JUDE ADDRESSES CHRISTIANS WITH PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR LIVING IN THE WORLD – Jude 1:17-23
Jude 1 v 17 “but you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, Jude 1:18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there shall be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” Jude 1:19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit, Jude 1:20 but you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; Jude 1:21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Jude 1:22 Have mercy on some who are doubting. Jude 1:23 Save others, snatching them out of the fire, and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”
PRACTICAL ISSUES FOR CHRISTIANS
As Jude nears the end of his letter, his focus is coming off the false teachers and is being placed on the behaviour of Christians. As I see what is happening in churches here and abroad, it causes distress to see the attitudes of people who go under the name of Christian. Some are content to give up an hour of their time on Sunday morning as if they are doing the Lord a favour. Others don’t open their bibles from one week to the next. They have little, or no interest in bible study. Others live in the world as if they are part of the very world system from which the Lord delivers us. Even others live so carelessly that you’d be surprised to learn they even go to a church. Then you have those in churches who are influenced by the things of the world and false teaching, who even deny the Lord who bought them, and subscribe to liberalism, and the agendas of the world, especially to the socialist left, that very left wing that is pushing hard today for adoption of homosexual marriage and the abolition of religious education from schools, and the equality of multi-religious belief, and a socialist globalism, and a religious zeal for unproven climate change.
Jude, having spent the majority of his letter in exposing the false teachers and their evil teachings and life styles, now moves to the need of Christians to be true followers of the Lord. I feel I feel some preachers steer clear of these messages in Jude, which distresses me, for we are to know the signs of the times and every one of the Apostles in their writings addressed false teaching. We must know the true, so we can expose the false. We must know the false, so we can uphold the good. Jude is now moving to establish with clarity what is the correct path for Christians.
MOCKERS IN THE LAST DAYS
Let us see what he says, beginning at verse 17 where he reminds them of the Lord’s warning against mockers. Yes, there have always been mockers, but Jude is saying that in these last days of the Church age, there will be an increase in mocking, and those who do it. Any of you who know what current conditions are like in various educational institutions, will know that Universities are filled with cynics and mockers and self-inflated academics who delight in belittling Christianity at every opportunity. Many of the left wing news outlets such as The Washington Post and The New York Times and CNN and the Sydney Morning Herald and The Brisbane Times and the ABC, and SBS, keep pushing out articles to degrade Christianity and to question the beliefs of Christians, making out Christians are deluded and are foolish.
I don’t want you to do it, but if you listen to these so called comedians, and comics, and all who follow in their train, you hear these people mocking Jesus Christ and degrading our faith as if inspired by Satan to do it. In fact some of them are so vile in everything they distort, just for laughs from those who are fast-tracking to hell. The bible calls this “coarse jesting”. I would challenge every one of these comedians to stand up and do exactly the same thing to Mohammad and Allah. Cowards, they won’t, but bask in their evil under the umbrella of God’s grace and the laws of the land that does not strike them down on the spot. How many anti-Christian agitators and comedians are in hell in great remorse, but it is too late.
Yes, we will get mockers in the last days, as the New Testament writers have told us. If it happened to our dear Lord Jesus, it will happen to us also – {{Matthew 20 v 19 “and will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.” Matt 27:29 and after weaving a crown of thorns they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand, and they kneeled down before Him and mocked Him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”}} (add scorners from Psalm 1 I have on a sheet)
These next verses relate to that very fact – {{2Peter 3:2 “that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour spoken by your apostles. 2Pet 3:3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 2Pet 3:4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming for ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation?”}} (We remember that Jude and 1 Peter 2 parallel each other.)
The “ungodly lusts” that Jude mentions in verse 18, with mockers, are just for fame, for money, for self-deluded cleverness, and for all that spins off from that.
