JUDE

Note - you are always invited to post your thoughts and comments about the current Bible study or devotional on this blog. I am not a Bible scholar, but rather just an ordinary person seeking to absorb God's Word. What I share here is all about what I've learned and how it applies to me (and you) today. So, let's begin . . . read the short book of Jude first, then return to this blog.

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Jude (half-brother of Jesus...Mary was their mother, but God was Jesus' true Father). Jude's letter to Christians was intended to motivate and urge his readers to resist "godless men" who had "slipped in among you." He wanted them to recognize the dangers of false teaching, to protect themselves and other believers, and to win back those who had already been deceived. The audience to whom Jude wrote was vulnerable to heresies and immoral living.

False teachers. Who are they? How are we to recognize them? What should be our response? Many first-century false teachers were teaching that Christians could do whatever they liked without fear of God's punishment. They had a light view of God's holiness and His justice. They teach to justify their own opinions, life style and/or wrong behavior. In doing this, they may gain temporary freedom to do as they wish, but they will discover that is distorting Scripture and they are playing with fire. God will judge them for excusing, tolerating and promoting sin. The false teacher seeks to encourage within the church a passion for pleasure that draws people away from the life of holiness and self-control to which the Christian is called. Paul also warned that "some will become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."

Some time ago on a talk show, a young challenger insisted to Billy Graham that sexual intercourse was the same as a ham sandwich. Sex and hunger are both "natural" desires, he argued: when you feel a desire, you satisfy it. After all, if God made an experience pleasurable, then it must be good. The Christian life is not a miserable withdrawal or a dreary denial of every pleasant thing, but any promise of freedom to indulge our every "natural" desire with God's blessing, should be a warning to us. Even today, some Christians minimize the sinfulness of sin, believing that how they live has little to do with their faith. But what a person truly believes will show up in how he or she acts. Those who truly have faith will show it by their deep respect for God and their sincere desire to live according to the principles in His Word.

A false teacher may quote Scripture but give his own interpretation, which will differ from what the whole Bible teaches and from what the church has historically taught; an interpretation that differs from the common core of belief in the Christian community. False teachers can be recognized by their insistence that they alone have the truth. At every point their character lacks the qualities Paul said are to be found in spiritual leaders. Jude tells us that we are to "contend" for the faith--we are to fight with everything we have in us for the faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish. We are to use energetic watchfulness and be aware of false teaching that may infiltrate the church -- to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

So how are we to respond? We must respond with love, recognizing that we are not battling against an enemy but for a fellow human being. In this spiritual confrontation, the warfare is between God and Satan. As for us, we are to simply "be merciful to those who doubt, snatch others from the fire and save them." Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin.

So, what is the lesson that Jude speaks to me? In the course of my study, I have affirmed that studying God's Word is not an option -- it is essential so that I may become strong in the faith to recognize and "contend" with errant teaching. As we enter 2009, we become increasingly aware that false teaching about tolerance, homosexuality, athiesm, and so-called civil rights are going to be more in our face than ever before. While I believe "if the Bible says it, that settles it" I also know that I need to arm myself with the exactness of Scriptures so I am better prepared to speak the Bible. The Bible tells us that we are "to study to show ourselves approved" and we (me) must commit myself to the holy and unique values to which God calls us (me) in His Word.