At Risk in the Community - Jude - Part Two

At Risk in the Community – Jude – Part Two

Combating the Rising Tide of Heresy

Primarily, the book of Jude combats the rising heresy of Docetism.  This teaching relegated the Person of Jesus Christ to being an incomparable moral philosopher.  Its adherents stipulated that a divine Christ would not have submitted to crucifixion.  They reasoned that God would not condescend to subject Himself to the whims and actions of finite humankind.  Accordingly, they further reasoned that an image of Christ was crucified for those who believed that they saw the actual, physical body of Christ on the cross.  Furthermore, they extend this teaching by denouncing the return of Christ and the subsequent judgment of the world and its inhabitants from time immemorial.  Essentially, these teachings leave their followers with license to interpret the gospel as they please.

On the contrary, Jude forcefully warns the Church to discard irretrievably any doctrines and practices that contradict the original apostolic teachings.  The apostles learned directly from the Lord for three and a half years the course of His public ministry.  Any teaching that does not correlate with their message and the writings directly linked to them deserve eradication.  Second, the author of Jude cautions the Church that faulty teaching eventuates in fallacious thinking and morally questionable behavior. Almost immediately, this confusion yields a license for sin and indulgence of self-centered motives and physical instincts.  Third, Jude suggests that the faithful offer mercy and compassion to the unfaithful but exhorts them to so do without being unduly influenced by them.

It stands to reason that defending the true and enduring gospel of Christ necessitates a thorough knowledge of the same.  This defense cannot merely be verbal and theoretical.  It must also be evident in the way that believers live.  Consequently, obedience in daily living to the teachings of Christ is as important as oral consent.  In short, sound faith and practical integrity fit together like a hand in a tailored glove.

The Quest for Doctrinal Truth and Personal Integrity

The book of Jude has two primary foci: (1) the quest for doctrinal truth and (2) the necessity of personal integrity.  An old saying posits, “If you don’t stand for something, then you will fall for anything.”  Jude severely cautions the Church against uncritically accepting the teachings of seductive, attractive but essentially godless men who invade the fellowship with glossy maxims that have little doctrinal merit to them.  Below their cognitive radar, these men infiltrated the Church with polished rhetoric and shiny veneers.  This alluring façade greatly cloaks the sinister intention of delivering teachings that equate with a license for immoral thinking and unethical behavior.  Truly, contemporary Christians can relate wholeheartedly with Jude’s dilemma.  The airwaves resound twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week with “Christian” teachings.  Some ministers offer the wisdom keys to prosperity as a Christian response to the secular financial gurus who command an entire cable channel relating to the stock market business.  Other Bible teachers instruct listeners on the significance of the word of faith.  They posit that any believers who pray with a certain length and memorize a good proportion of scripture can shield themselves from sickness, disease, and poverty.  In fact, “Word of Faith” teachers insist that poverty itself is a curse and a disease.  They offer the biblical cure.  Not surprisingly, there are modern day faith healers whose crusades are attended by millions of believers and people who are summarily ignored by the healthcare system.  In total, the free market theology, which “Christian” television allows for those ministers who can afford the extremely expensive air time, does not administer a doctrinal litmus test.  Consequently, anything and everything passes as “Christian” teachings regardless of the personal integrity, or lack thereof, of the person.  Jude writes to forewarn the believers of his day.

The author references Sodom and Gomorrah in the seventh verse of this polemical book on truth and morality.  He describes the most regrettable way in which these twins cities and their surrounding towns totally yielded to sexual immorality and social perversion.  Unfortunately, most people focus upon extensive homosexuality that was practiced in those towns.  As a consequence, they fail to comprehend the essential total demise of any moral principles and ethical standards that the societies we implement and expect its citizens to obey.  They further miss the reality that religion appeared to be non-existent.  The licentiousness and debauchery that occurred in these towns emerged from a total ignorance of God, His holy character and His expectation of righteousness.  I often wonder where the clergy and the churches of that period.  Did not the priests and synagogues articulate the laws of God?  Today, the proclivity of clergy to compromise with the surrounding culture creates the setting in which modern versions of lawlessness and immorality thrives. 

Many people today are “spiritual but not religious.” Interestingly, their spirituality lacks intellectual, biblical and doctrinal coherence.  If questioned, they cannot define the essential elements of their faith system.  In essence, they deify their relative experience by positing that a loving God accepts them unconditionally without requiring their respect for His holiness, revealed laws or righteousness.  This chic theology is a religious version of “rugged individualism” in which one’s personal preferences dictates everything.  The proliferation of this thought and practice partially and perhaps significantly arises from lackadaisical attitude that most clergy have about the importance of doctrinal truth and personal integrity.

In the eighth verse, the author addresses the need for personal integrity for those who preach the gospel of Christ.  Moral laxity among the clergy inevitably leads to licentiousness by the laity.  Truth and integrity must fit like a hand in a tailored glove in the lives of clergy.  Otherwise, the gospel becomes a joke.  It is only one of many ideas sold in the marketplace of ideologies and concepts.  Withdrawing the moral commandments of Christianity equally lessens it sacred worth.  It then becomes another commodity in the economy of any society.  Not surprisingly, then as well as now, entrepreneurs wearing vestments and collars will invade the Church and use it as a means to the middle strata and upper class lifestyle that they desire.  An entrenched indifference to the necessary balance of truth and integrity signals such teachers of the gospel.

Jude utilizes a few colorful terms to depict the depth and extent of the danger that these corrupt teachers with their doctrinal heresies present for the Church.  In succession, Jude portrays them as abusive, unreasoning animals, blemishes at love feasts, clouds without rain, autumn trees without fruit, wild waves of the sea, grumblers, faultfinders, and ungodly sinners.  He is not speaking of social deviants and psychopaths.  He is referring to the clergy, generally, and Bible teachers, specifically.  His admonitions challenge the contemporary Church to revisit the criteria for ministerial ordination and the call to pastoral ministry.  I strongly recommend that in all matters the Church returns to its most biblical roots.  Straying away from the doctrine of the infallibility of the Bible and the non-negotiable practice of esteeming the scriptures as the rule and guide of faith perpetually creates the vacuum into which false teachers who lack integrity step.  The Church can only close this door and eliminate this threat to its vitality and the integrity of the gospel.

Finally, the closing verses of Jude are often recited as the Benediction of many worship services.  Its eloquent promises resound in the ears, minds and hearts of countless believers whether they are in a sanctuary or not.  However, doctrinally, Jude’s doxology is a call to persevere in the truth and integrity of the gospel of Christ.  Jude encourages the Church in the truth that Christ is able “to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with [exceedingly] great joy.”  What a wonderful eternal promise to believers who accept the gospel and loving commitment to obey the teachings of Christ!  As we rightly relate to Him, He will empower us with the Holy Spirit so that we will receive our eternal reward.  This divine promise should engender the unequivocal commitment of every clergyperson and layperson.  We should not compromise with the world or lead half-hearted Christian lives.  We do not need to water down the moral absolutes of the gospel so that we may entertain our sickest instinctual desires while simultaneously claiming to be Christian.  Instead, we follow the commands of Christ knowing that He is faithful.  What is more, we realize that we lose nothing by investing in Christ.  He will reward our perseverance and present us faultless before the direct presence of the Heavenly Father with exceedingly great joy!  That will be the ultimate outcome of adhering to doctrinal truth and living with Christian integrity.