Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The Wisdom Of God's Foolishness

(Audio version; Music: "I Exalt Thee" by Chris Quilala / Jesus Culture)







Introduction

            Honestly, I love the ministry God has entrusted to me. I don’t just preach or opine from afar. I don’t present ivory tower philosophies with no idea if they work in real life or not. I know my lessons are accessed by a large cross-section of people in many different cultures around the world. I don’t know how they affect everyone who reads them, but I tend to experience the fallout of my lessons at opposing ends of the belief spectrum. On one end of the spectrum are those who read my lessons and reject God out of hand as a foolish superstition reserved for the ignorant or weak. On the other end of the spectrum are those who have nowhere else to turn. The way and wisdom of the world and their own strength and intelligence has left them broken, bloodied, and laying in life’s ditch on the side of the road. For those people, God’s power to save them was the only thing left to turn to. God has blessed me with the opportunity to interact with people at both ends of the belief spectrum and every time I do, the truth of the Scriptures come alive for me. People who reject God today sound just like the people who rejected God that are recorded in the Scriptures generally and the New Testament more specifically. And time and again the Scriptures tell the stories of people who have run out of options; used up all their own wisdom; found out that no one else’s wisdom is any better, and have finally turned to God where they found direction for their dead-end lives. When nothing and no one was able to save them from their hopeless lives, God was there with the power to save them. People during the New Testament era didn’t appear to be all that different from people today when they believed that a God who died on a cross as a means to save people was viewed as foolishness by people who fancied themselves wise. However, those who were being saved were also not very different from those being saved today. For those who have tasted God’s salvation, there is nothing sweeter than The Wisdom Of God’s Foolishness.

Subject Text

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

            18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”


Context

           Corinth was the most important city in the Achaia region. It was located in southern Greece about 50 miles from Athens. Between Athens and Corinth lies a narrow isthmus less than four miles wide that forms a land bridge between the two main landmasses of Greece. Smaller ships were transported across the isthmus on a paved road while the cargo from larger ships was unloaded on one side of the isthmus and reloaded onto ships waiting on the other side. Because of its strategic location, Corinth controlled the two major harbors in the region and thus controlled the trade routes between Asia and Rome. Consequently, Corinth became a melting pot and conglomeration of many cultures. Corinth was a bustling metropolis catering to sailors and salesmen.

            Overlooking the city was the Temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Although the temple was in ruins during Paul’s time, the successors to the 1,000 cult prostitutes of days gone by were nevertheless still busy plying their trade in the streets below the Temple when Paul traveled there. However, prostitution fails to capture the complete picture of Corinth as a city with an unsavory atmosphere. Modern archaeological excavations have also unearthed 33 wine shops with living spaces above them that likely housed some of those prostitutes. Corinth “had a reputation for commercial prosperity, but she was also a byword of evil living. The very [Greek] word korinthiazesthai, [meaning] to live like a Corinthian, had become part of the Greek language, and meant to live with drunken and immoral debauchery…The very name Corinth was synonymous with debauchery…until it became a Greek proverb, ‘It is not every man who can afford a journey to Corinth,’ In addition to these cruder sins, there flourished far more recondite vices, which had come in with the traders and the sailors from the ends of the earth, until Corinth became not only a synonym for wealth and luxury, drunkenness and debauchery, but also for filth.”[1]

            Grecian culture was as cosmopolitan as it got. It boasted an enlightened tolerance derived from self-proclaimed human wisdom and philosophy. And based on the wisdom they derived from their own existential understanding, they concluded that a God who would use the cross, an instrument of unspeakable brutality, as a means of reconciliation between humanity and God, was foolish. But Paul had a different existential and salvation understanding of The Wisdom Of God’s Foolishness.

