The One Year Bible Club with Teaching
Commentary by Nick Boork
December 8
Commentary by Nick Boork
December 8
December 8 ~ Jude 1:1-25
1 Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Old and New Apostates
5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
Apostates Depraved and Doomed
12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. 14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Apostates Predicted
16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
Maintain Your Life with God
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Glory to God
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25 To God our Savior, Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
OKAY HERE’S MY COMMENTARY
A key to understanding the book of Jude is verse 4 which reveals the root issue of false leaders that…turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
This means that instead of embracing the truth that the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ delivers us from the power of sin in the flesh these false preachers began to teach that it really did not matter how a Christian lives morally because the mercy and grace of God would continually forgive and cover sins. The truth is it does matter how we live as a Christian and we are not to ever think that the grace of God is a license for us to continue to live in sin!
This is what the apostle Paul meant in Romans 6:15-16 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
Teaching that says it’s okay for Christians to continue to live in sin comes straight from Satan. You can almost hear the devil through these false ministers when he spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden twisting the Word of God saying; you shall not surely die if you eat the forbidden fruit…Ref; Genesis 3
Deny: to "deny" the Father and the Son, by apostatizing and by disseminating pernicious teachings, to "deny" Jesus Christ as Master and Lord by immorality under a cloak of religion, 2Pe 2:1; Jud 1:4; (Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words)
This is what false ministers teach. That it is okay to live immorally and yet be a Christian. Jude gives three examples of apostates:
· The Israelites that refused to believe after they left Egypt were destroyed.
· Angels that rebelled against God.
· The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were burned with fire for their sexual immorality.
The two common denominators of these examples are that all of them turned away from God and all of them were condemned to be destroyed under the judgment of God because they refused to repent. Jude continues to list several additional characteristics of false teachers and false prophets that have infiltrated the church.
What’s the antidote for this spiritually poison teaching?
The good news is that Jude does not leave us without solutions to combat false teaching and immoral living. Here are five spiritual disciplines that Jude outlines that we as Christians especially living in the last days need to embrace and practice to be the victors and the victims:
1) Praying the Holy Spirit:
20…building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches us that praying in the spirit or praying in other tongues causes us to become strong spiritually because this kind of praying builds, strengthens and edifies us on the inside! Ref; 1 Cor. 14:4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. Many times we do not know what to pray for or even how to pray but the Holy Spirit helps us pray the will of God for our lives. Ref; Romans 8:27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
2) Live a life of divine love: 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God…
Christians need to continually renew their commitment to walk in the love of God towards everyone. Jesus says that in the last days the love of many will grow cold. So we need to guard our hearts from becoming hardened against people that offend us and all the evil that is going on in the world. Protect your heart and live in Gods love every day. God is love and love never fails.
3) Keep your hope focused on the eminent coming of the Lord Jesus Christ: 21…looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
It is so easy to lose our eternal perspective. If you watch TV we are constantly being bombarded with advertisements to go out buy this or that. Breaking news is always getting us caught up into the latest crises or international problems. However, for the Christian we have the living hope of the resurrected Christ who will soon return to earth and we must keep our focus on the Lord and be ready to meet him at any moment! Keep in mind the parable of the five unwise and five wise virgins in Matthew 25. Five were ready to meet the bridegroom representing Jesus Christ coming again and five missed the opportunity because their lamps had gone out. Fill your life with the Holy Spirit and the hope of Jesus Christ coming again. The Bible teaches us that if we have this hope, it will motivate us to purify ourselves. 1 John 3:3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
4) Become a soul winner: 22-23 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Jude instructs us that some people will respond to compassion as we share Christ and this includes the idea of supplying human needs and showing mercy in connection with preaching the gospel. However, another group of people can be motivated to repent when we clearly paint a picture of the two destinies of heaven and hell awaiting every human being and that Jesus Christ is the only door of salvation. In our efforts to reach people for Jesus sometimes they are deeply involved in all kinds of corrupt sins and this is why Jude tells us to hate the garment defiled by the flesh. In other words, in our attempt to win souls we can’t get involved in committing the same kinds of sins as the people we are witnessing to.
5) Worship God now in the present: 24-25 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25 To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
The kind of worship that Jude writes about here is acknowledging God as the Almighty giving him all the majesty, dominion and power or yielding to his authority right now in the present. If we do this by faith then we will be walking as close to Jesus as possible. When we walk close to someone if we stumble they are immediately able to reach out their hand and keep us from falling. That’s the picture we see here. If we walk close to the Lord he will keep us from stumbling in protect us until we enter in to his glorious presence eternally with great joy. However if you’re not walking close to Jesus you may stumble and fall. At this point you need to call on the Lord for his help and you will come to lift you up and restoring but it is better to walk close with Jesus and not fall.
