![[Graphic of St. Jude]](https://www.deankwilson.com/Blog_images/St_Jude.jpg)
| 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 people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. |
| —The Book of Jude |
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.
Jude has observed that 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 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.
We must take a look at our churches. Are our churches better off today than they were one year ago? Two years ago? Five years ago? If not, why not?
Could it be that the new leadership in our churches has taken steps to rupture the core?
If we discover that leaders are rupturing the core, what do we do about it? Well the Apostle Jude has some suggestions. And, we’ll talk about those suggestions in the next blog post.