Text Analysis

18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

            Paul confronts the Corinthian culture’s contempt for God’s salvation method head on in vv. 18-19. Greek gods, who were many in number, would never have lowered themselves to the level or humanity or allowed themselves to be humiliated or abused or insulted in any way whatsoever—and certainly not for the benefit of humanity. Greek god worship was the consummate quid-pro-quo arrangement. The Greeks did whatever they believed would be pleasing to the gods and hoped their gods would approve and show them favor. Greek gods were other-worldly and untouchable. There was no relationship between the gods and humanity. For the Greeks, a message that preaches a God that sacrifices Himself for the benefit of humanity was unequivocally foolish to them. But to Paul, and all us who have chosen to believe that God must know what He’s doing, we have experienced, first-hand, that if God’s methods are foolish then we must have everything backwards when it comes to what is wise and what is foolish. And this is in essence what Paul is saying in v. 19 when he paraphrases the prophet Isaiah who revealed God’s pronouncement in saying, “Therefore, once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish (Isa 29:14).”

            Humanity, since the very beginning, has believed the lie that they control their own destiny; they are their own god. They have believed the lie that wisdom and knowledge; understanding the difference between good and evil; right and wrong, renders the need and sovereignty of God obsolete. Once Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in Eden, humanity, from that point forward, fell time and again into the trap that God was unnecessary; that they knew what was best for themselves and for others. However, Paul is telling us that those who proclaim themselves to be wise are perishing even while they condemn God’s salvation method as foolish. However, those who are being saved, happily accept God’s foolishness as they witness the demise of those who think they are smarter than God and think they know, through their own wisdom and knowledge, what is good and evil, and what is right and wrong. Does that sound familiar? It should, I just described the fatal flaw in humanity that began with Adam and Eve. Unbelievers in all ages have elevated their own wisdom over the wisdom of God but “God will find the means of vindicating His wisdom and saving His people…The [Old Testament] and [New Testament] situations are analogous: Gentile and Jewish wisdom, united in rejection of the Gospel, are coming to a like breakdown; and Paul draws a powerful warning from the sacred history.”[2]

20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

            Paul’s questions in v. 20 are rhetorical as we find out in vv. 21-24. Unlike our modern culture, most, if not all, people in Paul’s day recognized that a divine sovereign existed in the universe. What Paul is angling at is that, to that point in history, there had been no self-proclaimed wise man or scholar or philosopher who had adequately devised a means of dealing with humanity’s sin once and for all. The Jews, of course, relied on a system of religious ritual and sacrifice for dealing with sin that needed to be constantly repeated. The Jews also constantly sought and relied on God’s miraculous intervention in their lives to prove Himself to be worthy of their worship and devotion. The Greek belief system included giving in to sinful temptations as a means of pleasing the gods. Gnostics, also popular in Paul’s day, ignored sins that affected the body because they believed that only the human spirit mattered and not the physical body. Consequently, sins committed while in the body didn’t matter. Only God had the prefect solution to deal with humanity’s sins regardless of how foolish many would believe it was. In God’s wisdom, He knew that sins committed against an eternal God would create an eternal offense. Therefore the only way to atone for an eternal offense was through a sacrifice that was not bound by time and place—a Divine sacrifice. What humanity sees as foolishness is actually a stroke of divine brilliance—God Himself would be the sacrifice to atone for humanity’s sins. The Jews only recognized the God who performed miraculous wonders; a God who conquered Egypt, split the Red Sea and lead Israel, guided by one miracle after another, to the Promised Land. God dying on the cross did not fit their religious paradigm and would always be a stumbling block to their belief. The Gentiles, on the other hand, relied on themselves and considered a humiliated God dying on a cross as a foolish belief system.

I wonder, do people rely on human wisdom because they can’t bring themselves to believe that there is nothing they can do to save themselves? Do people deny the existence of God because they don’t want to admit they can’t do anything to save themselves? Are people so proud that they would rather perish than bend their knees before the cross and admit that there is no human wisdom or knowledge that can save them? Yes, evidently they are. “God has turned the wisdom of the world into foolishness. This did not take place with words or arguments, where sentences of worldly wisdom were confronted with sentences of Christian wisdom. Rather, it was through an action, namely through the death of Christ on the cross, that God has turned the wisdom of the world to foolishness. For as wisdom is not essentially the accumulation of a body of knowledge, but a mode of existence before God, so, too, folly is not a lack of knowledge, but the absence of this mode of existence. Since, however, in God’s will ‘Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God’ has been revealed, revealed in fact as the Crucified One, and only as the Crucified One, worldly wisdom which rejects the cross, whether in its Jewish or Greek variety, is objectively proved to be that which it always was: foolishness, i.e. rebellion against God, in the form of human self-exaltation and boasting. Men have closed their minds to the wisdom of God as they encountered it in the works of creation, and instead attempted to create their own wisdom. But God has chosen to save those who believe through the foolishness of the preaching of the cross. Every attempt to demand a proof for the truth of God is as condemned to failure as is every attempt to boast of oneself.”[3]

