by D. S. Parrack (England)
There are two individuals in the New Testament named Jude, or Judas, who had brothers called James, see Matt.13.53-56 and Lk.6.13-16, and we do not know with any certainty, which of them, if either, wrote the penultimate book of the Bible. Whoever the writer was he certainly had a good knowledge of the Old Testament plus a heart concern for the well-being of his fellow-believers. Jude intended to show his concern by writing to them and this was not just a passing whim. He asserts that “I gave all diligence to write unto you.” But what was it that he was going to write to them about? What did he hope that his comparatively short letter would achieve?
To start with he had a fairly broad remit in mind, it was to be “the (our JND) Common salvation.” But then he narrows the theme to a specific strand of thought. From what he says, this concentration was brought about by him becoming aware of a particular situation that made it “needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints,” v3. That, to him, seemed to be where their main problem lay, where their need was greatest. Attacks were being made on the very fabric of the Christian faith which called for a robust defence.
So Jude was not aiming to add to the scope or range of their beliefs, that was not his purpose. It was “the faith,” the whole body of faith, which was in danger and since it had been “once (once for all) delivered unto the saints,” it was the saints’ responsibility to defend it. To encourage and facilitate that ‘contending,’ he was going to reconfirm and re-emphasise, the lynch pin position that faith, belief, trust, held in the divinely structured plan of salvation.
It was probably the unexpected avenue of attack which was causing Jude’s readers most difficulty. Frontal assault from outside by both religious and civil authorities was to be expected, had indeed already been experienced by fellow believers, see e.g. Acts 8.1-3 and 16.19-24, but the problem now was “certain men, crept in unawares.” What these men were bringing in was not just some debatable or controversial doctrines, such as was happening to most of the churches to which Paul wrote, see e.g. 2Thess.2.1-3; Gal.3.1-3. That would in all conscience have been bad enough, but these men were root and branch, “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ,” v4.
Paul had warned of the dangers emanating from “grievous wolves entering in among you,” Acts 20.29, but it was then, and still is now, so very easy to feel that such a situation couldn’t develop here, not in my/our assembly. Unfortunately for Jude’s first readers, it had already happened. But things were not totally irremediable, such denials as recorded in v4 had occurred in different forms during past dispensations and God had dealt with them, and it was of such dealings that Jude says “I will therefore put you in remembrance,” v5.
He cites the example of those who were “saved — out of the land of Egypt” but who had, in reality, “believed not,” v5, and it is important to bear in mind that assessment when using the exodus as a picture of salvation today, see e.g. Heb.4.1-2 and 11. “Angels which kept not their first estate, v6, were not in any case included in God’s plan of salvation, “for He does not indeed take hold of angels by the hand, but He takes hold of the seed of Abraham,” Heb.2.16 JND, which emphasises again the essential nature of faith, see e.g. Gal.3.7-9. We might not rate Lot very high as an example of faith, but remember he is spoken of as “just (righteous JND) Lot,” 2Pet.2.7, and righteousness like that, real righteousness, can come only on the basis of faith, see e.g. Phil.3.9. Jude does not actually mention Lot by name, but he does show the fate of those who declined to follow his example. However poor we may feel that example was and how far short it came from what it might have been, it was still faith, as opposed to unbelief, and note what the Lord Jesus says about the smallest degree of real faith, see Lk.17.5-6.
So what Jude is showing is the ultimate result of “denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is dealing with the basic and fundamental matter of our Christian profession, not the measure or degree of our individual faith, though in that respect we should aim to follow the example of Abraham who, in spite of a seemingly impossible natural situation “was strong in faith, giving glory to God,” see Rom.4.19-20.
But the unbelief, the denials, of these “certain men” was not something kept private to themselves, it was flaunted and was easily visible in many ways. “(They) defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities,” v8, which may be seen, respectively, as relating to their actions, their thought patterns and their words. In describing them in that way, Jude is very much in line with how Peter saw things, see 2Pet.2.9-10, these two even using the same examples in support of what they are saying, see v9 and 2Pet.2.11.
A further set of three Old Testament examples are then given to show where such people have gone wrong, see v11. “They are gone in the way of Cain,” who not only thought that he could satisfy God by his own efforts but was prepared to wreak violence on anyone, even his own brother, who simply trusted in God’s grace. (See Heb.11.4 for the relationship between Abel’s faith and his righteousness).
“(They) ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward.” Balaam, see Num.chs.22-24, had every opportunity of knowing better, and it seemed at first as though he really did, but he is a very dire warning in the immediate context of Jude’s letter. He didn’t curse the Israelites as his paymasters asked him to do, but he showed a much more subtle and effective way of attacking them, see Rev.2.14 and Num.31.16, so causing consternation and declension within their own ranks.
“(They) perished in the gainsaying of Core.” Core, or Korah, didn’t perish alone, he took with him three whole families plus “two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown,” Num.16.2 and see v25-35. So just as surely as “God is no respecter of persons” when it comes to the acceptance of those willing to trust themselves to Him, see Acts 10.34-35, in the same way He is in no way prepared to countenance in anyone, whatever their rank or credentials, denial of Himself or of His Son, the Lord Jesus, and to deny either one of the two is to deny both, see 1Jn.2.22-23.
Those three characters, Cain, Balaam and Core, were warnings from the past, given in the light of similar situations, with the same sort of people, which were beginning to develop amongst groups of New Testament believers. “These are spots in your feasts of charity (your love-feasts JND)” and Jude now switches from Old Testament examples to imagery from nature to strengthen his warnings regarding their baleful influences, see v12-13.
