Part III: Wrapping it All Up
In verse 20, he ties everything he’s discussed together and connects back to his “thesis statement” in verse 3. He once again addresses them as “dear friends.” In setting things up in v.3, he urgently encouraged his readers to “to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.” Based on all he’s presented, he gives legs to the concept of “contending” for this vital concept by “building yourselves up in your most holy faith.” He’s adjusted the metaphor just a bit — from “contend” to “build;” from something that is adversarial to a concept that unifies. Because Jude is speaking to an audience that is steeped in the Jewish culture of the time, to speak of “building” probably suggested the concept of the construction of the Jerusalem Temple. Jude’s metaphor echoes Paul’s use of the temple metaphors in Ephesians to explain the unity of the body of Christ, or in 1 Corinthians, where Paul encouraged personal integrity by showing a person’s body as the “temple of the Holy Spirit.” Jude is saying the church, as the body of Christ, is laboring together, “building [each other] up” in the faith he originally challenged the church to “contend for.”
Jude’s implied metaphor of the community of believers as God’s new temple first makes this “most holy faith” — that is, the Gospel message of Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection for our sins — the foundation of the temple. The church builds on this foundation by first “praying in the Holy Spirit.”
I, myself, often take this vital concept for granted. We can’t accomplish anything in God’s kingdom without prayer. But Jude qualifies “prayer” here by identifying it as being “in the Holy Spirit.” This is more than just spending time or speaking words. It’s relational. It requires a living connection to God, that leads to our own sensitivity to God’s heart, and praying as the Spirit prompts us, in “wisdom and revelation” that can only come from spending time with and knowing God deeply (see Ephesians 1:17, and Romans 8:26-27). Of course, the Holy Spirit also imbues us with God’s power (see Ephesians 6:17-18 and Acts 2).
After prayer, the second “tool of construction” Jude explains is believers keeping themselves in God’s love and to “wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” I believe he is talking about believers dedicating themselves to a love of God through obedience (v.21). This is brought about in two ways that would seem contradictory —using God’s mercy AND God’s justice.
In v. 22, Jude specifically encourages us to show mercy to those who doubt. I can’t think of more timely advice. We are living in a world filled with moral and political turmoil. The philosophical divisions in society draw bright lines where people are either “in or out.” We need a tremendous amount of merciful sensitivity and patience to help lead people to trust in God, to come out of themselves, to plant seeds in barrenness, and carefully nurture the tender hearts of people that have suffered abuse and rejection. We need to be authentic. We need to lay our own tendencies toward being judgmental aside. In the context of Jude’s message about false teachers, I think this means being especially patient and nurturing to those who have been affected and deceived by the heresies and pretentious behavior of these kinds of people (especially those within the church). It cannot be denied that the sinful human nature that is revealed in the hypocrisy of professing Christians has not just sullied the church’s reputation — been a “bad witness” — but has caused deep emotional pain and injury.
Yet, verse 23 also shows that we cannot excuse these negative influences. We are encouraged to “save others by snatching them from the fire.” Obviously, where God himself has drawn “bright lines,” we need to honor and respect such concepts. There are eternal truths that never change. Jesus is the Messiah. He is God incarnate. “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” (John 3:3). These are timeless, everlasting concepts. I don’t know what “snatching them from the fire” really means. The aggressiveness of a word like “snatching” would seem to suggest a firm commitment to do whatever we can to rescue people from deception, particularly the kind of internal, potentially “church sanctioned” deception Jude is condemning in his letter.
But I am concerned that this phrase could itself result in the kind of abuse and hurt I just discussed in the previous paragraph. People invariably tend to judge things by outward appearances, and make snap judgments about concepts that are unfamiliar, or that they don’t understand, or that they interpret as threatening. It’s easy to take this “snatching people from the fire” concept and see it used for personal aggrandizement (that is, making something important that really isn’t important), advancing a political ideology, or lining someone’s pockets. Yet, Jude’s use of this phrase certainly shows that for those we genuinely care about — our family, our children, those God has brought us into a close relationship — we need to be aggressive advocates. Perhaps not literally (as in physically “snatching,” although interventions in a loved one’s life can sometimes be necessary), but in prayer and spiritual warfare. God’s justice cannot be denied.