25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

            It almost sounds like Paul is conceding in v. 25 that God is foolish and weak. But that’s not the point Paul is trying to convey. Instead, what Paul is saying is that if there were any foolishness in God, it would still be wiser than any human wisdom and if there were any weakness in God, that weakness would still be stronger than any human strength. In other words, God’s wisdom and strength is so far beyond our human understanding that we don’t even have a point of reference when it comes to understanding it. “In the cross God ‘outsmarted’ his human creatures and thereby nullified their wisdom. In the same cross God also ‘overpowered’ his enemies, with lavish grace and forgiveness, and thereby divested them of their strength. Thus played out before human eyes is the scandalous and contradictory wisdom of God. Had God consulted us for wisdom we could have given him a more workable plan, something that would attract the sign-seeker and the lover of wisdom. As it is, in his own wisdom he left us out of the consultation. We are thus left with the awful risk: trust God and be saved by his wise folly, or keep up our pretensions and perish…One can scarcely conceive of a more important—and more difficult—passage for the church today than this one. It is difficult, for the very reason it was in Corinth. We simply cannot abide the scandal of God’s doing things his way, without our help. And to do it by means of such weakness and folly. But we have often succeeded in blunting the scandal by symbol, or creed, or propositions. God will not be so easily tamed, and freed from its shackles, the preaching of the cross alone has the power to set people free…[But] such ‘weakness’ in God is scandalous to those who think of themselves as righteous and thus in no need of forgiveness; but to those who recognize themselves as in need of mercy this is the good news that sets us free to follow him. Thus this weakness is also the ultimate power, and therefore the final wisdom of God.”[4]

26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him.

            It is for good reason that Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom (Mt 19:24) and why the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) was primarily directed at the lowest of the low and those who were marginalized the most. Oddly enough, Jews and Gentiles share common ground here in vv. 26-29. Let me demonstrate: Jews believed that if they were healthy and wealthy, that they were doing life right and God was rewarding them for their hard work and efforts. Gentiles believed that if they were healthy and wealthy, it was because they were wiser and stronger than others who were less fortunate. Notice the common ground that Jews and Gentiles shared? A self-centered life. For Jews, God’s actions are a by-product of their efforts. For Gentiles, God is essentially unnecessary except as an after-thought because they are strong enough and wise enough to do life on their own. But for those on the outside of society’s perks looking in, God was the only place to turn. Paul reminds the Corinthian church that many of them were on the outside looking in but they were the ones that God invited to be saved. Society didn’t think they were worth much because they weren’t influential or wise, but God thought they were perfect to carry the message of the cross to a lost and dying world.

            Paul says that God uses those who are weak and foolish to shame those who are strong and wise. That can be a hard concept to understand so let me see if I can explain. Paul’s not specifically talking about consequences in this life. Instead, the shame that Paul references is likely intended to point to the final judgment when unbelievers will finally kneel before Jesus who still bears the marks of the cross on His body and realize they were wrong. The wise and the strong will be put to shame by the very people they thought were “foolish” and “weak” for believing that God would die on a cross for them. At that point, the “weakness” and “foolishness” of God will be vindicated all to the shame of those who refused to believe. “The image of shaming and dishonoring would have been vivid in the Corinthian context…The worst thing that could happen was ‘for one’s reputation to be publicly tarnished.’…But Paul does not have in mind a moral-psychological shaming as in 2 Cor 9:4. Instead, the verb ‘to shame’ should be understood in its [Old Testament] matrix to refer to ‘coming under God’s judgment.’ God vindicates the faithful and brings the ungodly to shameful ruination. It has ‘eschatological’ connotations: ‘In choosing the Corinthians God has already begun the final vindication over his enemies.’ ”[5]

