The greatest enemies of God’s truth are in the Church, not in the world. These are deceptive teachers we sit under as they teach lies, having departed from the truth, and leading people astray.
Jude issued a warning for all Christ-followers, “I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people” (Jude 1:3). This instruction is not given to the wayward leaders within the Church. It was written to those sitting under their teaching.
Jude had to remind his readers of the source of this false teaching because they forgot or neglected what they had been taught. They needed to be reminded because they allowed God’s truth to slip from its mooring in truth. This false teaching happens because people no longer believe in the miraculous works of God, the truth about fallen angels and their impact and influence on the Church and world, and the immorality that comes from unrestrained sexual impurity.
“So, I want to remind you, though you already know these things, that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful. And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment. And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment” (vs. 5-7).
These false teachers have a similar trait: “These people—who claim authority from their dreams—live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at supernatural beings” (vs. 8).
There will come a judgment against these false teachers who follow their natural instincts, not the Spirt, “Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their destruction” (vs. 10). That judgment will also come upon those who follow them accepting their teaching a face value without discerning a deeper understanding of what they are being taught.
We can allow these false teachers into the most intimate settings of our faith. “When these people eat with you in your fellowship meals commemorating the Lord’s love, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you” (vs. 12). Their unchallenged presence will remain among us until their teaching strikes the reef of God’s truth and all who are aboard their deceptive teaching will shipwreck their faith.
The believers Jude was addressing are people who have allowed falsehoods to be taught without a righteous challenge, causing their influence to spread unhindered. Jude’s letter was written over 2,000 years ago, but it could have been written to the Church today when people have forgotten “to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.”
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by sberbt from Pixabay
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