Copyright © 2026 Michael A.
Brown
‘...by schisms rent asunder, by heresies
distressed... The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.’ (Samuel J. Stone, 1866)
The
epistle of Jude is arguably the most Jewish piece of literature in the New
Testament. The book of Hebrews is also
thoroughly Jewish of course, reflecting the fact that it was written to
first-century Jewish Christians. Its
thirteen chapters certainly heavily outweigh the mere twenty-five verses of
Jude’s epistle, yet the imagery permeating this epistle, which is taken not
only from the Old Testament but also overtly from the Jewish intertestamental
pseudepigraphic literature, give it a character which is not only Jewish, but
also unique, strongly eschatological and deeply fascinating.
The
similarity between Jude’s epistle and the second chapter of 2 Peter has been
noted by many, and some commentators therefore think that one of them was
simply copying the other. Immorality was
a problem which often affected the internal life of first-century churches, due
to its pervasiveness in the surrounding Greek-Roman culture (cf. 1 Cor. 5:1-13,6:9-20; Rev. 2:12-29). Jude and Peter both spent many years working
in Judea ministering among Jews, and they would certainly have known each
other well. So they had undoubtedly
discussed this problem together at some stage and had come to some common
thinking. My own view therefore is that
what we are getting in Jude and 2 Peter ch.2 is simply an expression of this
common thinking, each in his own words.
Both
of them are addressing the same problem: an agenda seeking to infiltrate sexual
immorality into the inner life of churches.
The wilful nature of this agenda is implied by Jude’s words ‘certain
men... have secretly slipped in among you.’ (v.4). The phrase means ‘to creep in unnoticed,’ or ‘to
come in by a side door and take a seat quietly among everyone else.’ The deceptive and antinomian nature of their
false teaching is clear: they feigned faith in Jesus and used the message of
God’s grace and Christian freedom as a justification for licentious and immoral
living (v.4). Put simply: “God loves us,
he accepts us just as we are, he will forgive all our sins, so we can therefore
live as we like and it is no problem. We
can believe in Jesus and still keep our sinful lifestyle, because we are free
in him, so we should all tolerate this in the life of the church.” In this kind of false thinking, repentance
and the slow but sure transformation of every part of our life into the image
of Christ play no part. It has no fear
of God.
The
intention of these infiltrators was to gain a foothold for their lifestyle in
the church and then to propagate their false teaching. They were thinking and hoping that some
believers, perhaps many, would be deceived by their subjective emphasis on God’s
love and would embrace such licentious living, and then begin to propagate this
false teaching themselves. And if they
could infiltrate a church community to the point of establishing themselves as
leaders in it, then all the better, because they could then use their position
to influence far more people. The
overall consequence would be division and fractiousness within the church community,
confusion among believers as to expectations regarding morality and sexuality,
the moral defiling of believers’ lives, and the disempowering and weakening of
the church’s spiritual vitality, all of which would render the church’s witness
irrelevant and hypocritical in the eyes of the world (v19; cf. Rev. 2:14-16,
2:20-25).
Whereas
the NIV translates the Greek word ἀσέλγεια (aselgeia) in v.4 as ‘sexual immorality,’ the AV gives the more accurate rendering of ‘lasciviousness,’ a word which is rarely if ever
used today. Most believers today do not
know what it means. Immoral activity in
the form of fornication or adultery is generally conducted behind a locked
door, and is therefore illicit, secret and remains covered up, but
lasciviousness is of a different nature.
Whether in the form of the act itself or in terms of the wilful
suggestiveness of carnal sensuality, lasciviousness denotes excess and is an
openly brazen, wanton, flagrant, flaunted, unrestrained, filthy, openly paraded,
in-your-face and shameless expression of immorality. Lascivious people have no sense of conscience,
sensitivity or decency. Jude’s description
of them is graphic: they are slaves of depravity, and they take pride in
glorying in their shame. They have no
qualms about what they do, they are licentious, defiant and slanderous. They speak abusively about whatever they do
not understand, and they are divisive.
Their acts are unreasoning and led by mere instinct, resulting in the
defiling of their own physical bodies (vv.4,8,10,12,19; 2 Peter 2:19).
Jude’s
use of intertestamental pseudepigraphic sources
In this
epistle, as well as using imagery from the Old Testament, Jude makes rich use
of intertestamental pseudepigraphic sources.
For example, the reference in v.9 to the archangel Michael disputing
with Satan over the body of Moses, is from the original form of a
pseudepigraphic work called The Assumption of Moses.