            Let me just say that I haven’t met too many people who were soaring through life on the wings of their success personally, professionally, or relationally who gave God even a second thought. I mean, why? Why tamper with something that isn’t broken, right? I’m not saying it never happens but my personal experience is that it is usually those with broken wings who have crashed their lives into the ditch who seek God. Again, why? Because when they get around to flying again, it won’t be because of anything they’ve done; all credit for their renewed life will rightly belong to God. They will have moved from lives that were self-centered to lives that are God-centered. “God chose the foolish and the weak, things despised by the world, so that those chosen can never boast in the presence of God…People’s abilities, social standing, or knowledge have nothing to do with God’s choice. Skill and wisdom do not get a person into God’s Kingdom—faith in Christ does—so no one can boast that his or her achievements helped him or her secure eternal life.”[6]

30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

            Paul does in v. 30 what he instructs the Corinthians to do in v. 31. Gives Jesus the credit, credit for their righteousness, holiness and redemption because they had neither to strength or wisdom to accomplish those things for themselves. “Believers have these things because of their union with Christ, and believers are in union with Christ because of God…Thus Paul reminds the Corinthians that they owe everything to God. That their very existence as the people of God is predicated on the activity of God in Christ. There are grounds for boasting but only in Christ’s redemptive work.”[7] This attitude reorients our lives back to the way things should always have been but became distorted as the result of sin. In the Garden of Eden, Satan enticed Adam and Eve into the sin of doing the one thing God told them they must not do—eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil with the hope that they would become like God. Consider the irony in the events that took place there in the Garden. Humanity was created in God’s image and Satan was banished from heaven because he wanted to be God. After Adam and Eve’s sin, what has been the recurring theme of humanity? Humanity has, time and again, tried to wrestle God’s sovereignty over their lives away from Him and set themselves up as god over their own lives. Sin has tempted humanity to do the same thing Satan attempted to do—usurp glory and honor for themselves that belongs only to God. Redemption begins to reverse this tendency in humanity and replaces it with the realization that any and all righteousness and holiness in our lives is the direct result of God’s grace and love. It is only after we have been redeemed that this truth becomes evident in our hearts and minds. Until then, we are trapped in Satan’s lie that there is no God but we can each be our own god. “Human concepts of wisdom are shown up as spurious, things that humans have invented rather than things that have been revealed…Paul argues [elsewhere] that sinful humans have a natural propensity to confuse the creation with the Creator, substituting created entities for their having been made by God. Paul’s argument clearly centers on the fact that humanity has been allowed to define the framework of reference for understanding God, rather than allowing God to establish that framework himself…Human ideas of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption are not merely relativized, but are shown to be spurious by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is not simply that God’s ways are not our ways; it is that our way of thinking precludes us from discerning those ways in the first place.”[8]

Application

            As you know, I spend Thursdays returning messages I receive from people who read my lessons on Wednesdays. How would I characterize those messages? Well, the best way for me to characterize them is to tell you that I’ve officially titled Thursdays as “Hate Mail Thursday.” That probably tells you all you need to know about the content of the messages I get. One of the messages I received last week was particularly pertinent to this week’s lesson. The topic of discussion was my query of the possibility that unbelievers so vociferously oppose the message of the cross and occupy their lives with countless pleasures is an attempt to quiet that nagging voice in their heads that tries to tell them that there’s more to life than just this life. That simple query obviously touched a nerve that set off a firestorm from unbelievers who immediately rejected the query with the insistence that the purpose for occupying their lives with countless pleasures was because this was the only life there is and they were going to enjoy every minute and not squander any of it. I’m guessing you probably picked up on the irony haven’t you? I ended the conversation with a simple question, “If this is the only life there is and you don’t want to squander any of it, why are you squandering your time arguing with a “kook” pastor about something you don’t even believe in?” Remember, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

