Merciful Dialouge

Jude 22-23 ESV

22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

One of the most moving scenes that you will ever read in the scriptures is the account of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. The first time that I personally read the account of the crucifixion of Jesus was when I was 25 years old. Now, of course, like most other American children, I had heard people talk about the Lord’s crucifixion, but I had never personally read the account of the crucifixion for myself.

But after I had come to personally profess Jesus at around the age of twenty-four, I began my quest to know God more. And what better way to know God than to study His Word!

Thus, as I read the account of the crucifixion of the Lord, in the Gospel of Matthew, I was overwhelmed by emotion as with every verse, I read of the profound suffering that Jesus endured, suffering at the hands of lawless men for the sake of people like me.

And as I read the gospels in chronological succession, I eventually came to the account of the crucifixion found in the Gospel of Luke.

And when I read that account, I saw where these enemies of the Lord had led Him to the place where He was to be crucified. Then after being further humiliated, having the nails driven through His hands and His feet, after having the crown of thorns mockingly placed upon His head, His crucifix was raised and there was the King of glory suspended between heaven and earth.

And as He hung there, suffering in such great agony, He said, in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 23, verse 34:

Luke 23:34 ESV

34 …“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

In the midst of His great suffering, He pleads with His Father to forgive the very ones who crucified Him, and the reason He does so is because they are ignorant, they don’t realize what they are doing, and Who they are doing it to.

Ignorance, a lack of knowledge, especially a lack of knowledge concerning the things of God; that is what has ever plagued the human race. People sin against God, greatly offend Him, and because of their ignorance, many of them don’t even realize that that is what they are doing.

Now, we know that many, indeed, likely the majority of those who participated in the crucifixion of Jesus remained at odds with God, and thus, even if they were told just Who it was that they crucified, they wouldn’t care and would not have regrets about doing what they had done.

But what is so remarkable is that later on, we see that when Jesus pleaded with the Father to forgive His executioners, He had certain individuals in mind, for over in the second chapter of the book of Acts, we read about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon believers on the day of Pentecost.

And after this outpouring took place, we read of how many had heard the commotion that was taking place as a result of the outpouring of the Spirit and inquired as to what was taking place.

Peter then revealed to these people that these believers had been filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, Who was sent to them by God the Son, Jesus, the One Whom they had crucified, the very Christ! And we read that at hearing Who Christ really is, these were not hardened, but rather, they were cut to the heart and about three thousand of them repented, confessed, and were baptized that very day.

All that it took was God opening their eyes to the truth by removing their ignorance of the truth.

Well, as we continue today in this series from the epistle of Jude, what we see is that in light of everything that Jude has said about the false teachers who have crept into orthodox circles, he issues three final commands to his readers, those ones he is writing to who subscribe to the orthodox faith.

And these commands that he issues to them are concerning how those legitimate Christians that he is writing to should react to those in their midst who had been affected by the teachings of these false teachers.

And when we read of what Jude had said earlier in this epistle about the fate of the false teachers that were in their midst, his commands concerning those who had followed these false teachers may surprise us.

We read of the first command that Jude gives to his readers concerning those who followed the teachings of these false teachers in verse twenty-two, when he says:

Jude 22 ESV

22 And have mercy on those who doubt;

Jude doesn’t tell these believers to ostracize these people, he doesn’t tell them to put them out of their midst, no, he tells them to “have mercy on those who doubt”.

The word, “doubt” here, can also be rendered “dispute”. To “dispute” means to disagree, to argue, to debate. Thus, those who “doubt” indicates those among them who dispute, disagree with the orthodox gospel and the doctrines surrounding it. Therefore, because they dispute the orthodox gospel, they obviously are those who had been influenced by these false teachers but had nonetheless remained in the company of the orthodox believers.

Indeed, we find such people everywhere. And as Jude says here, so are such people found even in the church, still to this day. And concerning them, Jude says that we are to “have mercy” on them.

To have mercy means to not give someone the bad that they deserve. Thus, as believers we are to, like God, be merciful, loving, kind, and patient when we rebuke those with unorthodox views.

So many times when we come across such people, especially people in the church, our goal is to simply win an argument. We want to show them that they’re wrong and we’re right. And obviously, we want them to know that they’re wrong and we’re right, but we should do so in hopes that they will repent of their erroneous ways and embrace orthodoxy, but as I said, so often do we present our argument, simply so that we can just… well… argue.