“Clouds are they without water.” Hiding the sun and dissipating its warmth but providing nothing in the way of refreshment or the encouragement of sound growth. “Trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit.” For an example of a tree producing no fruit, just leaves, see Matt.21.17-19. Leaves can give a good, even a spectacular show, but only fruit provides evidence of renewable and sustainable life. “Raging waves of the sea.” Isaiah speaks of “the troubled sea — it cannot rest,” Isa.57.20. But the Hebrews writer, also concerned with real faith and how it shows itself, see Heb.11, assures us that, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God, for he that hath entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from His,” Heb.4.9-10.
“Wandering stars.” Job knew a lot about the stars, even being able to name separate constellations, but when speaking to Bildad, see Job 9.1-12, he does so in the context of the creatorial and sustaining power of God. Later on God asks Job, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion?” Job 38.31, two of the groups of stars referred to in the earlier conversation. No, he could not. He might know all about them but he could exert no control over them. God had set the stars in order and so confident is He that His order will be maintained that He says. “If My covenant be not with day and night and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth. Then I will cast away the seed of Jacob and David my servant,” Jer.33.25-26. All God’s promises were linked to Abraham and his offspring, including Jacob, and with David. What God is saying is that if His control of events in His creation is not certain and inviolate, neither are His promises to His people. That is unthinkable “for all the promises of God in Him (the Son of God, Jesus Christ) are yea, and in Him Amen,” see 2Cor.1.19-20. So “wandering stars” picture those who have broken away from the divinely appointed order, “to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” That is the antithesis of faith, or trust. A going of their own uncertain unrelated way in direct defiance to the revealed will of God. That is a state of heart and mind which characterises natural mankind, see Rom.1.19-25, and it was something therefore which Jude most certainly did not want to make inroads among believers.
V14-15 is one example of a number of occasions when New Testament writers use non-Scriptural sources to emphasise points which they are making, see Acts 17.28 and Tit.1.12-13. This by no means infers that the whole passage from which they quote, is dependable in its entirety, but the actual words quoted, having become part of the Scriptural record, are themselves to be accepted as divinely inspired.
Jude uses the prophecy of Enoch to show that as far back as “the seventh from Adam,” it had been foretold that there would be “hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him (i.e. against the Lord).” Moreover his early readers had had confirmation of this in their own time too, and they are urged, “Remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, v14-17. They must have heard, or known of, those words, Neither they nor we, can remember something which we never knew. But just to hear is insufficient, even to know, is, by itself, not enough. What we hear, what we know, or profess to know, must be accepted, believed and put into practice before it can become effective.
The unbelief of those spoken of as “mockers,” is contrasted with the “most holy faith” of his readers, but that faith must not be left dormant, it is to be ‘built up,’ v20. Error will never be effectively contended within an environment of lethargy, indolence or self-satisfaction. It may be that an individual’s faith is really genuine, but for it to be seen to be such it must be lively.
But although Jude presses hard for the need of individual faith, he, like Paul, recognises it as one facet, though an essential one, in the overall concept of Christian belief. We might well emulate the apostles by asking, “Lord increase our faith,” Lk.17.5. Paul encourages this, urging us to “covet earnestly the best gifts,” and he has shown earlier that faith is such a gift. But he finishes that chapter by saying, “Yet show I unto you a more excellent way,” see 1Cor.12.9,31, and goes on into ch.13 to extol the extreme virtue of love. So Jude too says, “Keep yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life,” v21. Faith does not, and cannot, exist in isolation. It is only meaningful if it has an object on which to focus. Don’t try to look at, measure, or depend on, your faith; look instead to the Person on whom your faith rests and relies and contemplate all of His faithfulness remembering that “if” in some areas, and at some times, “we believe not, yet He abideth faithful, He cannot deny himself,” 2Tim.2.13.
We may feel that Jude, having put these “certain men” in their right place, has corralled his readers into an exclusive sphere of blessing, see v20-21. But that is not the whole picture, there are others who merit attention too. Everyone else is not to be written off as “murmurers, complainers, mockers,” v16-18. Paul appreciated that even amongst genuine believers there would be some “weak in the faith,” and he urges their generous reception and treatment, see Rom.14.1. In the same vein, Jude encourages compassion, and help to extricate such from problem situations. He does though differentiate positively between compassion for individuals and acceptance of, or compromise with, whatever has been the immediate cause of their downfall, “hating even the garment spotted by the flesh,” v22-23.
How though can we be sure that such matters, so impossible for us to adjudicate on, have been fully and finally dealt with by God? Can the insistence by Jude on the essential and paramount nature of faith solve this seeming dilemma? What the writer does, rather than looking at our, or any other believer's faith, is to point us once again to the object of that faith, the one Person who has not only dealt with past matters but who, in present time, “is able to keep you from falling,” and we need to appreciate that that is possible for any of us, see 1Cor.10,12, so don’t let pride tell you otherwise. That ‘keeping’ is so sure, so positive, so complete, that he will one day “present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,” v24. How perfect you must be seen to be by God, if your presentation to Him in His glory is so delightsome as to cause such joy. That surely was the joy, the very prospect of which led the Lord Jesus to endure the cross and despise the shame, see Heb.12.2. For without the cross and what was accomplished on it, that joy, both for Him and for us, would not have been possible.
To make quite sure that we are under no misapprehension as to just who this Person is that we are being encouraged to trust in totally, the letter ends with a doxology. We may perhaps see parallel here with how Paul expresses himself at the end of the third section of his letter to Rome, see Rom.11.33-36. Jude, using fewer words, concludes by committing us to “The only wise God our Saviour.” The one in whom resides “glory and majesty, dominion and power.” Not only in sufficient measure to have met everything in our experience that has gone before, but “both now and ever,” v25.
Trust in Him ye saints
forever,
He is faithful changing never,
Neither force nor guile can sever,
Those He loves from Him.
—to be continued (D.V.)