I often get to experience first-hand the second part of Paul’s opening verse of our Subject Text as well in my daily encounters with people who have nowhere else to turn but to God. For them, the message of the cross represents the power of God that has saved them and continues to save them daily. For these people, their former belief that God didn’t exist and that this life is the only life there is left them bruised and battered by life and lying on the side of the road in the ditch because life without God can leave even the wisest and strongest person searching for answers. And those answers are found in the message of the cross. Through Jesus Christ we have become new creations with a new perspective on life. Life doesn’t somehow become miraculously easy just because we have accepted Christ. Instead, our lives are, through the work of the Holy Spirit, infused by the wisdom and strength of God to live lives of holiness and righteousness according to His will and purpose especially when life gets hard. The message of the cross makes no sense to those who have set themselves up as god. It’s foolish just like all those who believe that message. But to those of us who have relinquished our lives to the one true God in Jesus Christ, we are the beneficiaries of the wisdom and power of what was accomplished on the cross. With minds that have been renewed and transformed by God (Rom 12:2), we now easily recognize, appreciate, and give thanks for The Wisdom Of God’s Foolishness.



[1] William Barclay, The Letters To The Corinthians, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), p. 3.
[2] W. Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor’s Greek Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 1983), p. 767.
[3] Colin Brown, gen. ed., New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 3, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), pp. 1,030-1,031.
[4] Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians—The New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987), pp. 77-78.
[5] David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians—Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), pp. 76-77.
[6] Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 653.
[7] Mark Taylor, 1 Corinthians—The New American Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2014), p. 77.
[8] Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, Daniel G. Reid, Dictionary of Paul and his Letters, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), p. 194.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Waiting


(Audio version; Music: "I Can Only Imagine" by MercyMe)


Introduction

            Do you ever stop to think about what you spend your time on day after day and year after year? Often, we spend our days waiting—Waiting until you’re old enough to________________; Waiting for your first job or a better job; Waiting for your first promotion or your next promotion; Waiting for your first paycheck or your next paycheck. Waiting for your first car or a better car; Waiting for your own home or a bigger home. Waiting for your first spouse or your next spouse; Waiting for the first child or the next child; Or maybe Waiting for the day when your father or mother will stop drinking; Waiting for the day when a child quits the drugs and comes home; Waiting for the day that the cancer will be gone; Waiting for a better life or new life or even the next life. I read a survey recently that said during a typical 75-year lifetime, a person will:

·      Sleep for 20 years (that’s my favorite one by the way).
·      Work for 20 years.
·      Eat for 6 years.
·      Play for 7 years.
·      Spend 5 years dressing.
·      Spend 1 year on the telephone (this survey was clearly done before the invention of smartphones and texting).
·      Smoke for 2-1/2 years.
·      Spend 3 years waiting for someone.
·      Spend 5 months tying your shoes.
·      Sit at stoplights for 6 months.
·      Spend 8 months opening junk mail.
·      Spend 1 year looking for misplaced objects (this is clearly longer for some people so they had better live longer to get everything else in).
·      Spend 2 years unsuccessfully returning phone calls.
·      Wait in line for 5 years.

Oddly missing from the list is the amount of time spent in prayer or worship. What about time spent with family and friends? What about time spent serving others? I realize that it would be difficult to compile a “general” survey that represented the totality of each person’s life but it sure seems like the time we devote to our relationship with God and one another should represent a significant amount time during our lifetimes don’t you think? What if I told you that during all our daily activities, we are actually Waiting? Waiting for what comes next. Not Waiting for what comes next in this life but Waiting for what comes next in the life to come. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, this life is a holding pattern for the life to come. For those who refuse to believe in God, time is spent trying to occupy every minute with enough things to avoid that nagging feeling that there’s something else that awaits us all in the life to come. For the rest of us, Waiting is an opportunity to resist those who oppose our faith, an opportunity to exercise our faith, and an opportunity to lead others to faith. My question to you is, what are you doing while you are Waiting?