Furthermore,
in vv.14-15, Jude refers twice to the First Book of Enoch (1 Enoch),
firstly in calling Enoch ‘the seventh from Adam,’ (v.14, from 1 Enoch 60:8),
and secondly a direct quotation about the coming of the Lord (vv.14-15, from 1
Enoch 1:9). This is what we today know
as the Second Advent of Christ. The
context of this coming of the Lord described in 1 Enoch ch.1 is of the
end-times tribulation which will come upon the whole world (1 Enoch 1:1-2).
Jude
also refers in v.6 to a group of watcher angels (who sinned wilfully and
grossly with human women in Genesis 6:1-4) as being kept in darkness and bound
with everlasting chains to await the final judgement. There is a very similar parallel passage to
this in 2 Peter 2:4. However, there is no mention in the Old Testament of this
judgement which came upon them. It is
recounted various times in the intertestamental sources (cf. 1 Enoch 10:11-13;
18:11 – 19:1; ch.21; 2 Enoch 10:2; 2 Bar. 50:12-13). It was this particular sin and its widespread
evil fruit which were the underlying causes of the Flood in Noah’s day (Gen.
chs.6-8).
Going
further, Jude also refers in v.7 to the gross sin of the inhabitants of Sodom
and Gomorrah in the time of Lot. They
had given themselves up to ‘sexual immorality and perversion.’ (i.e.
fornication, homosexuality and probably also bestiality), and for this they were eventually destroyed (Gen.
chs.18-19). Jude tells us that what
happened to them serves as an example of those who suffer the punishment of
eternal fire. This concept of eternal
fire was certainly mentioned in the Old Testament (cf. Dan. 7:11), but it was
developed further in the intertestamental period and is mentioned frequently in
the pseudepigraphic and apocalyptic writings.
Jude expresses it in another way as ‘blackest darkness’ being reserved
for them for ever (v.13). Furthermore,
in the intertestamental literature, there is repeated emphasis that the
community of God’s people would apostasize from the faith in the end-times and
would embrace the same sins that characterised Sodom and Gomorrah (cf. Isa.
1:9-10).
The
relevance to the end-times in which we live
Bringing
these different strands together, it is clear that they have a strongly
eschatological aspect to them: apostasy in the end-times and embracing the sins
of Sodom and Gomorrah, the tribulation, the Second Advent of Christ, the final
judgement on the great Day, blackest darkness for ever, and the punishment of
eternal fire for the impenitent. So this
epistle of Jude is certainly applicable to the end-times in which we presently
live, and it suggests therefore that the wilful infiltration of lasciviousness
which was affecting the internal life of many first-century churches in their
day will also be a challenge in church life in our own generation. Jesus said that in the time of the coming of
the Son of Man, it would be like it was in both the days of Noah and the days
of Lot (Matt.24:37; Luke 17:28-30,32).
And this
indeed is what we see. The last sixty
years or so have seen enormous changes in westernized societies worldwide,
particularly in the area of sexual morality.
The definition of marriage has changed and is no longer applied
exclusively to heterosexual unions as it always has been throughout history in
every culture. The influence of ‘alternative’
sexual standards and lifestyles has permeated society, and its impact has certainly
been felt within the wider Church. There
are more than a few professing believers and leaders within the Church who now
align themselves with a widespread and well-networked international movement whose
intention is to establish itself within the wider Church community, demanding that
their values be celebrated within church communities as a perfectly
normal and acceptable lifestyle. Debates
over this have been ongoing for many years now in church denominations
worldwide, and some have even split over the issue. This has all been done in the name of love,
acceptance and tolerance. If God loves
us, they say, Christians should accept people as they are without expecting them
to change their lifestyle.
However,
it has been noted many times that those who adhere to this movement are often
intolerant of those who dare to dissent from their views. If you dare to dissent or disagree openly, you
are labelled intolerant and a bigot, and some Christians have even lost their
livelihood for dissenting and standing firmly on biblical beliefs and moral
values. Those who demand tolerance (as
the basis on which they can be accepted), have proven many times to be
intolerant of traditional judeo-christian moral standards (because these
standards are clearly against their values).
That
this reflects a conscious, long-term globalist agenda to infiltrate churches worldwide
with these changes is abundantly clear. Many
observers believe that the values of this agenda are based at least in part on
the theosophical teachings of Alice A. Bailey (who was one of the founders of
the New Age movement). In the early
twentieth century, Bailey devised a ten-point strategy which many believers
think was actually a ten-point plan for destroying Christianity. Her sixth point was to legalise homosexuality
worldwide as an alternative lifestyle; her eighth point was to use the media to
promote and change people’s mindset in this regard, and her tenth point was to
get the Church to endorse such changes.[1] Looking at these (and the other seven) points
now many decades later, we can see clearly just how far the protagonists of this
agenda have already succeeded in gaining their aims.
