Verse 9
This is an interesting verse because of the lost extra-biblical source that Jude quotes, "The Assumption Of Moses" according to Origen. Some texts have been found that are either from this book or from a different one called the "Testament Of Moses". What has been found doesn't contain anything related to this dispute however. The whole thing seems a little sketchy.
I also think that's a totally wrong focus on the verse.
Let's look at what Jude says and the point he is making. The first immediate thing that comes to mind is "Don't !@#$ with the devil!" If Michael, one of the princes of God's angels, left it to God himself to rebuke Satan, who are we? Don't mess with him and don't talk to him -- go to God and ask him to deal with it.
Verse 10
The bigger point here is that, while super-powerful Michael didn't dare rebuke Satan to his face, the merely human false teachers Jude is dealing with blaspheme all kinds of stuff they don't get. I'm not sure if that means with their words, or with their immoral lives, or what.
The latter part of the verse brings Romans to mind -- "although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves".
In short, God gives people what they want. If they want to make themselves or something else their god, he will let them and give them over completely to their false and godless ways. Jude puts the false teachers in this category -- these are people who have become like "unreasoning animals" living life worshiping the gods of pleasure and self instead of God himself.
Verse 11
Jude gives some examples of others who went their own way instead of God's way. Cain out of anger, Balaam out of greed, and Korah out of pride and a rejection of authority.
Verses 12 through 15
Jude calls the false teachers a bunch of names and says they're going to hell.
He doesn't cater to the wolves. He shoots them. Lord, give me the same kind of boldness.
Verse 16
"Loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage" sounds so much like slick TV preachers (Joel Olsteen, cough cough) that are always upbeat and don't have anything bad to say about anyone -- wolves who through out a "God wants you to be rich and healthy" message to the world.
Ever see the camera pan out across the audience, I mean congregation, for these liars? There's a ton of people there. Like I said, God gives people what they want. You want God, you get God. You want some godless bull!@#$ message that makes you feel happy, you get a steaming pile.
Verse 17 and 18
False teachers are not anything new.
Verse 19
"It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit."
This punch hits hard.
In the past when I heard "false teacher" my mind would go to other religions outside the mainstream Christian denominations -- Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses for example.
Next my mind would go to the liberal views in the main denominations that promote all kinds of nonsense -- gay is okay, the Bible isn't God's authoritative word, Jesus wasn't necessarily divine, the resurrection doesn't really matter, there is no hell, everyone's going to heaven, and so on.
My mind is starting to shift from that a little bit -- closer to home. And rightly so -- it's not the obviously erroneous stuff that kills people, it's the subtle stuff. It's the religious people who check the boxes, speak Christianese really well, and have no heart for God and live like the rest of the world, seeking only the pleasures of the world in self-deification and living for today instead of eternity.
God help me to not be a Spirit-less religious guy, because I am so easily sucked into religion. Show us all where were are stuck in religion and KILL IT.
Verses 20 through 23
Hang on Christian, and help your brothers and sisters hang on too! It's a bumpy ride, but Jesus has our back.
Verses 24 and 25
That's right, Jesus rocks!
Showing posts with label Jude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jude. Show all posts
Friday, November 11, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Jude 1 (Verses 5-8)
Verses 5-7
Jude gives some examples of those destined for hell. First are those who saw God's awesome power as Moses led them out of Egypt yet did not believe. Second are angels who would have even been in the presence of God, yet rejected him. I think it is implied by the text that these demons are those angels that pridefully rebelled against God with Satan. Third are those people from Sodom and Gomorrah completely given over to wickedness and their own pleasures.
I don't know why Jude picked these particular groups of creatures, but there is definitely a lesson to be learned from each of them.
When we see God's might and power and still reject him, that's evil. Each of us has a time in our life when the push from his Spirit to turn away from sin to him is the strongest it will ever be, yet sadly many reject that push and turn away from God forever, condemning themselves to hell. I can't imagine being one of those delivered from slavery in Egypt, crossing through the Red Sea, seeing God lead as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, and still not believe in him. Yet, I am also reminded of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that Jesus told -- where at the end he says that the rich man's brothers will not believe, even if someone were to rise from the dead.
When we desire a higher position than God has given us, that's evil. Especially evil is pride. Satan had this to such an extent that he wanted to be God. I would say thank God we're different, but that's not necessarily true. How often in our lives have we wanted to be God instead of God? Maybe we wouldn't say it or think it like that, but how often have we behaved that way and then found ourselves in deep water? As people we have a fine way of allowing Jesus to sit on the throne of our lives until things get a little too good or a little to bad and then we kick him off the throne and try to do things our own way. It never works out well, and it never will.
When we make ourselves our own gods and decide our main purpose in life is not to glorify God, but to seek fulfillment from carnal pleasures, that's evil. For many the sins of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah are obviously wicked -- "well, thank God we're not like that!" Yet how often do we seek our own different pleasures first in this world? Maybe it's television or games. Maybe it's sports or hobbies. Maybe it's food and drink. Maybe it's home and family time. There are many things in this world we are free to enjoy in Christ, but, as Paul wrote, not everything builds up. When we let something other than God enslave us and take over, we're in trouble.