Subject Text

Jude vv. 17-23

            17But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.19These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. 20But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. 22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Context

            Did you know that Jude was Jesus’ brother? Well, half brother, since Jude’s mother (Mary) and father (maybe Joseph) were both humans and only Jesus’ mother (Mary) was human. The Book of Jude is actually just 25 verses and doesn’t always get much attention but confronts an issue in the Church that continues to this day—heresy and false teachings. The fact that Jude exists along with James, another contributor to the Scriptures, in and of itself dispels one long-standing heresy of the Church that exists to this day—the perpetual virginity of Mary the mother of Jesus. This false teaching is confronted by the existence of at least Jude and James and perhaps other children. Catholics, at least, have elevated Mary to a place of worship almost on par with Jesus himself. Although Mary will forever be known and respected as the mother of Jesus, she was a sinner in need of the forgiveness provided by Jesus just like every other human being. Worshipping Mary or offering prayers to Mary would likely have been a heresy and false teaching that Jude, and every other New Testament writer for that matter, would have warned against and condemned.

Even more ironic about Jude’s contribution to the New Testament is the fact that during the early part of Jesus’ ministry, he and the rest of his family, didn’t believe in Jesus and even thought He was out of His mind (Jn 7:5; Mk 3:21). However, 30 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jude penned this letter to the Church where he recognizes Jesus as God, Savior, and Lord. Jude went from trying to silence Jesus as the crazy brother to proclaiming Jesus as God, Savior, and Lord. Jude traveled the road from unbelief to belief and knew what was needed to nurture an enduring and authentic faith. Jude knew the difference between the truth and a lie when it came to Jesus and the life of faith. Jude knew what it was like to live close to the Truth and still doubt the Truth so he wasn’t quick to condemn those who struggled to believe but quick to denounce those who refused to believe or who tried to deceive those who did believe. Jude understood that we live in precarious times and have a duty persevere in the face of the persistent onslaught of foolish unbelievers, correct the false teachings of deceivers, nurture our own life of faith, actively care for those who languish between belief and unbelief in the hope that they will one day be persuaded to believe, and never compromise our call to personal holiness. Jude’s letter is instructive in the life of all believers in a world that is often oblivious to the fact that the clock is ticking and one day Jesus will return so Jude is helping us order our lives while we are Waiting.

Text Analysis

            We can’t go very far in analyzing vv. 17-19 until we deal with the small word, “but,” at the beginning of v. 17. What comes after this word will only makes sense if we understand what comes before it. Jude takes his audience all the way back to the time when some of God’s angels rebelled against God’s rule to demonstrate that there have always been those who have disobeyed God with the hope of making themselves god even if it is in their own minds. Jude reminds them that God was always faithful to punish those who rebelled against Him including those who rebelled in the desert during the Exodus from Egypt as well as those who surrounded themselves with sexual immorality and perversion in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. God will likewise one day judge and condemn all those who are ungodly in their beliefs and conduct themselves in an ungodly manner. We can easily identify the bookends to Jude’s argument as vv. 4 and 16 respectively so that the entirety of his argument is contained therein.

4For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord…16These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

            Jude wants his audience to know in vv. 17-19 that nothing has changed except the Savior has revealed Himself “but” those who are ungodly remain the same. The “last days” that Jude refers to represent the days between Jesus’ resurrection and the Second Coming. Upon His return, Jesus will set up His eternal Kingdom and judge all humanity. “Jesus and the apostles forewarned all believers that during that interim, including the time period in which we live, ‘scoffers’ will come. To ‘scoff’ means to show contempt for something by one’s actions and language, to mock. These false teachers scoffed at the truth and taught their own lies. They despised all morality and religion. Jesus had warned against the deception of false teachers (Mark 13:21-23), as had Paul (Acts 20:28-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5), Peter (2 Peter 2:1-3:7); and John (1 John 2:22; 4:1-3; 2 John) Because Jesus and the apostles had warned against false teachers, the church must also be prepared.”[1] Jude tells us that these “scoffers,” regardless of what they say they believe, can be identified by their actions. Specifically that they are driven and motivated by base and natural instincts and not according to the leading of the Spirit because, as Jude says, they do not have the Spirit. Jude is making an overt reference to unbelievers. However, what makes this indictment so tragic is that these scoffers have infiltrated their ranks.

20But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.

