Me, Too! (4)

Study of Jude

Message Four

Wednesday night at TBC

The study of Jude will not be a traditional “sermon study.” I will formulate notes, include an ETS and perhaps and ESS, but for the purpose of interaction in the audience and an informal atmosphere, I will not formerly teach.

To guide our study each week, we will answer three questions: what does this passage say? What does this passage mean? Why is this passage important to me?

The following is a study of Jude 17-25.

ETS: Jude urged believers to remember the warnings of the apostles and to keep themselves in the love of God as they watch out also for other believers.

ESS: Believers should be careful to stay focused on Jesus and to watch out for the fellow believers who are struggling.

What does this passage say?

Believers should remember the danger of false teachers while intentionally staying focused on Jesus through prayer and through remembering the expectant hope of eternal salvation; believers should watch out for fellow believers who are struggling and grant to them mercy and help; God is able- glory is His.

What does this passage mean?

Firstly, there needs to be noticed the harsh contrasting conjunction followed by the emphatic pronoun (17 and 20): Ὑμεῖς δέ. This signals an obvious change in who Jude is addressing: he is now addressing the believers directly.

Next, we need to notice that in vv. 17 and 20, following the conjunction and pronoun is a word used to signal a close relationship between Jude and the believers: άγαπητοί.

The first imperative: remember! Jude calls the believers to remember what the apostles had told them would come. Daniel Akin wrote that this directly referring to passages like Mt. 7:15-23, 24:11, 14; Acts 20:29-30, 1 Timothy 4:1-3, 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 2 Pt. 2:1-3, 12-22; 1 Jn. 2:18-23 and 4:1-3. (Akin, 177); others suggest this could refer to either some oral or even written apostolic tradition.

Nonetheless, there are four descriptions, again, of these false teachers: they are scoffers (they mock religion); they are controlled by their own desires or lust and carnal; they are divisive; they are without the Spirit. William Barclay is really helpful in explaining this section and the views of these false teachers: “There were certain thinkers in the early church who had a way of looking at human nature which essentially split people into two classes. To understand this, we must know something of Greek psychology. To the Greeks, human beings were made up of body (soma), soul (psuche) and spirit (pneuma). Soma was simply a person’s physical construction. Psuche is more difficult to understand. To the Greeks, soul, psuche, was simply physical life; everything that lived and breathed had psuche. Pneuma, spirit, was quite different, it belonged only to human beings, and was the quality which made them thinking creatures, kin to God, able to speak to God and to hear him. These thinkers went on to argue that everyone possessed psuche, but very few really possessed pneuma. Only the really intellectual, the elite, possessed pneuma; and, therefore, only the very few could rise to real religion. The rest must be content to walk on the lower levels of religious experience. They therefore divided people into to classes. There were the psuchikoi, who were physically alive but intellectually and spiritually dead. We might call them the fleshly creatures. All they possessed was flesh-and-blood life; intellectual progress and spiritual experience were beyond them. There were the pneumatikoi, who were capable of real intellectual knowledge, real knowledge of God and real spiritual experience. Here was the creation of an intellectual and spiritual artistocracy over against the common mass of people.” (Barclay 229) He further argued the issue was that these false teachers considered themselves the elite, thus being exempt from “normal life order” so-to-speak.

Next, though, we get into more instruction for the believers. Regarding the believers themselves, he gave one imperative that was described by multiple participles: KEEP yourselves in the love of God- do so by building yourself up in your most holy faith (the foundation- this is edification); do so by praying in the spirit (not to assert speaking in tongues; rather praying acc. to God’s will, cf. Eph. 6:18, Akin, 179); do so by waiting expectantly for the mercy of Jesus Christ for eternal life. Daniel Akin described these actions as follows: “Building up is our edification. Praying in the Spirit is our communion. Looking for the Savior…is our anticipation.” (Akin, 179) Furthermore, Thomas Schreiner highlighted a pattern of triads present here: the triad of the trinity (praying in the Holy Spirit; keeping oneself in the love of God; waiting for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ); the second triad as common in NT: faith (20), hope (alluded to in v. 21 with expected mercy), love (21).

Following instructions for the believers themselves, Jude instructs the believers in their obligation to watch out for other believers. Three imperatives are used here (well, two with one imperative being used twice): have mercy (x2), and save. Firstly, he says to have mercy on those who waver or doubt- those who perhaps are not fully on board; who may be skeptical; who may even be interested in some of the false teaching. Believers were to deal with them generously. Secondly, he said to save others by snatching them from the fire; the verb is clarified by the participle- save by snatching which hinges largely upon OT language in Zechariah 3. Thomas Schreiner clarified that the fire refers to future judgement but does not imply that the individuals were already in the fire- only that they were on their way to the fire of judgement because of their having given into the false teaching. (Schreiner, 488); thirdly, he said to have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh; again, alluding to Zechariah 3. The communication here is this: sin is serious; believers should be careful when dealing with those who have been given over to it; they are to be generous, yet careful, lest they become contaminated and trapped in it, too (Schreiner, 488-89); Daniel Akin wrote, “It is a lie of Satan that says we have to live like the lost to reach the lost- I have to drink like them, curse like them, party like them, be like them” (Akin, 182)

Finally, Jude concludes with giving glory to God through Jesus Christ because He is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us as without blemish before God. Perhaps, this is to conclude assuring the believers that when they depend on the Lord, they are able to minister even to those who have wavered without wavering themselves?

Why is this passage important to me?

As a believer, I need to understand that false teachers are not new. They were a thing even in the time of the Bible; yet, the warnings about them suggest that they would be present “in the end times”- if they were present 2,000 years ago- they should be even more present now, right? Thus, I should be aware of them. However, I should be careful to keep my gaze upon the Father, keeping myself in His love by building myself up in faith, praying in the Spirit, and expectantly hoping for His mercy through His return; Additionally, I should be careful to watch out for those who are struggling with and giving into the false teaching- dealing generously with them and granting mercy, yet abruptly and directly snatching them from the fire when necessary. All the while- depending upon the Lord who is able to keep me from stumbling and to present me without blemish in full joy- to Him belongs the glory.