Jude: Passionate Love

 

(This was the main part of my letter to the congregation sent out today, 26 January 2022. Feel free to use it and/or distribute it)

Today, I get to speak to the Capitol Bible Study, and I will be addressing the short letter “Jude” and it’s theme of passionate love. Let me share a little bit with you. 

There are some spiritual insurgents who have snuck into the church to which Jude is writing and they are spreading mayhem and malice. Most of this letter (17 out of 25 verses) is tied up with describing the kind of people who are causing trouble and V. 4 gives the general outline of the problem: They turn God’s grace into grime, and in word and deed they deny the divine rule of Jesus! Their creed, “deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (4c), is crooked, and so their conduct, “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality” (4b), follows the same contortions. Creed and Deed go hand-in-hand! And so, following their crooked creed-deed dynamic, they are a church destroying posse (16-19). They passionately love themselves to the hurt of God’s church. 

But Jude’s remedy is for us to passionately love Jesus, who passionately loves us (1-2). And so he guides us into better ways that are the opposite of the church destroyers. First, we’re to keep away. This implied sentiment runs throughout the letter. “Don’t follow the saboteurs’ destructive path! It only leads to doom!” In other words, most of the Spirit-inspired, Christ-directed ink used in this letter is warning: Keep away from their path! 

Then, we’re to call to mind the Apostles’ words (17-18). What a helpful reminder this is! Now, honestly, we don’t like recalling these words because we don’t like remembering that there are nice, clean, pretty people who are really snakes in the grass! We don’t like recollecting that there are wolves flaunting freshly washed and fancily tailored sheep’s hides! But part of Jesus’ passionate love for us is remembering that he loved us enough to warn us that some folk will (sooner or later) saddle up and try to molest us! In the words of Peter, “You therefore, beloved, …, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:17-18). Jesus’ warning through Jude and the other apostles was for our good, for our life, and our peace of mind! And so, part of our loving Jesus passionately means recalling the tough words of Jesus and being right glad for them! 

Next, we’re to confirm the church (20-21). Jude’s directions here are in sharp contrast to the church-dividing actions of the vandals in 16-19. In every case, Jude uses either a 2nd person plural (you all), or a plural participle (in the Greek). These things are about us shouldering the work together, which knits us closer as a church. In Paul’s words, “standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents” (Philippians 1.27-28). 

Finally, we are to catch the falling (22-23): Instead of being stand-offish elitists and snobbish do-gooders, rather, because of the passionate love of God for us (v.1-2), we are to follow the same gracious path, taking the risky actions of spreading that passionate love even to those who are about to fall into the subversive traps of the false teachers. I once had a conversation with a woman somewhere. It was after I had talked about doing outreach into a community close to the church where we worshipped. She was aghast, and highly riled, and blurted out to me, “But we don’t want those kids to play with our kids!” Imagine if God said that about us, “I don’t want you and your kids playing with my kids!” Gospel mindedness is going to be saturated by the passionate love of God for us, so that we will take risks to reach out to others, having mercy on those who doubt, saving others by snatching them out of the fire, etc. 

Then Jude ends his intense letter by lifting up his hands and heart in adoration of God – the God of v.1-2 – with the words of v. 24-25. And that is where I’m going to end this week’s letter: 

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

Pastor Mike

(By the way, if you're interested in more on Jude, see my book "Gnostic Trends in the Local Church" where I work all the way through these 25 verses extensively.)

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