The Interpreters Bible, Jude
A Surprising Book. -The Bible contains many surprising books. Esther, for instance, does not contain the word God; Ecclesiastes sets forth the philosophy of a cynic who, though fed up with everything that life can offer, is represented as finally affirming that the fear of God and moral integrity are the highest obligations in life. The Revelation of John is a mysterious book containing many word pictures which are hard to understand.
Its aged writer fiercely denounces apostasy and idolatry. It attributes the fall of the angels to their sins with mortal women. …in a sense is the last admonition to Christians to contend for the faith. The letter provides us with evidence regarding the heresies of doctrine and perversions of morality which not only confronted the early church, but which had surreptitiously (secretly) made their way into the fellowship itself. …heretical men in their dreaming's were divorcing truth from life. Humanity without divinity is bestiality. And a divinity without humanity is sheer Gnosticism. Truth and morality belong together, the author contends. Certain judgment is to fall upon these deviates and corruptors of the faith and the life of the Christian community. Christians are to meet this situation with a 1) faith that is built up, or mature, 2)with prayer in the Holy Spirit, 3) with persistent reliance on the love of God, with a receptive and hopeful attitude toward the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and with a solicitous evangelism which seeks to save some by pity and others by snatching them out of the fire even while hating the foul thing they have made of themselves.
Most important, however, is the fact - in that he was a servant or slave; of Jesus Christ. Christians are expendable in the cause of Christ. All Christians are called; that is, they have been summoned from what they are to what they should become. Calls of many kinds come to everyone, but this call is unique, decisive, and prophetic. All Christians are recipients of the love of God the Father. All Christians are kept not only as they pass through the trials of this life, but they are kept for the future Day of Jesus Christ. God is the guardian and guarantor of the Christian's deliverance here and in the end.
Jude faced an emergency, a sudden danger. He was constrained by the circumstances to concentrate upon the defense of the faith instead of on the nature of it. The peril which confronted Jude and his fellow Christians was the existence and power within the church of ungodly persons who were making salvation by grace an occasion for licentiousness and were thereby denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. This should have been no surprise, for their emergence was predicted long ago. They had gained entrance into the church quite silently and un observed. Evidently their real nature had not been discerned and their influence had not at first been detected. Now they are exposed, and Jude is alarmed at their power. He sees these enemies of the faith entrenched; he sounds the trumpet of danger; he calls on Christians to wage a vigorous battle to preserve the most holy faith (vss. 3, 20).To the writer the apostolic tradition is a body of revealed truth which is authoritative, valid for all time, adequate, and final. It is normative. The faith in this case (vs. 3) is not a living attitude but a definite body of truth. It centers in Jesus Christ, the historical revelation of the Son of God. He reveals God's true character, and acceptance of the church's faith about and in him as well as obedience to him as Lord is a part of that faith. And Jude is a vigorous defender of it. He is one in a long line of jealous and zealous people who have held gospel truth so dear as to contend for it. They have not stood silently by when Jesus Christ as interpreted by the apostles has been denied or perverted, or when new interpretations have made light of moral integrity. Jude illustrates the fact that the most subtle and alarming attacks upon Christianity have been made by those within the church. Regarding the gospel as foolishness or an offense these so-called enlightened Christians have sometimes tried to make the Christian faith something which can be easily adjusted to their pagan wishes.
“…he insists that the best argument against a pagan or secularized Christianity is a holy life” He is not pleading for their excommunication. Doubters may yet be convinced; others may be pitied; still others may be wrestled with and snatched from the fire. Above all, Christians must be mature, prayerful, God-loving, hopeful saints. It is not enough to be once... fully informed (vs. 5): Christians must be perennially reminded of somethings. And they must be reminded of the fact that even after God has saved a people out of the bondage of Egypt some of those delivered people can suffer destruction because of disbelief. Being members of the saved community is no guarantee that they may not be subtly tempted to assume an attitude of skepticism toward God, even without knowing it. Or they may-like so many Christians of that and subsequent times-regard themselves as real Christians simply because they were baptized members of the Christian church. In virtue of their outward attachments they regarded themselves as safe from any peril. Such a false sense of security is dangerous, for it makes the Christian lax about his moral responsibilities.
