Wandering Stars
W. Carl Ketcherside
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This is the third installment I have written as a kind of "down-home" type of analysis of the letter of Jude. No doubt a lot of you think I am spending too much time in a "creeping conversation" when you would prefer a "running commentary." But I sort of like to visit this way about scriptural things and you'll have to forgive me if you have itchy spiritual feet and would like to get on down the expositional road.
I am intrigued by the letter of Jude because he was writing to saints who were being infiltrated by Satan's secret agents, and needed an exhortation to "contend for the faith." The "filthy dreamers" who were causing the difficulty were not simply "mistaken brethren" who had developed some odd ideas as to how things ought to be done. They were not preachers who were on this side or that of something like "the Sunday school issue" or who were hung up on the support of items such as Herald of Truth or orphan homes. A lot of brethren get the majestic faith once delivered mixed up with every little argument about their deductions, interpretations and opinions, and anyone who disagrees with them has "denied the faith."
Our brethren who differ with us about the motley collection of things out of which they have made dogmatic wedges to split the disciples into warring and hostile camps have not "perverted the grace of our God into licentiousness and denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." Regardless of which side they are on they are still in the faith and to imply they are not reveals as much about our ignorance as it does about theirs. The fact is that a lot of brethren do not know what the faith really is, and they confuse every little wrangle and rag-chewing debate with "contending for the faith." They are gravely mistaken and serve to contribute to the confusion.
Once, when I was down in Texas, a good old brother drove a long distance to bring me some material he had written and put in print to prove that no congregation could be recognized as "loyal" to Jesus where the brethren did not use fermented wine in the Lord's Supper. He referred to congregations which did not use it as "grape juice churches." When I told him it did not make any difference to me and that I could honor the memory of Jesus with either Welch's Grape Juice or Mogen David Wine, he whipped out a couple of propositions he carried around already signed by himself and offered to "contend earnestly for the faith" if I would debate him. I felt a sense of compassion for him as pronounced as my sense of regret that once I was in his same shoes and didn't know what "the faith" was either. Before he left he said I was further gone than he thought.
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These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves, waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved forever (verses 12, 13).
Jude borrows from the whole realm of nature to depict the erratic characters with whom he deals. His language is powerful and poignant. It is like flashes of lightning, illuminating the whole landscape, and bringing every object into sharp focus. For almost a century the communities of the redeemed ones ate together in many parts of the Roman Empire. The wealthier members brought hampers of food and all of the saints sat down together and shared as an exemplification of the tie that bound them together in Christian love. Masters and slaves ate together. Men and women ate together. Rich and poor ate together. The Agape, or love feast, was a proclamation to the heathen world of a dynamic which transcended ethnic, social and sexual differences.
William Barclay writes: "The Love Feast, the Agape, was one of the very earliest features of the Church. The Agape was a meal of fellowship, held on the Lord's Day. It was a meal to which everyone brought what he could, and at which all shared and shared alike. It was a lovely idea that the Christians in each little house Church should sit down on the Lord's Day to eat in fellowship together. No doubt there were some who could bring much, and there were others who could bring little. No doubt for many of the slaves it was the only decent meal in all the weeks."
Dr. Charles Hase in his History of the Christian Church suggests that the love-feast grew out of a sense of ecclesiastical family life. It was as natural for the family of God to sit down at the table together as it was for any other family. Moreover, to eat together in the days of the apostles was an overt demonstration of trust and acceptance. Clement of Alexandria wrote, "The meal occurs because of love, not love because of the meal, which is a proof of a generous and shared good will."
When Jude wrote, the feasts of love were being invaded by the Gnostic heretics who used them as occasions for attempted seduction of the women who were present. Peter says, "They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls." The word rendered "blemishes" in Jude is spilas, which means a hidden reef, or a submerged rock, on which a ship can be wrecked. The men whom Jude describes were smooth and cunning, but they were deceptive and destructive. Their hidden motives were calculated to destroy fellowship and wreck the "ship of faith." They turned the feast of love into an occasion for lust and used the kiss of love as an unholy thing. History attests that many followed their pernicious ways and caused the truth to be evil spoken of.
