Can you imagine what it would have been like to have Jesus as your older brother?
“With these three warnings of verses 5–7 before them, Jude’s readers are urged to beware of the spiritual decadence of the false teachers. This pervaded their whole personalities. Physically, they became immoral. Intellectually, they became arrogant. Spiritually, they denied the Lord. ‘Progressive morality’ and ‘progressive thinking’ often go hand in hand with progressive deafness to the voice of God. To live like that is to inhabit a dream world. The judgment of God will catch up with them as surely as the slaughterhouse with the cattle. The whole thrust of Jude’s letter constitutes a stirring call to awake to moral integrity, intellectual humility and spiritual sensitivity.” —Excerpt From 2 Peter and Jude (E. Michael Green)
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. 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!” Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them. 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. —Jude 1:8-11 | NIV
CAIN
- A symbol of a heart that is not right. Envy and jealousy will sit at the door, waiting to run you over.
For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. —James 3:16 | NIV
BALAAM
- This example is found in Numbers 22-25 with a false prophet. Once again, the obvious point is that he was exceedingly greedy, but as with Cain, there is more to be said. He, like Jude’s opponents, taught Israel to sin.
They wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam, son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong things. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice. —2 Peter 2:15 | NLT
Greed is so hard to see in the mirror.
If you have ever been told something wrong that you knew you would profit from, you are in the company of Balaam.
If you have omitted saying something because it may cost you something, you are in the company of Balaam.
Balaam finally sold out and found a loophole. He didn’t have to prophesy against Israel; he just had to expose their weak spot. So, he told the king to get them to do immoral things.
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. —Revelation 2:14 | NIV
If you have ever been guilty of getting another person off a path of holiness and rightness with God, you are in the company of Balaam.
KORAH
- Korah led a revolt against Moses
…and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. —Numbers 16:32 | NIV
The spirit of Korah rebels against authority and is insubordinate to God’s appointed authorities. Arrogance and pride are involved in this.
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. —Romans 13:1-2 | NIV
God doesn’t treat rebellion and the disrespecting of authority lightly.
For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. —1 Samuel 15:23 | NIV
Korah is not rebelling against Moses and Aaron. He is arrogantly dismissing God’s plan, rejecting the authority of Moses, and he pays for it.
All these examples had great starts but terrible finishes.
The end of a matter is better than its beginning; —Ecclesiastes 7:8 | NAS
It’s easy to start off right and good, but the work you put in is what allows you to finish as strong as you started.
The Book Of Jude is a wake-up call that we are in a current, and if we are not careful and contending for our faith, we will get carried away in our culture’s current.
These people are blemishes (hidden reefs) 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. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. —Jude 1:12-13 | NIV
This version of Christianity has specific results. These people are:
- Reckless
- Careless
- Pointless
- Fruitless
- Worthless
- Directionless
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. —Jude 1:14-16 | NIV
Angels and Demons are real. There is a mention of some writings that were not canonized in our Bibles that Jude is referencing.
But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires. —Jude 1:17-18 | NIV
These are the ones who are [agitators] causing divisions—worldly-minded [secular, unspiritual, carnal, merely sensual—unsaved], devoid of the Spirit. —Jude 1:19 | AMP
But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. —Jude 1:20-21 | NIV
Jude gives another three-point shot to stay the course and not slide into this version of Christianity.
Here are our action steps:
- Build Yourself Up In Your Faith
- The primary way you build up your faith is by hearing the Word of Christ.
So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. —Romans 10:17 | NAS
- The primary way you build up your faith is by hearing the Word of Christ.
- Pray In The Spirit
- Prayer is our lifeline that connects us to God.
So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. —1 Corinthians 14:15 | NIV - Praying people are powerful people
- Prayer is our lifeline that connects us to God.
- Keep Yourself In The Love Of God
- Imagine God’s love is like a faucet being poured out. Keep yourself in it.
- You will not be carried away by the current of the culture and the false version of the Gospel if you:
- Keep reading scripture
- Keep praying continuously
- Keep worshiping through music
The last three-point shot is how we handle those who have drifted away:
Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. —Jude 1:22-23 | NIV
Be full of mercy. Snatch them out of the fire. Show mercy to them but be careful not to be sucked in.
He ends his letter with worship. It’s always a great idea to end with worship, pointing back to the glory of Jesus. Let’s be a people that always points back to Jesus.
To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. —Jude 1:24-25 | NIV
Glory: God’s powerful radiance, his greatness, his complete moral superiority and splendor
Majesty: God’s transcendent greatness
Power: God’s self-contained might, his control over the world
Authority: God’s sovereignty over all physical and moral laws in the entire universe