Jude knows his religious history, for he also mentions Korah, that rebel against true authority in Israel who murmured against Moses, chafed at subordination, and dramatically perished by fire in an attempt to usurp the leadership that belonged only to God. False teachers and those who follow their doctrines are insubordinates who perish as did Korah…This punishment is so certain that Jude can speak of it as accomplished even though its fullness is yet to come.
They ( the heretics Jude is addressing) think nothing of trying to combine high thinking with loose living. They reject authority and refuse to respect constituted powers. They are essentially libertines who prefer anarchy to any constituted authority. Having no concern for moral restraints they wish to abolish all order. This sort of spiritual anarchy has appeared again and again in Christian history.
We cannot say for certain what these false teachers actually believed, because Jude has given us only a few fragments of their doctrines. Perhaps it was some aspect of the gnostic heresy, which placed the emphasis in salvation upon a peculiar kind of spiritual knowledge and repudiated the historical relationships of the Christian faith.“…twice dead, like Christians dead in sin before baptism, and dead still in sin as nominal members of the church…”
VS17-23. Meeting Heresy and Immorality.-
The preacher takes on a pastoral tone of voice when addressing his parishioners. He has been violent in his condemnation of these pseudo-Christians. Beloved, says he, remember. Vehement language may be fitting for these dangerous subversives who were denaturing the very substance of that holy faith. And it was holy faith because (a) it was divinely given, (b) it was a thing apart, and (c) its end was to make people holy or whole. But Christians ought to be addressed compassionately, pleadingly, winningly.
The letter in a real sense comes to its conclusion and climax in some final words of exhortation and counsel. One can feel the urgency of the preacher's plea. He does not denounce; he seeks to win and to save. The great objective of the gospel-as of its ambassadors-is to call men to be reconciled to God. I came not to condemn but to fulfill (cf.Matt. 5:17). Jude begins by urging his people to remember. Do not be taken off guard by what is happening. Be realistic! These things have happened before. It is time to grow up and become mature. Besides, when Christians face opposition it is an indication of the reality of the issue between Christ and his enemies. Christian controversy can be creative. And the counsels are simple: (A) A strong faith alone can make the infections of heresy sterile. Build up your lives! And use for your growth into that stature of maturity the things of our holy faith. Build on the foundation that has been laid. (Solid food not milk) And inbuild into your mind and heart and will those truths, affections, and duties which will help you to is ward off untruth. The uninformed mind is usually captured by dangerous propaganda. Uncommitted emotions are easily swayed. And without concentration upon some high purpose the will becomes enslaved to false masters. (B) They are to pray in the Holy Spirit, for Spirit alone can teach men how and for what to pray. Calvin says that the Spirit arouses men to pray. The Spirit generates real ardor and fervency in prayer. The Holy Spirit is the inward teacher of the Christian. He helps our spirits to discern the deep things of God. He leads into all truth.
to all men, that [he] might by all means save (I Cor. 9:22), and at the same time to be in the world, yet not of it. God still beseeches men through other men. The final word on heresy is not the condemnation of the deviate but redemption through convincing argument, through identifying mercy, through vigorous encounter, through a strong exposure of error to the clear, penetrating, guiding light of truth about the one andonly true God, and Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
MODERN IDOLATRY
When the political community turns itself into a religious rival for the loyalty of men, Christianity faces a new form of an ancient enemy. That is what has happened. Whoever would understand Christian theology today must see it against the background of the issue which is joined between the Christian loyalty to the God who is creator and judge of all nations, and the totalitarian claims over the souls of men which the Nazis and Fascists and the Russian Communists make. Out of the struggles of nations in the worldwide revolution new idols have been created in the form of particular powers and leaders whose word is absolute law. These are known to be idols from the Christian standpoint because they set one group of mankind in a place of peculiar moral favor. They give a human elite absolute power over the minds and lives of other human beings. They usurp God's prerogatives. Inevitably the new idolatries seek to destroy every kind of loyalty, religious, scientific or humanistic, which sets any truth above the control of men.“…Here it was made plain that the Church must publicly assert its primary loyalty to the God it knows in Jesus Christ, or cease to be the Christian Church. - Daniel Day Williams.
No comments:
Post a Comment