JUDE 21: DEFENSE AGAINST THE APOSTATES, PT II

Verse 21: Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

In verses 20 and 21, Jude submitted four personal qualities that his readers should possess as a defense against the deceitfulness of false teachers. The previous study developed the first two qualities in verse 20 and now the third and fourth qualities will be explored.

The word keep is the main verb of verses 20 and 21, describing the overall quality which the believer should possess. The other three qualities (the two in the previous verse and that of waiting anxiously) are Greek participles and according to Greek grammar they should be achieved simultaneously while believers are keeping themselves in the love of God.1

This Third quality, Jude directs us to keep yourselves in the love of God.  The word “keep” implies to preserve or maintain a position. Jude employs this word throughout the epistle to demonstrate that there is an order in God’s universe for everyone. Note His judicial dealings with those who endeavor to oppose Him or those who lead astray believers. The fallen angels of verse 6 did not keep their own domain—they were out of the habitation from where they belonged and are now being kept in eternal bonds (cf. 2 Peter 2:4). And in verse 13, the false teachers are doomed to the black darkness, which is described by Our Lord as “the outer darkness; in that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12; cf. 22:13; 25:30). This place has been reserved (same Greek word as kept) for them for all eternity (cf. 2 Peter 2:17).

You will recall that Jude has already stated that the believers in Jesus Christ are kept for Him (v. 1). This reaffirms Jesus’ request of His Holy Father to keep us in His name that we might be in union with Him and God the Father (John 17:11). Dr. Wuest explains that in essence “the Father is keeping them so that they might continue to be forever the possession of the Lord Jesus.”2 The Apostle Peter verified that we have an eternal benefit of being kept for Him:

To obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved [kept] in heaven for you. (1 Peter 1:4)

But now, the position that Jude directs us to keep is in the sphere of fellowship with God the Father, just as Jesus commanded: “Abide in My love” (John 15:9). It is where we experience His enduring love and express our love for Him, and where we derive our power source to serve. To reside in this fellowship “involves many other commands: be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), humble yourselves (1 Peter 5:6), love the Lord your God (Mark 12:30), love one another (1 John 3:23), grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord (2 Peter 3:18), all of which combine to form one divine system of perfect efficacy and strength for the Christian life.”3

Our continued residence in the sphere of fellowship is contingent upon doing as the Apostle Paul commanded: “keeping yourself free from sin” (1 Timothy 5:22), and by keeping His word as the Apostle John definitively proclaims:

But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. (1 John 2:5)

Personal sin breaks our fellowship with the Father resulting in our walking in a domain of darkness. For this is what John teaches, “that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5b).  He goes on to state that:

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. (1 John 1:6)

John instructs us to confess our sins (1 John 1:9) so that our fellowship can be restored. Thus, it is Jude’s desire that we maintain our fellowship with God; that by advancing in our knowledge of His truth and being free from sinfulness we are able to exhibit our love for God in an unmistakable way.

The Fourth quality, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ means that we are to eagerly anticipate the final phase of our salvation: the eternal state. It is worth noting that Scripture outlines three distinct phases of our salvation:

1.  Positional—we are justified and therefore freed from the penalty of sin. The Apostle Paul stated this:

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are no longer at enmity with God and we obtain and begin eternal life. (Romans 5:1)

2.   Present—we are freed from the power of sin. The Apostle Paul outlined this:

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:12–13)

3.   Future or Ultimate—this phase of salvation is when we are freed from the presence of sin, forever. We enter this phase at the moment we pass from this life unto death. The Apostle Paul explains that after our death, we will be “absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8b). This is the completed phase of our salvation—our entrance into the eternal state.

Now, the present phase of our salvation has been so designed for us to know God the Father and His divine mercy extended to us by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. This is what the Our Lord meant when He defined eternal life:

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)

Our knowing Him is not meant to be casual or unresponsive, but ideally, an intimate relationship with a profound understanding of the true significance of our existence. God’s expectation for believers is that they fulfill His objective of being effective witnesses for the gospel while on the earth.

As tempting as it is to desire to escape all of the negative aspects of this life (sorrow, grief, misery, wars, etc.), we should never be too heavenly minded that we neglect His purpose for our lives today. Yet, it is not unreasonable for us to anxiously await what He has in store for us when we pass from this present life, to the eternal state in the presence of God (cf. 1 Peter 1:5, 9, 13). For there and then “we will yet receive that part of salvation which awaits us in Glory.”4 We should be like-minded as the Apostle Paul:

Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

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[1] Wallace, D. B. (1996) Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, p. 623.

