Key Verse: “Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault.” (Jude 1:24)
Jude, the writer of this brief letter, is probably the younger son of Mary and Joseph, and therefore the brother of Jesus and of James, who wrote the book of James. Interestingly, he identifies himself in verse 1 as the brother of James, but “a slave of Jesus Christ.” (None of the interesting questions about what it was like to grow up with Jesus are addressed in the New Testament! It’s probably just as well).
Jude explains to his readers that he had hoped to write a theological letter about the salvation that they share, but he has since heard news from them which causes him alarm. So this letter is written instead to warn them about false teachers.
It is interesting to note how quickly false teachings about Jesus began to circulate among the early churches, whether it was Jewish legalism and the teaching that Christians needed to keep the law of Moses to be saved, or nascent Gnosticism which stated that Jesus could not have been truly human because the material world is evil.
Of course, this is something that Jesus warned his disciples to expect (see Matthew 7:15-20). He said that false teachers who come among the congregations “disguised as harmless sheep but who are really vicious wolves” can be identified by their moral character: “Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”
So Jude echoes Jesus when he writes that the congregation must defend the apostolic teaching that God has entrusted to them by watching out for ungodly people who worm their way into people’s trust but then mislead them. In this case, the false teachers are “saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives” (Jude, vs. 4).
This is a dangerous teaching for many reasons, but most importantly it completely misrepresents the Gospel. God is not an indulgent old-man-upstairs whose only concern is that people have a good time. He cannot just look away when we live immoral lives.
God’s plan from the beginning, as Paul expresses it in Ephesians 1:4, is to make us holy through Christ so that we can become like Him in His humanity. To use God’s grace as an excuse to sin, instead of as a means to become like Jesus, is not only false teaching—it is an invitation for God’s judgement. Jude writes, “The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4).
Several examples from the Old Testament are then given to show how willful disobedience has always brought God’s judgement.
Writing of the false teachers, he says that they live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at supernatural beings, meaning that they mock the spiritual realm, and instead act like unthinking animals following their sinful desires because they don’t have God’s Spirit in them.
Jude continues now with a fiery denunciation, saying that they follow in the footsteps of well-known Old Testament sinners such as Cain—who killed his brother, Balaam—who deceived people for money, and Korah—who led Israel in rebellion against God.
These people, Jude says, are bad news and should not be included in fellowship meals. They are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you; like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves; like clouds blowing over the land but giving no rain; like trees in autumn that bear no fruit; like wild waves of the sea churning up the foam of their shameful deeds; like wandering stars, doomed forever to blackest darkness.
But God’s judgement is coming. It comes partly in this life when God acts to stop sin, but it comes in finality at the Last Judgment when all sin will be judged and forever stopped.
We must understand that in the Last Days (the days between the first and second coming of Jesus) “there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly desires” (Jude 1:18). Christians will be their targets, but we must not lose heart. We must build each other up in faith and in sound doctrine, always praying in the power of the Holy Spirit. If any find their faith wavering because of these false teachers, the congregation must show them mercy but hold them accountable for sin.
Jude ends with a doxology, which alone makes this little letter worth reading: “Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.”
TAKE-AWAY: False teaching is akin to slandering God and to leading people astray. Therefore, it is confronted with the strongest of denunciations. Discipleship in the church needs to be focused on sound doctrine and knowledge of the Bible. Despite what some may claim, the Spirit of God will never lead us to think or act outside the Word of God.
Prayer: Lord, keep your people safe from those who would mislead by false doctrine and clever manipulation. Grant us teachers to help us with the discipline of studying the Bible so that we may protect ourselves from lies and fortify ourselves with the truth so that we may live in a manner that honors you. Amen.
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