Earnestly contend for the faith
‘The
faith’ as Jude calls it (v.3) is the essential body of truth we all hold to,
that has been committed and entrusted to our care and stewardship by God, that
we might keep it, guard it, and preserve it down through generations. This is something that God holds us
responsible for. When the Church
is under a not-so-subtle attack of being infiltrated by false teaching and
practice, then, rather than compromising with it, or tolerating and enduring it
out of fear, weakness, passivity or even indifference, believers and leaders need
to be willing to respond robustly, in order to preserve not only the truth of
the word of God, but also in consequence the very life, witness and future of
the Church itself.
Jude’s
epistle is a clarion call for believers to contend earnestly for the faith
(v.3): to discern and recognise what is going on, and to understand the disastrous
consequences for the Church if believers and leaders do not courageously rise
up, confront sin, and fight, strive, struggle and wrestle for the truth of
God’s word. The Lord issued this call to
other churches as well (1 Cor. ch.5; Rev. 2:14-16,20-25). We need to know where we stand, to have the
courage to stand on the truth of God’s word, to keep moral boundaries where God
places them, and to keep to his standards.
Consider the following points:
a.
The grace and love of God were never intended by
him to be used by professing believers to justify continuing in a sinful
lifestyle. That is simply
antinomianism. A true understanding of God’s
grace will lead us away from sinfulness and into a new life of true godliness:
‘Shall we go on sinning that grace may
increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any
longer?’ (Rom 6:1-2)
‘For the grace of God that brings salvation has
appeared to all men. It teaches us to
say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled,
upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope
– the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave
himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a
people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.’ (Titus
2:11-14)
b.
God’s purpose in redeeming us in Christ and
empowering our life by the indwelling Holy Spirit is to slowly but surely
transform every part of our life to bring us increasingly into the image of
Christ. He does not come into our life
to affirm our lifestyle or to live with our sin, he comes to transform us,
right down into the deepest, darkest and innermost recesses of every nook and
cranny in our life. We are to put off
our old self, and put on our new self in Christ. There is no area of our life that he does not
need to transform, and sexuality is not an exception to this: that would simply
be to deny Christ’s total Lordship over our life (v.4).
‘Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your
earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed… You used to walk in these ways in the life
you once lived.’ (Col. 3:5,7)
‘…you have taken off your old self with its
practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in
the image of its Creator.’ (Col. 3:9-10)
‘Everyone who has this hope in him purifies
himself, just as he is pure.’ (1 John 3:3)
‘For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it
penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the
thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before
the eyes of him to whom we must give account.’ (Heb.
4:12-13)
c.
Sexual immorality in the life of a church needs to
be addressed and dealt with. Those who
call themselves believers but who continue in a life of sin, have no place in
the church and we should not associate with them (1 Cor. 5:2,13). A right understanding of the gospel means
that we should expect people to repent from and forsake sexual sin. Upon evidence of genuine repentance, such a
person can be received into the life of the church.
‘I am afraid that when I come again my God will
humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier
and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they
have indulged.’ (2 Cor. 12:21)
‘Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief
and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? “Expel the wicked man from among you.”’ (1 Cor.
5:2,13)
‘I am writing to you that you must not associate
with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral… With such a man do not even eat.’ (1 Cor.
5:11)
‘When you are assembled in the name of our Lord
Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,
hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his
spirit saved on the day of the Lord.’ (1 Cor. 5:4-5)
‘If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much
grieved me as he has grieved all of you…
Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not
be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I
urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.’ (2 Cor.
2:5,8)
d.
When it comes to sexual immorality, the
apostles warned repeatedly that we should not be deceived. Sowing to the flesh reaps destruction, and
the immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God:
‘Do you not know that the wicked will
not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not
be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters for adulterers nor male
prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards
nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our
God.’ (1 Cor. 6:9-11)
‘Do not be deceived: God cannot be
mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature,
from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit
will reap eternal life.’ (Gal. 6:7-8)
God’s judgement upon sexually immoral people who remain impenitent
is clear:
‘Now these things occurred as examples
to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did… We should not commit sexual immorality, as
some of them did – and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died… These things happened to them as examples and
were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has
come.’ (1 Cor. 10:6,8,11)
‘Because of these things, the wrath of
God is coming on those who are disobedient…’ (Col. 3:6)
‘God will judge the adulterer and all
the sexually immoral…’ (Heb. 13:4)
Those
who were infiltrating churches in Jude’s day were of the same ungodly ilk as
Cain, Balaam and Korah, and they would suffer the same condemnation (v.4,7,11). We should recognise these kinds of people for
what they are, and not be deceived! In
the same vein, Jude relates the judgement that came upon the watcher angels who
sinned in Genesis 6:1-4, and also that which came upon the inhabitants of Sodom
and Gomorrah (vv.6-7).