And now that I've written about all three examples a little bit, I see how they could follow each other in succession from disbelief to pride to self-appointed godhood, but I don't think that's the intent here, especially given verse 8 below.
Verse 8
Jude brings out the commonality in the examples by comparing them to the problematic people that prompted his letter in the first place. The commonality in all of them is rejecting God's authority in favor of some other authority -- trying to make something else God in the place of God. For the Israelites in Egypt, it started with the golden calf. For the angels, it was themselves -- they wanted to be God, or at least the ringleader did. For the wicked men of those cities, they wanted to rule their own lives, thus making themselves their own gods as well.
All of the above trusted in something other than God, and Jude says the same thing about certain false teachers that appear to rely on the authority of their own dreams rather than scripture, or Jesus, or something a little more compelling than the product of a bad meal and background head noise. They ground themselves in experience, which is no ground at all. Based on their experience, they go on living like the devil, which reveals that they do not know God at all.
Really, to me, it just seems like an excuse to sin -- with a God sticker slapped on it. There's nothing new under the sun. As an example from the past, there were temples to fake gods with temple prostitutes. What was the thought process there? "Hmmm, we like to have sex with whoever, let's do that and call it worship." As an example from today, we like the "good life" here in the first world, so what do you see? Name It And Claim It, God's your magic genie. The Prosperity Gospel, God just wants you to be rich and healthy. Or how about even those who get the real gospel being bad stewards in the name of "enjoying God's blessings"? I know that one. It's devious, and it's dangerous.
I am not saying that experience is bad, but it better not be the sole basis for your faith. I had an incredibly transformational experience when my heart was turned toward Jesus, but that experience also lines up very well with the Bible as well. The two complement each other well. If I were to just have some very moving experience, but it didn't line up with the Bible at all, that would be a big problem.
There are people with very moving conversion stories to various religious systems that are similar to mine. There are people who have claimed to have special new revelation from God. There are people who have claimed to talk to angels and demons and the dead. There are people who claim to have dreams and visions that came from God. It is far too easy to just go after experience these days, but such experiences are worthless or outright harmful if they don't line up with God's Word. All of scripture points to Jesus, so if you've got some "new thing" that points away from Jesus or goes against what he said, you're deceived or just full of crap.
I'll stop here for now and go through additional parts of Jude next post. I never thought a one chapter book in the Bible would yield so much from my brain.
Jude gives some examples of those destined for hell. First are those who saw God's awesome power as Moses led them out of Egypt yet did not believe. Second are angels who would have even been in the presence of God, yet rejected him. I think it is implied by the text that these demons are those angels that pridefully rebelled against God with Satan. Third are those people from Sodom and Gomorrah completely given over to wickedness and their own pleasures.
I don't know why Jude picked these particular groups of creatures, but there is definitely a lesson to be learned from each of them.
When we see God's might and power and still reject him, that's evil. Each of us has a time in our life when the push from his Spirit to turn away from sin to him is the strongest it will ever be, yet sadly many reject that push and turn away from God forever, condemning themselves to hell. I can't imagine being one of those delivered from slavery in Egypt, crossing through the Red Sea, seeing God lead as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, and still not believe in him. Yet, I am also reminded of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that Jesus told -- where at the end he says that the rich man's brothers will not believe, even if someone were to rise from the dead.
When we desire a higher position than God has given us, that's evil. Especially evil is pride. Satan had this to such an extent that he wanted to be God. I would say thank God we're different, but that's not necessarily true. How often in our lives have we wanted to be God instead of God? Maybe we wouldn't say it or think it like that, but how often have we behaved that way and then found ourselves in deep water? As people we have a fine way of allowing Jesus to sit on the throne of our lives until things get a little too good or a little to bad and then we kick him off the throne and try to do things our own way. It never works out well, and it never will.
When we make ourselves our own gods and decide our main purpose in life is not to glorify God, but to seek fulfillment from carnal pleasures, that's evil. For many the sins of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah are obviously wicked -- "well, thank God we're not like that!" Yet how often do we seek our own different pleasures first in this world? Maybe it's television or games. Maybe it's sports or hobbies. Maybe it's food and drink. Maybe it's home and family time. There are many things in this world we are free to enjoy in Christ, but, as Paul wrote, not everything builds up. When we let something other than God enslave us and take over, we're in trouble.
And now that I've written about all three examples a little bit, I see how they could follow each other in succession from disbelief to pride to self-appointed godhood, but I don't think that's the intent here, especially given verse 8 below.
Verse 8
Jude brings out the commonality in the examples by comparing them to the problematic people that prompted his letter in the first place. The commonality in all of them is rejecting God's authority in favor of some other authority -- trying to make something else God in the place of God. For the Israelites in Egypt, it started with the golden calf. For the angels, it was themselves -- they wanted to be God, or at least the ringleader did. For the wicked men of those cities, they wanted to rule their own lives, thus making themselves their own gods as well.
