Jude - Contend for the Faith - Pt 5

 

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. 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. (Jude 10–13 ESV).

 

It should be understood that although our knowledge of the author and circumstances surrounding the epistle of Jude is more limited than our knowledge of other books of the Bible, we can be fairly certain that his original audience was made up of Christians from a Jewish background and therefore understood the references he has made much better. Jude’s use of Old Testament imagery and language in order to warn his audience about false teachers and predict their judgment reveals that his congregation would have been well-schooled in the Hebrew Scripture.

 

Today’s reading offers a further example of this. Jude begins by pronouncing a woe on the teachers troubling his audience. These woes were common ways of announcing judgment in the prophetic literature of ancient Israel (cf. Hosea 7:13). Of course, it is natural to think that this letter must be of little value since they speak only to that church of the first century. We would be greatly mistaken to miss the contemporary application in our present world. J. Godon Machen’s quote in the attached image summarizes our present plight quite well:

 

“Me love to be encouraged by false hopes; the world is full of quack remedies for sin.”

 

Jude faced similar “quacks, and compares these teachers to well-known Old Testament sinners in order to demonstrate they will meet the same fate. The example of Cain (Genesis 4) is used elsewhere in the New Testament (1 John 3:11–15) to warn Christians about their doctrine and behavior. Balaam, like the false teachers, saw visions and was later judged by God (Numbers 22–24; Joshua 13:22). Korah led a rebellion against the authority of Moses (Numbers 16), and Jewish tradition viewed Korah as the archetypal antinomian. He is thus a fitting example for Jude to use because the false teachers he deals with flaunted God’s law and denied apostolic authority. The horrible end of all these old-covenant heretics foreshadows the eternal judgment that is the fate of all false teachers and their disciples.

 

Our reading today also speaks of the way these teachers feasted on Jude’s audience — most likely a reference to the unbridled greed that would have motivated their teaching (vv. 12-13). His comparisons of the teachers to “waterless clouds” and “fruitless trees” demonstrate that despite their claims to the contrary, these men offered nothing of value to the church. Significantly, Jude calls these teachers “twice dead” (v. 12), referring to their eventual, physical death and eternal spiritual death. This death, experienced forever in the “gloom of utter darkness,” is reserved for all who pervert the grace of God (v. 13).

 

Few of us would overtly rise up against godly leaders like these men did by preaching false doctrine. Yet how many of us subtly disobey the authority of the pastors and elders in our churches by speaking ill of them or grumbling about their decisions? “Roast preacher” as a Sunday staple is all too common in our churches today. As others try to persuade you to murmur against godly church authorities, remember your responsibility to submit to the leaders God has appointed. If you have been divisive, do what you can to make amends. Of course it is also true that we should measure our leaders by the truth of Scripture, and if they are indeed peaching/teaching heresy, we must get out from under their influence and find a Scripturally grounded and focused ministry.