17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.—The words of the Apostle Jude from Jude 1:17-19
Over the course of previous six blog posts, I have examined the potent prose of the Apostle Jude as he writes to the churches spread across Asia Minor—the land we know in the modern world as Turkey. Since Jude only wrote one letter that survived the canonical scrutiny, and since it is a relatively short letter, we need to carefully heed the warning Jude presents. He has become increasingly concerned as he hears of great strife in the church.
Solidly grounded orthodox believers have been pushed out of leadership positions by individuals who have wormed their way into the church. These newcomers have brought with them false doctrines and a spirit of divisiveness that strains credulity. Why the very leaders who had led the churches to accomplish significant Kingdom work have now been vilified, disrespected, and dismissed.
In today’s verses, Jude reminds the faithful that what has happened should not come as a surprise. In fact, the apostles predicted that scoffers who follow their own ungodly desires will divide the believers in a church. Jude urges the faithful to keep in mind that these divisive ones do not have the Holy Spirit. In other words, they are false believers. They do not really belong to Christ. They really are not brothers or sisters in the Lord.
“I’m sure glad nothing like that happens today,” you may opine.
Don’t kid yourself. The same kind of issues that Jude deals with in his short epistle face countless evangelical churches today. People have come in and taken positions of leadership with the aim of destroying the effectiveness of the ministry of the church.
In this series of blog posts I have talked much about corruption in the church. Corruption, this rupturing of the core, renders the church ineffective. It diminishes the church’s ability to serve Christ and His Kingdom. It may take the church in a direction under the guise of a new and improved program of ministry. But careful examination will disclose that instead of increasing effectiveness, the new and improved program has pushed the church backward, not forward.
Take a look at your church. Is your church better off today than it was one year ago? Two years ago? Five years ago? If not, why not?
Could it be that the new leadership in your church has taken steps to rupture the core?
If you discover that leaders are rupturing the core, what do you do about it? Well the Apostle Jude has some suggestions. And, we’ll talk about those suggestions in the next blog post.
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God, for loving us. Thank You for sending Jesus to be our Savior. Thank You for sending us Your Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
As we continue to examine this powerful epistle, we also continue to feel gratitude for the message You sent to the church through the pen of the Apostle Jude. We want to explore these words of warning and examine our own churches to see whether Jude’s warning applies to our situations today.
Thank You, Precious Father, that we can count on You to guard us and guide us. And, thank You for hearing our prayer in and through the precious Name of Your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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