[2] Wuest, Kenneth S. (1997). Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: for the English Reader. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 16.232.

[3] Thieme, R.B., Jr. (2022). Thieme’s Bible Doctrine Dictionary, Houston, TX: R.B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, pp. 164-165.

[4] Wuest, 11.22.

© 2023 David M. Rossi
 

JUDE 20: DEFENSE AGAINST THE APOSTATES, PT. I

Verse 20: But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

Jude begins by emphasizing that the characteristics of his beloved readers are to be in distinct contrast with those of the apostates. He specifies four personal qualities that his readers should possess as a defense against the deceitfulness of false teachers. Believers, today and until the Lord comes for His church, should endeavor to attain to these same qualities. We will analyze the first two of these personal qualities in this time and the other two will be addressed in the following study.

First, building yourself up on your most holy faith. Because of the confusion over the exact implication of the word ‘faith’ in this verse, this characteristic has not been widely observed in Christianity today. The difficulty lies in the misconception of what exactly is this most holy faith? The word faith has various inferences in Scripture. It can imply the faith one expresses in Christ for salvation (Ephesians 2:8). But it can also refer objectively to the content of that which is believed—body of faith or belief, doctrine;1 denoting the embodiment of absolute truth which encompasses the teachings of Christianity based upon a correct interpretation of Scripture. This is how it is used elsewhere in Scripture2 and to which Jude is precisely referring and what he commanded that we contend earnestly for in verse 3.

Note that the Apostle Paul maintains that the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17), is an integral part of our spiritual armor. Paul informed Timothy of the spiritual objective of Scripture:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

When compared with other Scriptures, we find that it is not a coincidence that Jude advises his readers to continually build themselves up on the doctrinal truths contained in God’s Word. Consistent daily Bible study is the key defense against false teachings. But to study means more than merely reading Scripture—it is meditating, memorizing and integrating the truths of our most holy faith into our consciousness, so that we are able to think God’s thoughts and respond to every circumstance of life in a manner that reflects the reality of Jesus Christ. Just as a building has a solid foundation, God’s Word is our foundation upon which we build level upon level of our understanding of God’s plan for our lives (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:10-11).

A little sermonette on Sunday morning will not maintain a believer throughout the week. If that is all we are getting, its effectiveness would probably last only until Sunday dinner. The fact that there is so little individual study by believers today is the reason that false teachings, divisions and the craving to be entertained has entered the church today, not to mention the negative effect it has had upon our culture.

Secondly, Jude instructs us to consistently be praying in the Holy Spirit—by the powerful intercessory working of God the Holy Spirit. Prayer is the believers’ power-line to the throne of God. And yet the principle guidelines of prayer are rarely understood and employed within Christianity today—specifically, the order in addressing prayer and the scope of prayer requests.

The order of prayer is provided by Our Lord in Matthew 6:9-13. He commands His disciples to begin prayer by addressing the Father. This is the manner in which He prayed at all times, most notably in His great Intercessory Prayer recorded in John 17 and on the cross before “He breathed His last”: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). We are never directed by Scripture to address prayer to Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Prayer is addressed to the Father, our requests are asked in the name of Jesus Christ (Luke 11:2; cf. John 14:13, 16:23), in the power of the Holy Spirit (Jude 20).

Our Lord outlined the scope of our prayers in John 16:23, “if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.” But this is not without its reasonable limitations, for our prayers should be in accordance with God’s purposes and that which glorifies Christ. See the converse example in James 4:3 where James pointed out that they were praying with wrong motives—seeking their own pleasures. Prayer is not intended to be a grab bag of personal desires, but instead it is to advance the spiritual plan of God in our lives and in the lives of others. So prayer is divinely intended to be an important function of the believers’ daily life: rejoicing, thanksgiving and prayers for the brethren (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 25) and also for politicians and those in authority over us (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

It is important to point out that while we are building ourselves up and praying in the Holy Spirit, we are commanded to keep ourselves in the love of God. This will be examined in the next study.

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[1] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1957). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, p. 669.

[2] cf. Galatians 1:23; 3:23; Ephesians 4:5; Philippians 1:27; 1 Timothy 6:21; 2 Peter 1:1; 1 John 5:4; Jude 1:3, 20

 

© 2023 David M. Rossi
 

JUDE 17-19: THE OBJECTIVE OF THE APOSTATES

Verses 17-19: But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.

Jude carefully shifts the focus of his message from the apostates to the recipients of his letter: beloved fellow believers in Jesus Christ. He begins by commanding that they ought to keep firmly in their memory the words spoken by the apostles. The word ‘ought’ is derived from the Greek mood of the verb to remember. It would be better translated must since ‘ought’ in today’s language doesn’t seem to communicate the vital necessity of observing this command.

