As we conclude studying the letter of Jude, we will learn how to deal with the influence of evil affecting the church fellowship.
JUDE (David Pawson's Translation)
This letter comes from Judas, Jude for short, one of the slaves bought by King Jesus and the brother of James you well know. It is addressed to those who have been called out of the world, who are now loved ones in the family of God the Father and who are being kept for presentation to King Jesus. May you have more and more of the mercy, peace and love you have already experienced.
Loved ones, I was fully intending to correspond with you about the wonderful salvation we share but found I have to write quite a different kind of letter. I must urge you to keep up the painful struggle for the preservation of the true faith which was passed on to the early saints once for all. I’ve heard that certain persons who shall be nameless have sneaked in among you, godless men, whose sentence of doom was pronounced long ago. They twist the free grace of God into an excuse for blatant immorality and they deny that King Jesus is our only master and Lord.
Now I want to remind you of some of those absolute truths which you already know perfectly well, particularly, that God is not someone to be trifled with. You will recall that the Lord bought the whole nation safely out of Egypt but the next time He intervened, they were all exterminated for not trusting Him. Nor were His angels any more exempt than His people. When some of them deserted their rank and abandoned their proper station, He took them into custody and He is keeping them permanently chained in the lowest and darkest dungeon until their trial on that great Day of Judgment. And in the same way, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah together with those from two neighboring towns, gloated themselves with gross debauchery, craving for abnormal intercourse just as the angels had done. And the fate they suffered in the fire that burned for ages is a solemn warning to us all.
In spite of such examples in history, these people who have wormed their way into your fellowship, pollute their own bodies in exactly the same manner. They belittle divine authority and smear angels in glory. Yet even the chief of all angels, Michael, whose very name means God-like, did not dare to accuse Satan directly of blasphemy when they were arguing about who owned the body of Moses. And he was content to leave accusations to God Himself and said simply, “the Lord rebuke you’. But these men among you don’t hesitate to malign whatever they don’t understand and the only things they do understand will prove their undoing in the end for their knowledge of life comes only from their animal instincts, like brute beasts without any capacity for reason. Woe betide them! They’ve gone down the same road as Cain. They have rushed headlong into the same mistake as Balaam and the same motivation, money. They come to the same end as Korah did in his rebellion.
These people have the cheek to eat with you at your fellowship meal of love though they are only looking for pasture for themselves. Like submerged rocks, they could wreck everything. They are like clouds driven so hard by the wind that they give no rain. They are like uprooted trees in the autumn with neither leaves nor fruit, doubly dead. They are like wild waves of the sea stirring up the filthy foam of their own odious disgrace. They are like shooting stars, falling out of orbit destined to disappear down a black hole forever.
Enoch who lived only 7 generations after the first man, Adam, saw all these coming. He was referring to these very people when he made his prophetic announcement, “Look out, the Lord has arrived with ten thousand of His angels to put all human beings on trial and convict all godless people of all godless deeds they have committed in their godless lives and of the hard things these godless sinners have spoken against Him.
These people are discontented grumblers, always complaining and finding faults. Their mouths are full of big talks about themselves but they are about flattering others when it is to their advantage. Now, loved ones, you should have remembered what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said what would happen. They predicted that in the final age there are bound to be those who pour scorns on ungodliness, whose lives will only be governed by their own godless cravings. People like this can only create divisions among you, since they only have their natural instincts to go by and they lack the guidance of the Spirit.
As for you, loved ones, be sure to go on building yourselves up on the solid foundation of your most holy faith. Pray in the way the spirit gives you. Stay in love with God, waiting patiently for the time when our Lord Jesus Christ in His sheer mercy will bring you into immortal living.
As regards to the others, here is my advice. To those who are still wavering, be especially kind and gentle. Those who’ve already been led into error must be snatched from the fire before they are badly burned. And those who had been thoroughly contaminated should be treated better than they deserve though you must never lose a healthy fear of being infected yourself even by their stained underwear. Let’s just praise the one person who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand upright in His glorious presence without any imperfection but with great jubilation. The only God there is and He is our savior too, through Jesus Christ our Lord. For to Him alone, belongs all glory, all majesty, all power and all authority before history began, now in this present time, and for all ages to come.
Two Main Themes:
1. To expose false teachers in the church
2. To encourage believers to contend earnestly for the faith and finish strong
Progress of Corruption
Creed => Conduct => Character => Conversation
How do we deal with the evil influence upon the church?
1) Expect the problems
2) Build up the most holy faith
3) Seek to help others
4) Remember that God is able
5) Be humble and depend on God's power