Jude verse 19 defines the mockers in verse 18. He qualifies them three ways. First, he says they cause divisions (This is seen all the time in politics as politicians mock and degrade each other constantly in Parliament.). Jude, however most likely is referring to those who are “religiously minded” and their false teaching causes divisions in churches and among Christians. It is essential that the guardians of God’s people, of God’s flock, note this very well for Paul advised Titus – {{Titus 3 v 10 “Reject a factious (divisive) man after a first and second warning, Titus 3:11 knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.”}}
WORLDLY MINDED
The second charge against these false teachers (v 19) is that of worldly-mindedness. What does scripture mean by having a worldly mind? It does not mean a mind that operates in the world, for we are all citizens of the world and members of it. Some used to say, “be in the world but not of the world”. We live and have our being in the world and have to have a mind that functions in the world, for many Christians have jobs in the world and families associated with schooling and other activities. That is the legitimate use in the world.
However, the world system is altogether a different matter. It is the system controlled by the devil and his angels. Maybe the best way to consider this is from what John wrote in these verses – {{1John 2 v 15 “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1John 2:16 All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world, 1John 2:17 and the world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”}} Taking those verses, it means that if you are controlled by the lust of the flesh, by the lust of the eyes, and by a proud life, then you are worldly-minded just like the false teachers Jude speaks of. Christians are under attack always from what the world throws at us, to conform us to its evil, satanic system. We must take the Christian’s armour and stand firm in the battle, whereas the false teachers are all part of it, and don’t know the difference.
DEVOID OF THE SPIRIT
The third charge against these men is that they are devoid of the Spirit. That is because the Holy Spirit indwells every true believer, not the pretender or the apostate, and sometimes we can’t properly identify the pretender. In Romans Paul states it so clearly – {{Romans 8 v 8 “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Rom 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”}} False teachers and pretenders are not possessed by the Holy Spirit, for they have never repented sincerely and received Jesus Christ as personal Saviour. These mockers have no part in God. I have no doubt that in the days of Enoch and Noah, mockers were everywhere, but they met their deserved end as will journalists and comedians and academics and many ordinary people, who either scoff at Christian belief, or laugh with those who mock and blaspheme Jesus Christ.
THE CHRISTIAN’S DETERMINATION
We now move to the next two verses, namely Jude {{1 v 20 “but you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit. Jude 1:21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.”}} There are four positive commands given to all Christians of all ages in those two verses. It makes no difference if you lived in AD 222; or AD 2022 when scoffers abound and evil is growing rapidly. The commands of God never change. Jude has come through one description after another of the evil men wrecking churches and sowing discord with their factious behaviour and false doctrines and practices. Now the time has come to address the Christians to instruct them on what they must do in these difficult times. I want to examine each one, but briefly.
PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN LIVING
The FIRST of these commands tells us to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. In this physical life, if we desire to build something we must have knowledge and materials and it is the same for the spiritual life. The knowledge is knowing God and being acquainted with his will, knowing His purpose, and intentions, in order to build up our spiritual house. How can we possibly do that? Well we do that by resorting to the Architect’s plan and following the Architect’s directions. All that is laid out for us in the bible, so it is our responsibility “to study to show ourselves approved by God” in the erection of our spiritual house, that is, our lives for Christ. I think too many Christians are lazy and have not built themselves up in faith, and wonder why they are sickly (in the spiritual sense that is) and defeated and unproductive for the Lord. The Christian life is one of absolute discipline. It is not absorption. All of us will give account. I know in our ledgers, there are things that are dishonouring to God and other negatives, but in the end, what will remain for us to present to the Lord? What have you built up? What have I constructed?