All of the above trusted in something other than God, and Jude says the same thing about certain false teachers that appear to rely on the authority of their own dreams rather than scripture, or Jesus, or something a little more compelling than the product of a bad meal and background head noise. They ground themselves in experience, which is no ground at all. Based on their experience, they go on living like the devil, which reveals that they do not know God at all.
Really, to me, it just seems like an excuse to sin -- with a God sticker slapped on it. There's nothing new under the sun. As an example from the past, there were temples to fake gods with temple prostitutes. What was the thought process there? "Hmmm, we like to have sex with whoever, let's do that and call it worship." As an example from today, we like the "good life" here in the first world, so what do you see? Name It And Claim It, God's your magic genie. The Prosperity Gospel, God just wants you to be rich and healthy. Or how about even those who get the real gospel being bad stewards in the name of "enjoying God's blessings"? I know that one. It's devious, and it's dangerous.
I am not saying that experience is bad, but it better not be the sole basis for your faith. I had an incredibly transformational experience when my heart was turned toward Jesus, but that experience also lines up very well with the Bible as well. The two complement each other well. If I were to just have some very moving experience, but it didn't line up with the Bible at all, that would be a big problem.
There are people with very moving conversion stories to various religious systems that are similar to mine. There are people who have claimed to have special new revelation from God. There are people who have claimed to talk to angels and demons and the dead. There are people who claim to have dreams and visions that came from God. It is far too easy to just go after experience these days, but such experiences are worthless or outright harmful if they don't line up with God's Word. All of scripture points to Jesus, so if you've got some "new thing" that points away from Jesus or goes against what he said, you're deceived or just full of crap.
I'll stop here for now and go through additional parts of Jude next post. I never thought a one chapter book in the Bible would yield so much from my brain.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Jude 1 (Verses 1-4)
I thought I'd jump around. Here we have the start of the shortest book in the Bible, written by Jude, the brother of James, both half-brothers of Jesus.
Verse 1
Jude also seems to be tracking with the idea of the elect -- those predestined by God to be saved -- when he says "to those who have been called".
The phrase "who are loved by God" could be a bit confusing, as it could imply that God doesn't love everyone. God does love everyone, demonstrated by the fact that he doesn't destroy us all immediately because of sin and demonstrated by Jesus coming into the world to save all who will receive him. However, God does not ignore sin, and only God's covenant love is extended to his adopted children -- those who put their faith in his son Jesus.
Verse 3
Jude wanted to write about the salvation and faith shared with other Christian brothers, but changed his mind to deal with more pressing issues of false teachings that were surfacing.
However, before he switches gears, he says something that appears to be of significance -- "the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." That's an interesting way to put it, and I know I have until now overlooked it.
In Romans and Hebrews the same phrase is in there talking about Christ being our sacrifice for sins -- he died once for all. His death on the cross is what pays the penalty for sin, nothing more, and nothing less. In the same way, the final revelation about our faith came through Christ, in his teachings passed on to the apostles. Nothing more was or is to come -- we have all we need to know regarding our salvation, proper Christian thought and action, and so on.
Verse 4
It looks like Jude is concerned about false teachers creeping into the body of Christ -- "godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."
This reminds me immediately of Paul in Romans 6 -- "What shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (verse 1) and "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" (verse 15). He says the same types of things elsewhere as well, and the point is clear -- just because we have freedom in Christ does not mean we have freedom to sin.
A person who thinks that their freedom in Christ gives them free reign to sin freely and be good with God is not in Christ. The person who is in Christ has a new heart for God that desires to know him and love him and flee from sin like Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife.
Verse 1
Jude also seems to be tracking with the idea of the elect -- those predestined by God to be saved -- when he says "to those who have been called".
The phrase "who are loved by God" could be a bit confusing, as it could imply that God doesn't love everyone. God does love everyone, demonstrated by the fact that he doesn't destroy us all immediately because of sin and demonstrated by Jesus coming into the world to save all who will receive him. However, God does not ignore sin, and only God's covenant love is extended to his adopted children -- those who put their faith in his son Jesus.
Verse 3
Jude wanted to write about the salvation and faith shared with other Christian brothers, but changed his mind to deal with more pressing issues of false teachings that were surfacing.
However, before he switches gears, he says something that appears to be of significance -- "the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." That's an interesting way to put it, and I know I have until now overlooked it.
In Romans and Hebrews the same phrase is in there talking about Christ being our sacrifice for sins -- he died once for all. His death on the cross is what pays the penalty for sin, nothing more, and nothing less. In the same way, the final revelation about our faith came through Christ, in his teachings passed on to the apostles. Nothing more was or is to come -- we have all we need to know regarding our salvation, proper Christian thought and action, and so on.
Verse 4
It looks like Jude is concerned about false teachers creeping into the body of Christ -- "godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."
This reminds me immediately of Paul in Romans 6 -- "What shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (verse 1) and "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!" (verse 15). He says the same types of things elsewhere as well, and the point is clear -- just because we have freedom in Christ does not mean we have freedom to sin.
A person who thinks that their freedom in Christ gives them free reign to sin freely and be good with God is not in Christ. The person who is in Christ has a new heart for God that desires to know him and love him and flee from sin like Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife.
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