If we make it a habit to practice these five spiritual disciplines then we will be busy serving the Lord in every area of our lives spirit, soul and body and it will be much harder for us to be caught up in the sins of those that walk in the flesh turning the grace of God into an excuse to continue to live in sin. Again these disciplines are:
1) Praying in the Holy Spirit
2) Walking in the love of God
3) Live like the Lord is going to return today
4) Be a soul winner
5) Worship God right now
Share your comments on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/oneyearbibleclub
1 Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:
2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Old and New Apostates
5 But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
Apostates Depraved and Doomed
12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. 14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
Apostates Predicted
16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
Maintain Your Life with God
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Glory to God
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25 To God our Savior, Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
OKAY HERE’S MY COMMENTARY
A key to understanding the book of Jude is verse 4 which reveals the root issue of false leaders that…turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
This means that instead of embracing the truth that the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ delivers us from the power of sin in the flesh these false preachers began to teach that it really did not matter how a Christian lives morally because the mercy and grace of God would continually forgive and cover sins. The truth is it does matter how we live as a Christian and we are not to ever think that the grace of God is a license for us to continue to live in sin!
This is what the apostle Paul meant in Romans 6:15-16 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
Teaching that says it’s okay for Christians to continue to live in sin comes straight from Satan. You can almost hear the devil through these false ministers when he spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden twisting the Word of God saying; you shall not surely die if you eat the forbidden fruit…Ref; Genesis 3
Deny: to "deny" the Father and the Son, by apostatizing and by disseminating pernicious teachings, to "deny" Jesus Christ as Master and Lord by immorality under a cloak of religion, 2Pe 2:1; Jud 1:4; (Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words)
This is what false ministers teach. That it is okay to live immorally and yet be a Christian. Jude gives three examples of apostates:
· The Israelites that refused to believe after they left Egypt were destroyed.
· Angels that rebelled against God.
· The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were burned with fire for their sexual immorality.
The two common denominators of these examples are that all of them turned away from God and all of them were condemned to be destroyed under the judgment of God because they refused to repent. Jude continues to list several additional characteristics of false teachers and false prophets that have infiltrated the church.
What’s the antidote for this spiritually poison teaching?
The good news is that Jude does not leave us without solutions to combat false teaching and immoral living. Here are five spiritual disciplines that Jude outlines that we as Christians especially living in the last days need to embrace and practice to be the victors and the victims:
1) Praying the Holy Spirit:
20…building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches us that praying in the spirit or praying in other tongues causes us to become strong spiritually because this kind of praying builds, strengthens and edifies us on the inside! Ref; 1 Cor. 14:4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. Many times we do not know what to pray for or even how to pray but the Holy Spirit helps us pray the will of God for our lives. Ref; Romans 8:27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
2) Live a life of divine love: 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God…
Christians need to continually renew their commitment to walk in the love of God towards everyone. Jesus says that in the last days the love of many will grow cold. So we need to guard our hearts from becoming hardened against people that offend us and all the evil that is going on in the world. Protect your heart and live in Gods love every day. God is love and love never fails.
3) Keep your hope focused on the eminent coming of the Lord Jesus Christ: 21…looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
It is so easy to lose our eternal perspective. If you watch TV we are constantly being bombarded with advertisements to go out buy this or that. Breaking news is always getting us caught up into the latest crises or international problems. However, for the Christian we have the living hope of the resurrected Christ who will soon return to earth and we must keep our focus on the Lord and be ready to meet him at any moment! Keep in mind the parable of the five unwise and five wise virgins in Matthew 25. Five were ready to meet the bridegroom representing Jesus Christ coming again and five missed the opportunity because their lamps had gone out. Fill your life with the Holy Spirit and the hope of Jesus Christ coming again. The Bible teaches us that if we have this hope, it will motivate us to purify ourselves. 1 John 3:3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
4) Become a soul winner: 22-23 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Jude instructs us that some people will respond to compassion as we share Christ and this includes the idea of supplying human needs and showing mercy in connection with preaching the gospel. However, another group of people can be motivated to repent when we clearly paint a picture of the two destinies of heaven and hell awaiting every human being and that Jesus Christ is the only door of salvation. In our efforts to reach people for Jesus sometimes they are deeply involved in all kinds of corrupt sins and this is why Jude tells us to hate the garment defiled by the flesh. In other words, in our attempt to win souls we can’t get involved in committing the same kinds of sins as the people we are witnessing to.
5) Worship God now in the present: 24-25 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25 To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
The kind of worship that Jude writes about here is acknowledging God as the Almighty giving him all the majesty, dominion and power or yielding to his authority right now in the present. If we do this by faith then we will be walking as close to Jesus as possible. When we walk close to someone if we stumble they are immediately able to reach out their hand and keep us from falling. That’s the picture we see here. If we walk close to the Lord he will keep us from stumbling in protect us until we enter in to his glorious presence eternally with great joy. However if you’re not walking close to Jesus you may stumble and fall. At this point you need to call on the Lord for his help and you will come to lift you up and restoring but it is better to walk close with Jesus and not fall.
If we make it a habit to practice these five spiritual disciplines then we will be busy serving the Lord in every area of our lives spirit, soul and body and it will be much harder for us to be caught up in the sins of those that walk in the flesh turning the grace of God into an excuse to continue to live in sin. Again these disciplines are:
1) Praying in the Holy Spirit
2) Walking in the love of God
3) Live like the Lord is going to return today
4) Be a soul winner
5) Worship God right now
Share your comments on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/oneyearbibleclub
OKAY, HERE’S MY TEACHING COMMENTARY
WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?
PRAYER TO APPLY THE WORD OF GOD TO OUR LIVES
ORDINATION
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