven with him to reign with him in a spiritual state of existence forever. The other interpretation says that that interpretation is completely wrong. Rather, they say, Peter was referring symbolically to the destruction of Jerusalem (which came to pass in 70 AD) that Jesus predicted in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. They argue that rather than being the end of the world, it is simply a symbolic description of the judgment of Jesus that came on Jerusalem in 70 AD and the final end of the Old Covenant. So which one is correct. In the full sense of things, I don’t believe either view is correct completely. The truth lies somewhere in between.
Peter has clearly laid out the character, motivations, and effects of the false teachers, but it wouldn’t be the most effective thing to do that for the entirety of the letter. So, he now turns to teaching some truth to balance the false teachings. He hasn’t clearly delineated the false teachings but he wouldn’t have had to because his initial readers were already familiar with them and subsequent readers don’t really need the details, even if we might like them. What we do need is precisely what Peter has given us, the truth.
Peter points out to his dear friends (literally the "beloved ones," showing that they are children of the beloved one) that this is his second letter to stimulate them to wholesome thinking. Somewhat obscured in the TNIV is that Peter is actually telling them that he is writing to stimulate or kick into gear their "pure minds." He is, in other words, giving them a compliment that basically means he wrote his letters to remind them of how great they are in Christ and to live up to that status. Peter refers to this as his second letter to these recipients, but that does not necessarily mean that the first letter to which he refers is what we know as 1 Peter. For instance Paul apparently wrote at least four letters to the Corinthians but only two were preserved as part of the Bible. One circumstantial piece of evidence that 1 Peter is not the letter to which Peter refers is that he appears to know the recipients of 2 Peter quite well, while that is not the case in 1 Peter. Ultimately, the best that can be said is that we don’t know whether he is referring to the letter that we have in our Bibles or another letter.
To what does he want to stimulate their pure minds? To the great motivating hope of the Christian faith. The time when God would once-and-for-all restore His perfect creation and fill His world with His presence (Matt. 19:28; cf. 1 Cor. 15; Rev. 21). He particularly calls their minds to the fact that this is not some brand new teaching. The prophets in the past spoke often of that day (for one example see Mal. 3:1-5; Isa. 65:17-25; 66), as have the apostles of the New Covenant. What is the command given by our Lord that Peter speaks of? He does not use the plural of the word, so doesn’t appear to be referring to any list of rules. Most likely, Peter refers to the totality of conforming to the life of Christ and being transformed into the image of Christ (Col. 3:10) which is at the very heart of the Christian gospel (cf. Matt. 5:48; Heb. 12:14).
After urging his readers to remember the truth in the first two verses, Peter warns them again of the false teachers, particularly in verses 3 and 4 of those who will scoff at the second coming of Christ. The early church used terminology indicating that the last days was the time beginning at Pentecost, so Peter makes it clear that just because Jesus has come to earth as a man doesn’t mean that scoffing against God’s plan of redemption for the world will end; it will just take a different form. Mockers like these men don’t generally lay out thorough and logical arguments against the truth of God’ reality, as much as they do belittle it and try to make those who believe in it feel stupid or superstitious. Peter probably views these men as particularly dangerous because mockers who come from without pose a certain set of problems, but mockers from within, who claim to hold to the same teachings and faith that the Christian community does, pose a far more dangerous set of problems. Just as a clock that is five minutes off will fool many more people than one that is three hours off, false teachers from within the Christian community that hold to parts of the faith while denying and mocking others, can be especially dangerous and deceiving.
These men were mocking the coming and justice of the Lord by claiming that the world was at it always was and always will be. They were apparently denying the belief that the present age would, at some point, come to a close and be transformed by God into the glorious age to come. This is where the two teachings mentioned earlier miss the point. It’s not that Jesus is coming back some day to destroy the physical universe, replacing it with a spiritual existence. Nor is it true that Peter is referring here to simply the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD. Jesus will return and judge the earth but not by annihilation by fire. He did certainly come in judgment on Israel in 70 AD but that served as vindication of Jesus as the Messiah and a guarantee that he would return one day as the king of His whole creation. The mistake comes in one side going to the extreme of thinking that Jesus’ coming will only be spiritual while the other side goes to the other extreme, claiming it to be only physical. Both are wrong because His return will involve the very act of brining the heavens (the spiritual realm) and the earth together again.