The defiling effect upon the human physical body of disease caused
by sexual immorality, is such that, without medical intervention, the person
may well suffer an untimely death as the consequence of their choices (vv.8,10;
Rom. 1:27).
At the final judgement there will be no escape for the sexually
immoral who remained impenitent in this life.
The book of their life will be opened and they will be judged on the
basis of the record it contains. There
will be no redaction of details. They
will suffer the punishment of eternal fire (v.7, Rev. 20:11-15).
e.
Therefore, as far as church life is concerned,
leaders need to be aware of the danger of infiltration or an agenda of any
kind. Not only did Peter and Jude
address this problem generally, we know that the local churches in Pergamum and
Thyatira had also been infiltrated with false teaching, practise and lifestyle
(Rev. 2:12-29).
·
The church doors should always be open for anyone
who wishes to come and hear the preaching of the word of God, of course.
·
Although we need to be gracious, patient,
sensitive and understanding when dealing with people who are caught up in
sexual sin (vv.22-23), yet we should not dillydally or compromise with it. Sexual immorality has the very real potential
to destroy people’s health, their relationships and their life. The expectations, standards and boundaries of
God’s word in regard to sexual activity need to be taught and made clear in
church life. Sex is intended by God to
be a blessing when it is engaged in within the boundaries he has laid down, but
it is destructive when engaged in outside these boundaries.
·
As a guiding principle, the baptismal pool is not
for people who have simply made a profession of faith in Jesus, it is for those
who have demonstrated fruits of repentance in their life and who therefore show
real evidence of a changed and corrected life.
This then begs the question: What does repentance look like for those
who have come from an immoral or lascivious background? What does it mean in practice? True discipleship in the way of Christ
necessarily leads into a changed life characterised by repentance, and we
should expect this.
· Going further, being given position and
responsibility within church life is for believers who have the appropriate
gifts and skills, but these need to be embedded within their proven spiritual
and moral character (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1-13).
f.
We need to remain vigilant as believers so that we do
not become lax or complacent. In this
world, we will always be surrounded by temptation of one form or another, but
we should be wary so that we do not fall into sin ourselves:
‘So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful
that you don’t fall! No temptation has
seized you except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will not let you tempted beyond what you can
bear. But when you are tempted, he will
also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.’ (1 Cor.
10:12-13)
‘To him who is able to keep you from falling and to
present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy…’ (v.24)
We
should remain focused on building ourselves up in our faith; on praying in the
Holy Spirit; on keeping ourselves in God’s love as we look forward with joyful
anticipation for the Bridegroom’s return, and on engaging in the work of the
Lord to bring others to faith (vv.20-23).
Indeed,
both Jude and Peter emphasised the importance of keeping fresh our future
perspective on the return of Jesus. This
perspective not only keeps us in deep inward peace and joyful assurance, it
also encourages us to keep living a holy and godly life in this world:
‘Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.’ (v.21)
‘You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look
forward to the day of God and speed its coming… So then, dear friends, since
you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless,
blameless and at peace with him.’ (2 Peter 3:11-12,14)
g.
Being relevant to surrounding society as Christians
does not mean that we need to become like it, or that we have to accept
whatever it chooses to do or allow. True
relevance means keeping ourselves in a position where the Lord can use us to
set other people free from whatever has enslaved and bound them. That is our God-given purpose. To do this, we therefore need to maintain a
lifestyle which is distinct and different from surrounding society, and which
is based on a true understanding of the teachings of the word of God. We therefore need to be morally pure and free:
a priori, he can use us to set others free from what binds them only if
we are free of those things ourselves.
And the
corollary of this is also true, vis. when a church community is internally
defiled, its spiritual life wanes, and it becomes divided and fractured. If this is not dealt with, then ultimately God's blessing is removed, it becomes irrelevant to his purpose, and it slowly dwindles
and dies off from within.
Copyright
notice
[1] See “The tenpoint plan of the new
world order-1”, at https://www.studocu.com, accessed 18.01.2022.
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