What exactly must be remembered is outlined by the words which were spoken by Our Lord’s apostles, His duly appointed leadership of the Church. But not just idle words; these are words with a specific content that pertained to their day and will resonate throughout this present Church Age. They were to be lodged in the memory center of the believers in Jude’s day, as well as in ours today, and by every believer in the future until Christ comes for His Church.

In verse 18, Jude conveys for the benefit of his readers the urgent warning that the apostles were repeatedly saying, that it was an absolute fact that these apostates will be present in the last time. He virtually quotes 2 Peter 3:3 with some variations. Peter wrote that they will come “in the last days.” The Apostle John wrote at the end of the 1^st Century “that many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18). The phrases last time/last days/last hour all refer to the same time frame, specifically “in the last age of the Church,”1 from Pentecost to the Rapture of the Church. This warning to be on our guard applies to us today. The Apostle John went on to state how we can identify these apostates:

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (1 John 4:3)

These passages (Jude 18; 2 Peter 3:3; 1 John 4:1-32) should challenge us to evaluate the present day teachings in our churches today. Both Jude and Peter maintain the absolute certainty that in these last days there will be mockers, meaning men who will scoff and distort the tenets of the Christian faith. Peter said that they will ridicule the “promise of His coming” (2 Peter 3:4), while Jude had already mentioned that they deny Jesus Christ as their “only Master and Lord” (v.4). And again, Jude repeats what motivates them (cf. v.16), they are in pursuit “after their own ungodly lusts.” Not sexual lust, but power lust and the desire to fulfill the directives of their evil master—Satan—as detailed in the next verse.

First, Jude explains the objective of these apostates—that they are the ones who cause divisions. We should be mindful of the success they have had during this present age of the Church. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimated that in 2019 there were 45,000 Christian denominations globally.3 Granted, many share the same basic theology of Biblical Christianity, but then, many do not because of false teachers. From this we see the realization of Peter’s statement that false teachers “secretly introduce destructive heresies” (2 Peter 2:1). This accounts for the breakup of various denominations because of attacks upon the inerrancy and authority of Scripture, sexual issues (i.e. gay marriage), and the Biblical role of the pastor-teacher. There is sufficient evidence of those who cause division, striving to obliterate the unity of the universal Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul described the truth of Christian unity:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4–6, emphasis added)

Second, these apostates are worldly-minded. This Greek word infers “one who lives on the purely material plane, without being touched by the Spirit of God.”4 They derive their beliefs subjectively from the natural world about them—rejecting the objective revelation of God’s Word. The 19^th Century German philosophy, zeitgeist, the spirit of the age, perfectly describes the mindset of these apostates. This zeitgeist philosophy purported that there was an invisible force that governed the ever changing world—it’s views of every facet of life. These views are considered ‘indisputable truths’, having been dictated by the prevailing cultural fads and crazes, utterly rejecting any Godly influence. This is the wisdom of the world which James maintained was not from God but is demonic (James 3:15).

Just as the worldly-minded 1^st Century apostates took their cue from their culture, they do so today: indulging in ungodly deeds, in pursuit of ungodly lusts, believing that anything goes!

Third, these apostates are devoid of the Spirit. This is a continuously persistent fact and is sufficiently corroborated by what has already been stated. Jude dogmatically states that it is impossible for these apostates to possess any aspect of the Holy Spirit and at the same time derive their mindset from demonic wisdom. If these apostates had at one time believed in Jesus Christ, then what the Apostle Paul wrote exposes them for who they are:

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. (1 Timothy 4:1–2)

Today, apostates are still at work teaching their doctrines of demons—not doctrines about demons—but doctrines that originate from deceitful demonic spirits, the minions of Satan. Concerning this primary source of their deceitfulness, Satan, Our Lord declared that “there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44b).  

It is undeniable that within our culture Biblical Christianity has become a fading memory. It is true that there are an overwhelming number of Christians and Christian churches in the world. But few maintain the true beliefs of Biblical Christianity; and fewer believers strive to achieve spiritual maturity, capitulating to the false emphasis and teachings of a ‘Christianity’ perpetrated by the ‘father of lies.’

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[1] Alford, Henry (1877). The Greek Testament, Boston, MA: Lee and Shepard Publishers, 4.540.

[2] Note what the Apostle Paul forewarned, Acts 20:29-30.

[3] https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-for-global-christianity/research/quick-facts/[Retrieved July 25, 2023]

[4] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1957). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 902.

 

© 2023 David M. Rossi