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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Friday, 4 October 2024:
Jude 1:1-2 — Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
How do you introduce yourself to others? For what do you want to be known? First and foremost, Jude wants to be known as a servant of Jesus Christ, and he also wants to be known as James’ brother, which also makes him Jesus’ half-brother, though he doesn’t directly mention that point. “Jude” is actually named Judas, but at some point his he is called Jude, likely to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot.
What does Judas desire for those who are called, loved, and kept for Jesus Christ? Mercy, peace, and love, not just added, but multiplied. It is this motivation which causes him to write this difficult letter. Verse three points out that this isn’t the letter Jude originally intended to write. He had planned to write about the unity they shared in their salvation but was, instead, was compelled to address a serious issue within the church.
Jude 1:4 — For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Ungodly people were slowly perverting the beliefs and behavior of others within the church without anyone actually noticing. They used the grace of God to promote “sensuality,” which is to deny Christ because it is contrary to the purpose, will, and teachings of Christ, robbing people of the benefits of Life in Christ. These are they who make light of the sins for which Christ shed His blood with the excuse, “God has forgiven me and understands I am only human,” or “God would want me to be happy and knows how much I ‘love’ this person.”
Jude 1:5-7 — Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Jude makes it clear that Jesus, the Son of God who as been at work with the Father and the Spirit always, both saves and judges. People are personally destroyed by their beliefs which bear fruit in their behaviors. Note throughout the Bible infidelity to God is characterized in sexual terms, adultery and whoredom with the world. Note also throughout the Bible that spiritual infidelity, or sensuality, is manifested in sexual lewdness, where loving God with all heart, soul, mind, and body is substituted for worldly lusts, where the heart, soul, mind, and body are used to defile others. Jude makes it abundantly clear that the sexual immorality, such as homosexuality, is the physical evidence of unbelief, which is both unnatural and punishable by eternal fire. Paul explains this pattern in greater detail in Romans 1:
- Romans 1:22-32 — Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Jude 1:8 — Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.
These people believed what they wanted to believe to justify their defiling behavior, rejecting the Lordship of Jesus. Remember, all sin is cosmic treason. We must never get complacent in our war against the world, the flesh, and the devil. There really is no such thing as a small or acceptable sin.
Jude 1:10, 11 – But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.
Jude describes the “carnal Christian” as spiritless animals who act on animal instincts rather than being controlled by the Spirit. They are like Cain who lacked self-control which comes from the Spirt, or Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. When you sin, you blaspheme God — how serious is that?
Jude 1:12, 13 — These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
Selfish Christians are hidden destroyers, claiming to be leaders but only lifting themselves up and drawing attention to themselves rather than God; they may claim to be alive, but in their selfishness and self-centeredness, they are really dead. Many people call themselves Christians and actively participate with confidence in religious activities, so of whom can recite many Bible passages, while they blaspheme the Name of Christ by what they teach and practice.
The disobedient Christian is worthless and destructive.
Jude 1:16 — These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
Constant complainers who take sides are revealing their self-centeredness and ungodliness. Jesus gave us a mission of reconciliation, uniting other to God and to each other, not dividing. Do you know a church-goer who always seems to have a complaint, who always seems to be discontent, and who are always quick to point out what “the church” isn’t doing well or right? Hopefully, that someone is not you. Hopefully, in your selflessness, you can influence that constant critic to reconcile to Jesus and to others and to be who they ought to be in Christ, addressing the plank in their own eye rather than focusing their attention on the specks in other peoples eyes. Again, read John 17.
Jude 1:18, 19 — In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
Scoffers who cause divisions do not have the Spirit or are at least quenching the Spirit. Scoffers scoff because they want to pursue their own passions. Worldly people cause divisions, but the Spirit unites people in Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ, there can be no real unity. Many will seek unity around some idol, like a political party or an organization, but this is doomed and antichrist.
Jude 1:20-23 — But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
We must be uniters in a world full of dividers; we must be peacemakers in a world full of unpeaceable people. We must bring order in a world of disorder; we must bring light in a world of darkness. We must love in a hateful world. However this requires much prayer and requires the leading of the Holy Spirit rather than merely intellect. It is dangerous business to snatch others out of the fire. Don’t be complacent in your efforts to do so or attempt to do it in your own power.
You don’t snatch people from a fire by standing in it with them.
Jude 1:24 – Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling….
Only Jesus can keep you from stumbling. You cannot stand on your own.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 4 October 2024: Today, live a holy and godly life, acceptable and pleasing to the Lord (1 Peter 3:11; Romans 12:1). Live out publicly and visibly your freedom on the Gospel, “not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God,” while “proclaim[ing] the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light…. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.”
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 