And yet, Jude even tempters this “snatching” concept. At the end of verse 23, he says, “to others, show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” Of course, this could be a caution to those of us dealing with people caught in “the fire” we just spoke of, because it’s easy for us to be tempted by the allure of sin. Our guard needs to always be up.
But I think this is also a cautious warning about the relationships we develop with people who walk in deception — even believers who walk in deception. The purpose of Jude’s letter is to help believers deal with false teachers who have infiltrated the church. At the time of Jude’s letter, heresies were rife. The person sitting next to you in a worship service could ascribe to a belief system that contradicted the basic truths of the gospel. There was “Docetism,” the concept that Jesus did not truly come into the world in the flesh, that his body was an illusion, which meant he never died on the cross. There was the opposite concept, “Arianism,” which held that Jesus was nothing more than an extraordinary man, not equal to God. There was the “Judaizing” heresy, which held that to be a Christian, you had to follow the law of Moses, especially with regards to circumcision. That concept also has its opposite – “Antinomianism,” which teaches that laws and rules don’t matter — because God’s grace is universal, you can sin all you want, whenever you want, because God will always forgive you — Sin is excused as irrelevant. (There are forms of this heresy that still exist). It seems it’s a form of this last heresy that Jude is addressing in his letter. This phrase about “mercy mixed with fear” would seem to encourage us to have patience with people who are seeking after God but are confused. Yet, we should always try to gently confirm with these same people the immutable truths of the faith, and “hate” even the trappings of the kinds of deceptions that lead to the immorality Jude’s letter condemns.
Ultimately, the things Jude encourages believers to do here will help all of us stay faithful to Jesus. Jude closes his letter with one of the most beautiful doxologies/blessings in the Bible: “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
He therefore ends his letter by praising and worshiping the God who actively protects his people from falling too far from his grace and has the power to completely rescue and redeem us, uniting his people with Him in his everlasting kingdom, both now, and later in heaven.
I must admit, before being presented with the letter of Jude in our daily reading rotation, I don’t think I had ever paid a whole lot of attention to it. But there’s a lot packed in to this short little letter from the “baby brother” of Jesus. I suppose it is also perplexing to 21st century readers. I mean, what is up with references to those strange books? Why is he referencing ancient texts that are clearly NOT part of the Hebrew bible? 1st Enoch? Testament of Moses?
We need to understand the nature of Jewish culture in the first century. Little children began to study the Torah as early as age 3 (though female children were generally excluded in the culture of the time), and by age 5 or 6, the average Jewish child could read the texts himself.
But because personal copies of the scriptures were hard to come by (it's hard to tote around those massive scrolls), they would invariably memorize entire books of the bible, so they could easily call it all to mind. Imagine, if you will, a conversation on the temple square, or even in what would have been the equivalent of a Jewish pub in 60 A.D., and someone begins to quote a passage from the psalms, and everyone in the crowd around them might join in. Jewish people of that time grew up immersed in the Old Testament, plus all the other later texts that were invariably based upon and inspired by the Hebrew bible. There were all kinds of debates as to whether some of these newer books should be considered part of the canon of scripture.
And whether these non-biblical books were in the bible or not, they had a tremendous impact on Jewish society. The texts ultimately were not considered authorized, not “God breathed” as the rest of scripture is. But a writing doesn’t have to be in the bible to convey valuable information or an inspirational message to God’s people. There were many Jewish texts from that time, such as the “Apocrypha” (sometimes referred to as the “Duetero-Canon,” which the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church still includes as part of the Old Testament (but they are generally rejected as authoritative by Protestants)) and the “Pseudepigrapha.” These works were highly regarded and treated with reverent respect. These works do not rise to the same level as scripture, but they are part of the ancient biblical tradition.
Jude understood that his audience valued these books, so he used them to amplify the scriptural truth he was communicating, referencing texts that were popular and readily recognizable to help convey his message – in summary, Jude’s overall theme is that the gift of salvation, the grace of God, demands a life-change – a spiritual transformation, not just intellectual agreement. It is interesting that in his criticisms of the false teachers, he never discusses the details of their theology. Rather, he points out the fact they are living immoral lives, which is the ultimate denial of Jesus and his authority. In John 14:15, Jesus told his disciples, “If you love me, keep my commands.” In seven words, that is the essence of the book of Jude – he argues that the way to figure out what someone really believes is to look at how they live their lives. In the context of the current political and social upheaval we are living in, I would have to offer a hearty “amen!”