            Now that they have been adequately warned and the deceivers among them have been put on notice, Jude proceeds, in v. 20, to instruct the Church to build themselves up in the faith they profess. What does Jude mean by this? Well what is Jude warning the Church about in this letter? False teachings, right? So what’s the best way to discern what is false? By being intimately familiar with what is true. What Jude is telling the Church is precisely what I have so often tried to communicate to all of you—know why you believe what you believe. I read an article once about counterfeit currency and how financial institutions, banks specifically, train their tellers to identify counterfeit currency. An expert in counterfeit currency interviewed for the article said that whenever he was hired by a financial institution to train its people to recognize counterfeit currency, he spent very little time reviewing the characteristics of counterfeit currency because there were too many counterfeit iterations to be able to catalogue and know them all. Instead, the counterfeit expert spends the majority of his time training people to know all the intimate details of true currency with the understanding that once they become completely familiar with the real thing, any fake will be easily recognizable.

In essence, this is what Jude is saying as well. There will always be deceivers in the Church and they will take many forms. Some forms of deception will be easy to recognize while others will be far more complex. The failure to recognize deception will result in the rise and expansion of false teachings and heresies as is evidenced by the rise and expansion of the false teachings and heresies we find in today’s Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses and other organizations who invoke the name of Jesus Christ to advance their deception. So how do we avoid being deceived? Know why you believe what you believe. And that is only possible if we become intimately familiar with the truth of Jesus Christ revealed to us in the Bible. If the truth of Jesus Christ is so easily available to us, why are so many people so easily deceived? Because the Bible holds the very dubious distinction of being the most purchased yet least read book in all of history. Jude’s instruction to the early Church applies just as much to us today. We have a duty to build up ourselves and one another in the faith we profess by taking the time to learn the truths of the Bible. “To build oneself up in the most holy faith means to grow spiritually. Fundamental to such growth is to learn as much as possible of the truth of Scripture and to set one’s life to believe and obey it. The most holy faith is that which was once for all entrusted to the saints. It embodied the teaching of Jesus and the apostles and is now recorded in the Scriptures. ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man [and woman] of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’ (2 Tim. 3:16-17). If we want to be trained in righteousness and equipped for every good work, we must make the Scriptures a central part of our lives.”[2]

            Jude closes his instruction in v. 20 with the command to “pray in the Holy Spirit.” This is an important instruction that applies only to the life of the believer. Jesus promised that when He ascended back to heaven, He would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit in His place to live within us, to comfort us, to guide us, and to lead us into all truth. As a divine member of the Trinity of God, to pray in the Holy Spirit is another way of saying that we are to pray according to the will of God or under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God. “All praying that is worthy of the name will be praying that is done ‘in the Spirit’—that is, stimulated by, guided by, and infused by the Holy Spirit.”[3]

21Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

            When Jude tells us in v. 21 to keep ourselves in God’s love he means that we are to remain close to God. There are far too many who think their duty to God as Christians begins and ends on the day they make a profession of faith as though God’s is a disposable vending machine that can be used to dispense salvation and then discarded. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Instead, God provided a means for our salvation so that we could be in relationship with Him. Let me illustrate this principle using marriage. With traditional Christian marriages, there is usually a ceremony where the husband and wife exchange vows of commitment and devotion to one another. I wonder, how long do you suppose the marriage would last if the husband, after completing his vows, ignored his wife and even entered into relationship with another woman? Aside from its legality, would you really consider that a marriage? Perhaps on paper but not in reality. Is saying that you know and believe in Jesus enough to make you a Christian if your life does not reflect that He is Sovereign and Lord over your life? If confessing Jesus is enough then the demons Jesus encountered during His earthly ministry would have been Christians because they readily confessed that He was the Son of God. So what’s the difference? The difference is relationship. The difference between believers and unbelievers is rooted in relationship. True Christians are in relationship with God through Jesus Christ and their actions reflect their devotion to that relationship. Committing ourselves daily to that relationship is our duty as Christians while we are Waiting. Waiting for the eternal life Jesus has prepared for us. “[Christians] remain in [God’s love] by obeying his commandments. Similarly Jude probably means that God’s love for Christians requires an appropriate response. Without obedience to God’s will, fellowship with God can be forfeited, and this is the danger with which the antinomian[4] doctrine of the false teachers threatens the church…If Jude’s readers remain faithful by following the previous three exhortations, they can expect not, like the false teachers, condemnation at the Parousia[5], but salvation. But of course, not even the faithful Christian escapes condemnation except by the Lord’s mercy.”[6]