But Jude tells us that when we present the flaws in the belief systems of those who hold to them, we are to do so with mercy, with love, patience, and kindness.

The second command that Jude gives to his readers is found in the first part of verse twenty-three, where we read him commanding his readers to:

Jude 23a ESV

23a save others by snatching them out of the fire;

Those whom Jude describes here; he describes as being “in the fire”. This makes me think of the narrative found in Zechariah, chapter 3. There we read of Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, presumably indicating that he stood in the “Holy of holies”, that place where the presence of God is uniquely manifested.

And while Joshua the high priest was standing in the presence of God, Zechariah says that he sees Satan standing beside Joshua to accuse him, but the Lord responded to the accusations of the devil by saying, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord Who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”.

The “fire” that is spoken of in this narrative found in the prophecy of Zechariah and also in our reading for today is in reference to being in a state of being at odds with God. It refers to the state that one is in before salvation. Before God wills to save us, we are as embers, helplessly smoldering in the fire.

But then, through the preaching of the gospel, God effectively plucks His elect out of this fire as they hear and are regenerated by the power of God and justified by the gift of faith that He gives to them.

Thus, Jude calls his readers, and by extension, all legitimate Christians to preach the gospel to all. Indeed, it is true that many have destruction awaiting them, but though that is the case, God calls believers to preach the gospel to all people.

It is true that we know not who God’s elect are, but that the world continues to exist as it does lets us know that there are still some who are among God’s elect who have not yet been brought into the fold.

And as was said, God is pleased, through the preaching of the gospel to bring into the fold His elect people who have not yet believed.

And in doing this, we see that in the fullness of time, God forcibly snatches His elect people from the fire of enmity against Him, applying the righteousness of Christ to them and declaring them to be just upon their pronouncement of faith.

And thus, here, the command of Jude to his readers, and by extension, to us as believers today is to ever be preaching the orthodox gospel, for it is through the preaching of that gospel that God is pleased to snatch from the fire His elect.

And finally, the third and final command that Jude gives to his readers in this epistle is found at the end of verse twenty-three, where he says:

Jude 23b ESV

23b to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Now, we have already discussed what it is to be merciful. It is to be kind, loving, patient, hopeful for reformation, especially in the case of those who are erring in the spiritual sense, following an unorthodox system. But when dealing with such people, Jude warns his readers to show this mercy “with fear”.

To show mercy with fear is to recognize that though we show mercy to these, we still must fear. And what that means is that throughout our endeavors to help those who are erring, we need to keep in mind who we are.

In other words, we are to go to great lengths to win souls, but in the process of winning souls, we, being naturally depraved as we are, could potentially dabble in the lifestyles of those we seek to see come to the faith and then justify it in our minds by saying that we are just trying to make those we hope to see saved feel comfortable around us.

For example, you may be hoping to see one come to the faith who you come to find out is a connoisseur of various kinds of craft beer. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this man being a connoisseur of craft beer and you, being a responsible drinker, say that in order to relate better to this man, you will enjoy a drink with him whenever you meet. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But then, let’s say that you observe that whenever this man is enjoying his craft beer, he enjoys it a bit too much and seems to reach the point of intoxication every time that he drinks. Well, our depraved minds can then convince us to reason, “Well, I want to see this man saved and I want him to feel comfortable around me, so I too will get drunk with my companion”. And next thing you know, you are as bad off as the one you hope to see saved.

It is for this reason that Jude says that we are to show mercy to those who doubt, yet we are to stand constant in our hatred of the garment stained by the flesh. This means to love such a one, but to utterly despise their sinful practices, especially when their sinful practices involve following an unorthodox system of faith.

To such a person, we as the elect need to adopt the counsel of Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, when he says:

2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 ESV

14 If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

We have nothing to do with their hypocrisy, we have nothing to do with their dabbling in heresy, and indeed, we make it known that we will have nothing to do with it. But we make it known mercifully. We don’t regard such people as enemies, like I said earlier, we’re not out to simply win an argument, we seek to see such a one be saved, and thus, we don’t treat them like enemies, but we warn them as we would our brethren in the faith.

Beloved, as God is merciful, may we be merciful.

Amen?