Jude 17-25
Jude began this letter by pointing out that he wanted to write to the church about salvation, but found it necessary to appeal for them to contend for the faith. In verse 17, he is finally going to get to the point of this letter. Up until now, he has been pointing out what the false teachers are like, while at the same time, encouraging believers not to follow their example.
Now, in verse 17, Jude switches gears by saying, “but you, dear friends.” He is clearly now speaking to fellow believers. If you remember from the first week, we looked at this letter, the term “dear friends” is more appropriately translated as “beloved.” Jude is speaking to those whom God calls “loved.”
Also, in verse 17, we see the first of Jude’s three commands to the beloved. The first command is for the beloved to remember what was predicted by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. For people who are worried or even anxious about all the false teachers, Jude wants them to remember that the apostles predicted this was going to happen.
Just like we saw in Peter’s letters, one of the characteristics of the end times is that there will be scoffers, those who mock and ridicule believers, and they will live according to their own ungodly desires. The fact that it was happening then, and is happening now, should not surprise us, it should not concern us, and it should not change how we act. Jude commands them, and us, to remember that this behavior has been predicted.
Some will say it is getting worse today, but I don’t think it is. We simply have greater means of communication and transmission today, so it seems worse, but the truth is, these people have always existed and always acted in this way.
Their goal is not really to get people to agree with them, but simply to create division. That is what we must understand and remember today. When a person or group of people is identified as an “enemy,” the mindset is then to eliminate them from being an influence. No longer are we interested in dialoging with them or witnessing to them; we are focused on making sure they have no path to influence or power.
What Jude is saying here is that the people we are told are our enemies are not the true enemy. The true enemy is the people trying to create division. These are the worldly people, the people who do not have the Spirit. Some of them are front and center in the church today.
The first command is to remember that everything happening has been predicted. The second command is how to react to all that is happening. Jude says to keep yourselves in the love of God. Keeping ourselves in God’s love is the central and primary command that Jude gives. The way we are to do that is twofold.
First, we are to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. How we do this is spoken about in Peter’s 2nd letter.
2 Peter 1:5-7
We build up our most holy faith by making every effort to grow in goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, and brotherly affection. Anything, or anyone, who leads us away from such things is not focused on unity but division and strife.
The second way we keep ourselves in God’s love is to pray in the Holy Spirit. Jude may be borrowing this phrase from Paul. Paul says in Ephesians 6:18 to pray in the Spirit. What this means is to pray in God’s presence, under God’s love and protection, and with God’s power. We are in a relationship with God and must pray like we are.
These are the two ways we keep ourselves in God’s love. Notice they are not how we enter into God’s love. We do not do these things as a means of trying to earn God’s love. That is another of the ways some try to sow division. The point Jude is making here is that it is God who brings us into His love.
When he says to keep yourselves in God’s love, it is not a case of losing the love we have if we don’t do these things. We are loved by God eternally, and that cannot be lost. Jude is simply pointing out that we are not trying to earn God’s love but that God freely gives us His love.
The end of verse 21 leads us into the third command Jude is going to give. We see at the end of verse 21 that we are to keep ourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Eternal life is not a reward for a life well lived. Eternal life is not even a right we owed. It is a mercy from a loving God. We must never forget that, and we must never lose sight of that truth.
In verse 22, we see that we are commanded to have mercy on others. First, we are to have mercy on those who waver, or some translations will say doubt. This is those who have been shaken or led astray by the false teachers. There is a term for this today; deconstruction. It is a bad word in many Christian circles.
What it means is people have become weary of all the negativity or scandal or abuse in the church and they have left, and many times begin to question their faith. There are many ways this can look and some do end up leaving the faith all together. For many “leaders” in the church, they are consider apostates and written off. Jude commands the opposite.
We are to have mercy on them, we are to work to save them from the fires of hell. If we listen to the voices that tell us to reject them we are not in a position to bring them back to Jesus. We need to understand that many churches have done many bad things and people deal with those things differently. Some believe the best thing for them is to walk away from it all together. While that is not the right answer, neither is to reject them completely. We need to listen to their complaints and work to either fix the problem in the church or to correct their understanding, whichever is most pleasing to God. The way we know the difference is to build ourselves up in the holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
The last group that Jude speaks of having mercy towards is those who are living an ungodly lifestyle. The phrase about the garment defiled by the flesh is a reference to Zechariah 3 where Joshua the high priest was described as wearing filthy clothes that need to be taken off so he can be forgiven by God. God gladly forgives Joshua.
This may be where the saying, “love the sinner and hate the sin comes from.” We just have to be careful that we know where that line is. Jude tells us we need to have mercy with fear, that is, with reverence to God’s mercy on us. It is easy for hatred of sin to cross over into hatred for the person or group of people. Which brings us back to the division that the people Jude is writing against are trying to cause.
The last two verses in this letter are a standard closing, but even in closings, we see something important about God. Here Jude reminds us that it is Jesus who is able to protect us from stumbling. Jesus is the One who keeps us from crossing the line from love to hate. Jesus is the One who causes us to stand in the presence of His glory, without blemish and with great joy.
Do not overlook the importance of these words. The presence of his glory refers to standing in the physical presence of God. This is what Moses asked for in Exodus 33:18, but the Lord said that no one could see His face and live. Now, through Jesus Christ, we can do so because Jesus protects us.
Jesus protects us in the eternal life to come, but also in the life we live here and now. We do not need to fear what we are told to fear because Jesus is Lord. Jesus is the judge, and Jesus is the One who removes our sins.
Therefore, it is to Him all glory, majesty, power, and authority, now and forever. Amen.