The false teachers were going to the extreme of claiming that God would not return in a physical way. To sum up their beliefs, it seems that they believed that Jesus would rule in a spiritual sense from heaven, would never return physically to earth, and that those in Christ were spiritual beings and did not need to constrain themselves physically and morally. They deliberately forget, says Peter, that long ago God did intervene in the physical universe. Hearkening back to Genesis 1, Peter says that God formed the earth out of water. He also deluged and destroyed the earth by flood in the days of Noah. This makes clear that Peter is using the word translated as "destroyed" here in the sense of judgment, because God clearly did not annihilate the earth in the time of Noah’s flood. He laid it bare in judgment, destroying the evil elements that had been judged by Him to be unacceptable.
Just as God intervened physically in the universe then, so He will again as He has promised. By the same word that created the universe and brought the great flood, so will the present age, both spiritual and physical be brought under judgment. The earth will be filled with fire, which is common biblical language for the presence of God (Deut. 4:24; Ps. 97:7; Heb. 12:29). In 1 Peter 1:4-5, it says that Christians have an "inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." The consuming fire of God will be a refining moment for the people of God but a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men (Mal. 3:1-5). This is a moment that will lay the entire universe bare in judgment before a holy God, as we will see in the next section.
Devotional Thought
Do you go about your day-to-day decisions with the coming presence and judgment of God in mind? How does remembering that one day the earth will be filled with the consuming presence of God effect the way we go about our lives?
Monday, October 13, 2008
2 Peter 2:17-22
17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit,"and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
Dig Deeper
If you’ve ever used the internet, you’ve probably seen those ads that pop up that inform you that you are the millionth customer on a website or that you have been chosen as a special winner for doing one thing or another. They then inform you that you have won an incredible prize for free. The prizes are usually something pretty incredible too, like a new laptop, a flat screen television, or a vacation of a lifetime. What could be better than winning an incredible prize like that for doing virtually nothing? This is why" free" is one of our favorite words in the English language. Yet, if you look carefully, you will always see a tiny asterisk (*) behind the word free. If you click on it to go claim your ‘free" prize you realize that it was little more than an empty promise. It’s not free at all, despite the promises of being free. In fact, you have to choose from several offers which usually involve having to pick three or four choices from a list of 10 or 15 items. These are things like signing up for subscriptions to a magazine or a paid website. If you do that, you will be taken to another page full of more choices, which are more expensive and involved and find that you have to pick several options from that page. Once you have completed that you will be taken to another page and given 5 or 6 offers, of which you must choose 1 or 2, and the things on this page are usually quite expensive. What you find out is that in order to complete the steps necessary to claim your "free" prize, it winds up costing you about as much as you might have paid for the original prize and obligates you to many other memberships and fees. The promise of a free prize turns out to be quite the opposite.
False teachers are dangerous for two primary reasons. The first is that what they are teaching contains portions of the truth, making it difficult to distinguish it from the genuine truth. The second is that the portion of false teachings that are indeed false, sound so good, promising freedoms and privileges that attract many. Peter’s targets here, no doubt, were impressive teachers who maintained enough of the truth to sound plausible, but Peter is more concerned here with the second aspect of the draw of false teaching. They have made all sort of promises about the freedoms and opportunities available to someone who would embrace their teachings. What Peter is so forceful in point out, however, is that those promises are completely empty. The promise of freedom that they offer turns out to be not just an empty promise, but a trap right back into the slavery of sin that Christians are supposed to have escaped.
Beginning in verse 17, Peter turns from dealing with the character of the false teachers directly to dealing with the impact that their teachings have on others. Peter uses two incredibly colorful and descriptive metaphors to describe the hollow and empty reality of the false teachers. They are, he says, springs without water. Springs were a vitally important thing for a people who lived in and were quite familiar with the desert. A spring could be the only thing that stood between a sojourner and death. So, to come across a what looked like a spring, only to find that there was no water would be devastating. These teachers were like the men of Jeremiah 2:13 who rejected the Lord’s spring of living water to dig their own wells that contained no water. Peter gives another picture of empty promises with the imagery of mist clouds driven by a storm. These clouds though, rather than bringing life-giving water, evaporated and would actually, in that part of the world, be a sign that dry weather was in the offing. Combining these two metaphors gives a clear picture of Peter’s point. These teachers have given the promise of great things but they deliver nothing because their promises are empty.