22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

            As Christians, we have a duty to nurture our own relationship with God as well as encourage other Christians to grow in their faith. But Christians have another duty; a duty to point non-believers to Christ. Jude’s instruction in vv. 22-23 incorporates the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to go out to all the nations and make disciples and teach them what it means to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ (Mt 28:19-20). Jude, however, adds a twist to Jesus’ command that takes into consideration humanity’s propensity to doubt based on his own personal experience. Unbelievers and sinners have existed in every age including our own. Knowing the ultimate fate of unbelievers, we must show them mercy even in the face of their scoffing and unbelief. Considering an eternity separated from God awaits unbelievers on the day of judgment, there’s too much at stake not to do what we can to help unbelievers believe.

Believers must live as foreigners in this world while never accepting the ways of this world; never becoming contaminated with the ways of this world. At the same time, it is their duty to point those who do belong to this world toward the hope that is not of this world; a hope that is found only in Jesus Christ. “The expectation of a final judgment alone does not adequately describe the [New Testament] writings. They bear as their central message the conviction that God through Christ has provided forgiveness and salvation at the final judgment. Between these two beliefs there exists an inescapable tension. Here it is important to note that the [New Testament] writers regarded the judgment to come not merely as a basis for warning but as an offer of hope, comfort and encouragement.”[7]

Application

            Notice something missing from Jude’s instruction for us while we are Waiting? Nothing about working or sleeping or eating or opening junk mail or returning telephone calls. I know you’re rolling your eyes but let me explain. Jude was under no illusions about our daily lives and the everyday tasks that capture our attention. What Jude expected was that the Church during his day would daily grow in their faith and incorporate their beliefs into their daily lives. Jude knew that the more the people learned the Truth, the less likely they would be to accept the lies being peddled by deceivers. In this way, God’s truth would permeate every area of their lives and His power in their lives would be evident for all to see. “Waiting” for Christians is not just a matter of killing time sleeping, working, eating, etc. until our next life; our eternal life with Christ. If that’s all we are doing then we’re wasting our precious time Waiting. Instead, Jude expects our time to be spent daily living in relationship with God and with others. We are called to actively encourage other Christians in their faith and present the hope of new life in Jesus Christ while we are Waiting.

Worship and praise must also be part of the daily lives of Christians. I know that sounds strange to some of you who think that worship and praise is primarily reserved for Sundays. However, that is entirely inaccurate. In fact, Jude ends his letter with what is called a Doxology. Very simply, a Christian Doxology is a formalized prayer of praise and glory that is usually sung as a community of believers. However, nothing precludes us from using it in our daily lives while we are Waiting as a means of reverence and as a means of maintaining our focus on what should be the number one priority in our lives—Praising and giving thanks to the God who loves us so much that He didn’t spare His one and only Son in order to save us and give us an opportunity to spend eternity with Him.

Doxology

Jude vv. 24-25

24To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—25to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.



[1] Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 1191.
[2] David Walls and Max Anders, I & II Peter, I, II, & III John, Jude—Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 1999), p. 266.
[3] Douglas J. Moo, 2 Peter, Jude—The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), p. 285.
[4] “Antinomianism” Is Greek for “against the law” or “lawless.” Biblically, it is the polar opposite of obedience to the Mosaic Law and rejection of all morality and ethics in complete reliance on God’s grace only. This was what Paul was trying to teach in his letter to the Romans. There were clearly some who believed that the more they sinned, the more God’s grace would be displayed. Some Gnostic sects used the freedom of God’s grace a license to sin because the body did not matter, only the spirit. Paul opposed this false understanding of grace and instead taught that Christians have died to sin and are therefore new creations in Christ. Although Christians are not bound to the Law, they are bound to live in obedience to God’s command to be holy just as He is holy.
[5] “Parousia” Is Greek for “presence or arrival.” Biblically it means the Second Coming or the return of Christ to earth in glory to judge the living and the dead.
[6] Richard J. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter—Word Biblical Commentary, (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), p. 114.
[7] Ralph P. Martin & Peter H. Davis, eds., Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), p. 622.