The SECOND command in verse 20 is to pray in the Holy Spirit. This is something scoffers know nothing of. What does it mean to pray in the Holy Spirit? People get all confused about this because of some bizarre activities that are carried on in the name of the Spirit of God. There are a couple of verses that help us understand – {{Romans 8 v 26 “In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, Rom 8:27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”}}
When the way is so hard for us, and it is most difficult to express ourselves to God, the Holy Spirit Himself is interceding on our behalf before God. He takes up our case. In verse 26 we have the expression “the Spirit also helps our weakness” and that also means the Holy Spirit enables us to pray even when we find it difficult. How do we pray in the Spirit? We pray through the leading of the Holy Spirit, with His direction – the people to pray for, the needs to pray for, God’s will to pray for, ourselves to pray for, and more beside. Needless to say, an unclean vessel will not produce the cleanness of prayer in the Spirit. As the Spirit is holy, so too must be the one waiting on the Spirit in prayer.
The THIRD command is to keep oneself in the love of God. It takes effort. How is this done? There are just so many ways to do that, but I want us to consider this from Revelation to the church at Ephesus – {{Revelation 2 v 2 “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not, and you found them to be false. Rev 2:3 You have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary, Rev 2:4 but I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”}} What a great church it was at Ephesus, but it had left its first love. It did not love the Lord as it had done at first. It had stepped aside, and it did not know that this had happened. God measures a church by its love for the Saviour, not by its activities. I will suggest some ways to keep yourselves in the love of God:-
1. Be a faithful reader of the bible. I think you love God better, when you know Him better.
2. Think often about the cost of the Lord’s sacrifice at Calvary. Those who are forgiven much, love Him the most. We love Him because He first loved us.
3. Keep short accounts of reckoning. That is, check your perimeter fences to see there are no breaches where the enemy has slipped in and clouded your testimony and your priorities. The wickedness of evil can easily dethrone the Lord.
4. Keep an active fellowship with God’s people. Those of like mind (that is, the saints) can encourage and build each other up.
5. Take every opportunity to know your position in Christ. Attend bible studies and go to bible based conventions such as Keswick.
The FOURTH of these commands in this one – “wait anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.” This is so important. I am sure what Jude is saying is that the Lord is coming in the Rapture, or we will die and depart to be with Him. All that is underpinned by the mercy of God and it leads to eternal life. The NASB here strangely uses the word “anxiously” in regards to waiting, which is overstepping the mark I think. The Greek word means to wait expectantly and we need to be waiting expectantly for our translation to heaven. However, it can also mean to wait expectantly upon the Lord, day by day to see His plan being revealed to us. God is so gracious to us and the word used in verse 21 is mercy, meaning compassion. God’s heart goes out to us who are underserving and inconsistent, but His mercy leads us to eternal life.
Verses 22 and 23 close our section for today. Verse 22 urges the Christians to show compassion on those who are doubting. To understand what this means, there were those who could not distinguish or discern the way of God, and that is what “doubting” means here. It was not clear to them. They were not hostile, as were the mockers and the humanists, and the enemies of the gospel. These souls just did not understand or could not work it out. They needed help. With these people, we need to show them mercy and compassion in the same manner the Lord has shown mercy to us.
Then there was another group in verse 23, which is heading to hell, but needs the pincers of eternal life to clamp on them and pull them from the fires of hell. This is not an easy group to reach and takes much persuasion and perseverance. It is a splendid one-on-one ministry, and even a full scale evangelistic outreach. Most in the world do not realise what lies ahead and what is their eternal destiny. Many don’t want to know and shut their ears. Through the power of God, these are the ones who need the hooks of God’s mercy to catch them out of the flames.
Then, there is a third group in verse 23, and to them, Jude urges Christians to show mercy with fear. This is a different class, and I liken them to the down and out sinners, who are outcasts in this world. Because Jude adds, “hating even the garment polluted by the flesh,” that means he is urging great caution in reaching these people. These soul winners must hate the things of the world and keep themselves unspotted in their ministry. The drunkard, the prostitute, the prisoner, the immoral person, the swindler, the manipulator, the law breaker – all these need salvation too, but not all can reach them. God does have his select people.
However, the injunction to hate even the garment polluted by the flesh, is a necessary qualification for every one of us. We all need to be real for God. The time for spiritual slumber must be put aside. We need God’s time, and God needs us to know His time.
God bless you all this morning
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