The fact that they mouth empty, boastful words and appeal to the lustful desires of sinful human nature should serve as a warning that this is not true Christianity. The true calling of the Christian life is to lay down one’s own life and enter into the life of Christ, being fully prepared to go through trials, suffering, and persecution for the benefit of others and to more fully realize the life of Christ in our life. Any teaching then, that is not one-hundred percent consistent with the call to a sacrificial life (Rom. 12:1) is not the real thing. Peter offers further evidence that these teachings are not the real thing. True gospel teaching will find a home in those that are "firmly established in the truth" (2 Pet. 1:12), but these teachings entice people are are just escaping from those who live in error. In other words, they prey on the young and spiritually immature Christians who do not seem to know any better. They turn their heads with their fine-sounding arguments and their empty promises that have no substance. If they were truly offering up truth, then why would it not be accepted by the spiritually mature?
The brand of freedom that they promised (which probably involved both freedom from any real judgment and complete freedom from any real moral constraint) is shown to be what it is by doing nothing more than looking at the lives of the teachers themselves. If they were teaching true freedom then they should demonstrate that freedom. Instead, however, their lives display men who are slaves to their own sin, their own pleasure-focused life, their own lusts, and their constant need for more. A man is a slave to whatever has mastered him, but no Christian should be mastered by anything other than Christ because our life is His.
In verses 20-22 Peter turns to the fate and reality of these false teachers. They had made it. They had entered into the life of Christ and escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Yet, they have turned away from the forgiveness that exists in the life of Christ. Not only have they turned away from and rejected the teaching of the true gospel, they have misled and turned others away as well. The charge against those who would mislead others has always been clear and stiff (Matt. 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2). Having known the truth and turned from it leaves them worse off than if they had just never know at all. Peter echoes Jesus’ warning about the state that Israel would be in if she were swept clean by his work but never really embraced it, leaving themselves open to a worse fate than in the beginning (Matt. 12:45; Luke 11:26). He says that it would have been better for not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
Their lives have been reduced, in many respects, to demonstrating the truth of two old proverbs. The dog and the sow might have undergone a purging or cleansing, but this never overrides their true nature. They quickly return to familiar habits; the dog returns to its vomit, while the sow returns to wallowing in the mud. The dog had gotten rid of the food that was making it sick and the sow had gotten rid of the mud, but the dog is lured back by its instinct to eat everything and the sow by its desire for the pleasures of mud. Peter has already called the false teachers beasts (2 Peter 2:12), and here his point is clear that they have returned to the lure of sin even though they had been cleansed by the blood of Christ because they valued their own sensual desires over true freedom. There can, perhaps, be no sadder commentary than that.
Devotional Thought
Are you ever enticed with versions of Christianity that offer only good things and prosperity. They are certainly out there. True Christianity demands dying to self. James says that he will show his faith by what he does (Jam. 2:18) while Paul calls us to be living sacrifices (Rom. 12:2). Could you truly make the statement, "I will show you my faith by my sacrificial life"?
Dig Deeper
If you’ve ever used the internet, you’ve probably seen those ads that pop up that inform you that you are the millionth customer on a website or that you have been chosen as a special winner for doing one thing or another. They then inform you that you have won an incredible prize for free. The prizes are usually something pretty incredible too, like a new laptop, a flat screen television, or a vacation of a lifetime. What could be better than winning an incredible prize like that for doing virtually nothing? This is why" free" is one of our favorite words in the English language. Yet, if you look carefully, you will always see a tiny asterisk (*) behind the word free. If you click on it to go claim your ‘free" prize you realize that it was little more than an empty promise. It’s not free at all, despite the promises of being free. In fact, you have to choose from several offers which usually involve having to pick three or four choices from a list of 10 or 15 items. These are things like signing up for subscriptions to a magazine or a paid website. If you do that, you will be taken to another page full of more choices, which are more expensive and involved and find that you have to pick several options from that page. Once you have completed that you will be taken to another page and given 5 or 6 offers, of which you must choose 1 or 2, and the things on this page are usually quite expensive. What you find out is that in order to complete the steps necessary to claim your "free" prize, it winds up costing you about as much as you might have paid for the original prize and obligates you to many other memberships and fees. The promise of a free prize turns out to be quite the opposite.
