READ: Jude
Verses
chosen for meditation: Jude 17-19
17 But you
must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last
time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It
is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
REFLECT
It’s
unsurprising that the book of Jude is hardly preached on. When thinking of
words to describe this epistle, words like “intense” and “uncompromising” come
up. Jude confessed that he would rather write a more joyful letter about
salvation. Instead, he was compelled to write something way more uncomfortable,
due to the threat of false teachers, and their increasing influence on
Christians.
Often,
these false teachers tell audiences what they like to hear, that God’s grace is
so great that you can live however you want, with no penalty. Christians are
attracted to this false doctrine as it allows them to satisfy the desires of
their flesh. They are being taught “cheap grace”, that God is ok with whatever
we do, that his grace is so sufficient that it covers whatever sins we do. That
is a heresy. God does not condone abusing/taking his grace for granted like that.
Jude
revealed how false teachers would be dealt with, citing many examples from the
Old Testament. He then cautioned that towards the end times, there are groups
of people to guard against (or ensure we are not part of them), which is the
focus of today’s verses.
The
letter, in essence, was written to expose the heresies of false teachers (Jude 4-16),
to urge the church to fight for the faith and defend it (Jude 3, 17-21) and to
encourage the Christians to rescue those influenced by the false teachings (Jude 22-23).
RELATE
Jude outlines groups of people who are a danger to
the church as we move towards the end times. The scoffers (v18), who not only
do not obey the gospel, but scorn it. They try to make Christian beliefs irrelevant.
This can come in the form of stand-up comedies, reaction videos, memes, etc. I
for one love humour and can appreciate religious-related humour if done
tastefully. However, if not careful, I could find myself being ok with some of
the jokes, when it really is making a mockery of our faith, desensitising me and
decreasing my reverence for God. We are seeing more of these on the internet.
Then we have the ungodly (v18-19). Ungodly does not
mean they don’t believe in the existence of God. They can
talk about God all the time, but do not believe that God does what He says, and
that God minds what they do. Hence, if we are living godless lives, we may say
there is a God, but to us, it doesn’t matter what He thinks and He doesn’t mind when I
sin. In other words, there is no fear of God in us. We don’t take God
seriously, hence are ungodly.
Jude called these people “dreamers” because they
come up with their own revelations of God, and imaginations of who God is and
what God is like. More are surfacing today, not afraid to voice opinions and can
tap on many platforms to do so. We are ushering into an era where, if we believe them, we can feel
deceptively spiritual, but there is no truth in our walk.
William Booth said this: There will be religion
without Jesus. Forgiveness without repentance. Salvation without regeneration.
Politics without God. Heaven without hell. What great insight God has given
William Booth, because this is so true in today’s times, where many are fooled
into thinking they can have all the “perks” of religion, without the unpopular
things that come with it. Many think they have salvation, when they
don’t. They don’t take God seriously enough and form a picture of God that is
more aligned to their fleshly desires.
The scoffers, ungodly, divisive, worldly people will
increase towards the end times. It forms a dire picture as it means evil will keep
increasing. But we don’t despair, because light will keep increasing too. This has
always been a spiritual battle between light and darkness, and both will keep increasing
towards the end times, until they face off on judgement day. On this day, Jude 14-15 says God will come with his angels to execute judgement on these false
teachers and evil.
What this means is that it is not up to us to
exercise judgement on evil. God and his angels will deal with them. Our focus
is different. Many times, Christians want to play the role of judge and jury.
That’s why we have the crusades in the sad history of Christianity, and we find
Christians setting fire and beating people they think is evil. Our sense of
justice is flawed and imperfect anyway, making our judgement flawed. Instead, our
focus is to win the lost and disciple the church. How we can do that amidst
false teachings is found in Jude 22-23. We are to rescue those who doubt (not
sure who to follow), who dabble with fire (trying out falsehoods) or who are
already deceived (bought in fully to the ways of the world). We do this with
mercy, not with harsh judgement, and with fear, so we ourselves are not
influenced.
Jude’s letter makes us uncomfortable, but that’s the
point. It is to jolt us up and contend for the faith! It is to provide that
much needed slap to our faces if we have gotten drowsy with the deceptions of
the world, living like an overdosed, hungover person, unaware of how we may be losing
grip of our faith.
REST
Father, help us not be complacent in our spiritual walk,
but see the need to contend for the faith. Help us to take you seriously, and
focus on winning the lost and discipling the church. Amen.
Chris
Chong
Comments
Post a Comment