Dear Church Family,
Over the last twenty years or so we have been bombarded with warnings. If you get coffee to go and the cup in all caps screams at you “CAUTION: HOT!” I hope it is hot. If I wanted cold coffee, it would come in a different cup, but without a word about the low temperature. Words of caution are so common now that we tend to ignore them. Jude continues to write words that we must heed, lest we suffer awful consequences.
We must be careful to not buy in to the world’s “hollow and deceptive philosophy” (Col. 2:8) that teaches, “It doesn’t what you believe, just as long as you are sincere about it.” That may sound nice, yet it is utter nonsense. Jude notes in v5-7 what happens to those who rejected God’s truth and followed the ways of the world. He reminds them of those who had been brought out of Egypt but were destroyed because they “did not believe.” Fallen angels “did not keep their positions of authority” and now will “face judgment on the great Day.” Jude ends the section with the example of Sodom and Gomorrah that “gave themselves up to sexual immorality” and will “suffer the punishment of eternal life” for they rejected God’s design for holy living.
Jude then describes various ways that false teachers mislead people. He calls them ‘dreamers’ because they rely on supposed (imaginary) visions from God. First, they reject the unique authority of the Bible. They captivate people with their alleged vision. Joseph Smith and Mormonism serves as a woeful modern example. In their fallen way of thinking, these deceivers “pollute their bodies” which means they openly practice sexual immorality and encourage their duped followers to do the same.
Second, they “reject authority” as they answer to no one but themselves. Doing so rejects the Biblical doctrine of sin in the lives of God’s people. Today false teachers tend to be independent of any connectional church body. They will have a board that they have appointed and rubber stamps all decisions. They ignore human and divine accountability and when challenged will retort, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed!”
Third, they “slander celestial beings.” This is not an easy phrase to grasp. I rely on a scholar who says, “The false teachers apparently mocked the power of the devil and his demons. Even today, a flippant attitude toward Satan and his power can lead to spiritual danger.” If their authority lies in anything other than the Word of God, any teacher is unfaithful and playing with fire. Because of this Jude calls these who “speak abusively” in unflattering terms “unreasoning animals.”
We must not ignore these words of warning. Our world is full of false teaching. Certainly, this is a call for me and all pastors to strive to be faithful to the Word of God. It is also a call to be like the Bereans in Acts 17 who received Paul’s message eagerly and “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
With great hope in His grace,
Pastor Gillikin