False teachers are dangerous for two primary reasons. The first is that what they are teaching contains portions of the truth, making it difficult to distinguish it from the genuine truth. The second is that the portion of false teachings that are indeed false, sound so good, promising freedoms and privileges that attract many. Peter’s targets here, no doubt, were impressive teachers who maintained enough of the truth to sound plausible, but Peter is more concerned here with the second aspect of the draw of false teaching. They have made all sort of promises about the freedoms and opportunities available to someone who would embrace their teachings. What Peter is so forceful in point out, however, is that those promises are completely empty. The promise of freedom that they offer turns out to be not just an empty promise, but a trap right back into the slavery of sin that Christians are supposed to have escaped.
Beginning in verse 17, Peter turns from dealing with the character of the false teachers directly to dealing with the impact that their teachings have on others. Peter uses two incredibly colorful and descriptive metaphors to describe the hollow and empty reality of the false teachers. They are, he says, springs without water. Springs were a vitally important thing for a people who lived in and were quite familiar with the desert. A spring could be the only thing that stood between a sojourner and death. So, to come across a what looked like a spring, only to find that there was no water would be devastating. These teachers were like the men of Jeremiah 2:13 who rejected the Lord’s spring of living water to dig their own wells that contained no water. Peter gives another picture of empty promises with the imagery of mist clouds driven by a storm. These clouds though, rather than bringing life-giving water, evaporated and would actually, in that part of the world, be a sign that dry weather was in the offing. Combining these two metaphors gives a clear picture of Peter’s point. These teachers have given the promise of great things but they deliver nothing because their promises are empty.
The fact that they mouth empty, boastful words and appeal to the lustful desires of sinful human nature should serve as a warning that this is not true Christianity. The true calling of the Christian life is to lay down one’s own life and enter into the life of Christ, being fully prepared to go through trials, suffering, and persecution for the benefit of others and to more fully realize the life of Christ in our life. Any teaching then, that is not one-hundred percent consistent with the call to a sacrificial life (Rom. 12:1) is not the real thing. Peter offers further evidence that these teachings are not the real thing. True gospel teaching will find a home in those that are "firmly established in the truth" (2 Pet. 1:12), but these teachings entice people are are just escaping from those who live in error. In other words, they prey on the young and spiritually immature Christians who do not seem to know any better. They turn their heads with their fine-sounding arguments and their empty promises that have no substance. If they were truly offering up truth, then why would it not be accepted by the spiritually mature?
The brand of freedom that they promised (which probably involved both freedom from any real judgment and complete freedom from any real moral constraint) is shown to be what it is by doing nothing more than looking at the lives of the teachers themselves. If they were teaching true freedom then they should demonstrate that freedom. Instead, however, their lives display men who are slaves to their own sin, their own pleasure-focused life, their own lusts, and their constant need for more. A man is a slave to whatever has mastered him, but no Christian should be mastered by anything other than Christ because our life is His.
In verses 20-22 Peter turns to the fate and reality of these false teachers. They had made it. They had entered into the life of Christ and escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Yet, they have turned away from the forgiveness that exists in the life of Christ. Not only have they turned away from and rejected the teaching of the true gospel, they have misled and turned others away as well. The charge against those who would mislead others has always been clear and stiff (Matt. 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2). Having known the truth and turned from it leaves them worse off than if they had just never know at all. Peter echoes Jesus’ warning about the state that Israel would be in if she were swept clean by his work but never really embraced it, leaving themselves open to a worse fate than in the beginning (Matt. 12:45; Luke 11:26). He says that it would have been better for not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.
Their lives have been reduced, in many respects, to demonstrating the truth of two old proverbs. The dog and the sow might have undergone a purging or cleansing, but this never overrides their true nature. They quickly return to familiar habits; the dog returns to its vomit, while the sow returns to wallowing in the mud. The dog had gotten rid of the food that was making it sick and the sow had gotten rid of the mud, but the dog is lured back by its instinct to eat everything and the sow by its desire for the pleasures of mud. Peter has already called the false teachers beasts (2 Peter 2:12), and here his point is clear that they have returned to the lure of sin even though they had been cleansed by the blood of Christ because they valued their own sensual desires over true freedom. There can, perhaps, be no sadder commentary than that.
Devotional Thought
Are you ever enticed with versions of Christianity that offer only good things and prosperity. They are certainly out there. True Christianity demands dying to self. James says that he will show his faith by what he does (Jam. 2:18) while Paul calls us to be living sacrifices (Rom. 12:2). Could you truly make the statement, "I will show you my faith by my sacrificial life"?
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