Bold carousing indicates open revelry, flouting every convention and ignoring all the rules of decorum and dignity. While this says something about the freedom and openness of the meetings of the saints, it also indicates something about the problems encountered in a pagan world. I have seen some tense situations during my lifetime but I have
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I think this indicates that the faith has had an impact upon the social culture and the spread of Christian influence has offset raw and crude paganism. That is why it seems a shame when those who "look only after themselves" and are boorishly inconsiderate of others, flaunt the amenities of good behavior and want to act as if they had just crawled out of a cave. It is a tragedy when those who seek to be revolutionary leaders revolt against the wrong things. Even at that, however, our gatherings are more frequently disturbed by someone snoring during "the sermon" than by noisy carousing.
The expression "waterless clouds, carried along by winds" is an apt description of the Gnostic philosophers. I have lived and worked in rural areas enough to know the baneful effects of prolonged drouth. I have seen farmers whose crops and gardens were seared, look with longing glance at every cloud arising on the horizon, only to register dismay when the wind wafted those clouds across the sky, and they disintegrated without shedding a drop of moisture.
The Gnostics were great on promises but short on performance. In spite of vaunted boasting they were spiritually empty and vacuous. The thirsty soul was never refreshed by them. The parched heart was saddened by further neglect. Once a man was brought under their subtle but malign influence, he was condemned to a life of speculation wholly devoid of reality. There was no refreshing moisture in these human clouds.
Jude describes them as "fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted." When I was a lad entering high school we owned an apple orchard. It required a great deal of trimming and pruning to make it productive. Because of neglect by a previous owner, some trees had to be removed when we took the orchard over. We allowed them to stand the first season, marking those which bore no fruit and gave no return. In late autumn, when the season was past, we knew there were some trees which would never bear. They had been marked as dead in the past and were now seen to be dead in the present, with no hope of revival.
For the welfare of the orchard such trees had to be removed. The main roots were cut and a tractor hitched to the trunks and as the chain tightened the trees made a cracking sound and were slowly dragged out, leaving a gaping hole where they once stood. There is nothing sadder to see, in the eyes of an orchardist, than an uprooted tree, which could have borne fruit, but became so infested with borers that the life was sapped from it. Those men who took up space and "cumbered the ground" in congregations of the righteous, while exuding poison and corruption had to be removed.
Perhaps you have heard of the deadly Upas tree which grows in Java, Sumatra and parts of equatorial Africa. It exudes a toxic substance which produces death to any bird or animal attracted to it. The poison is used by natives to put upon their arrow points, bringing sure death to any victim whose flesh is penetrated by the weapon. Those who deny the identity of Jesus, who will not regard Him as Lord and Christ are like this deadly tree, bringing death instead of life.
They are "wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame." Perhaps because I was born so far inland, separated by a thousand miles from the nearest ocean, I am fascinated by the Atlantic and Pacific. I can sit for a long period of time watching the undulating waves roll in, reaching their fingers of spume up the beach, and then receding into that great green body which holds so many mysteries in its depths. As I meditate by the seashore I am constantly recalling what the sacred scriptures say
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One of the things that impresses me about the sea is that, after a storm, every wave carries not only its white crest, but also a load of sediment, dirt and filth. When the foam begins to retreat you can trace its limit reached by the black line of finely-ground debris it has deposited. The content of the heart of the wave is thus revealed in the mark of its own acivity. It was thus with the false teachers of Jude's day and the false prophets of a previous era. They were wild, restless, stormy demonstrations of the forces at work in the world of their day, and their very activity served only to reveal the shame of their motives and thoughts.
They were "wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved forever." Jude thus calls upon all nature to testify to the character of deceivers. James Moffatt said, "Sky, land and sea are ransacked for illustrations of the character of these men." The clouds scudding across the sky, the waves tossing on the ocean, and the planets out of orbit, bear testimony to the wavering course of emptiness and void in the lives of men who are guilty of rejecting authority and do not hesitate to "revile the glorious ones."
Nothing is more orderly than the celestial system where suns and satellites move in such majestic array they are literally designated the hosts, that is, the armies of heaven. For a star to leave its plotted path and go wandering across the face of the heaven is a symbol of confusion and disaster of the worst kind. The word disaster is a combination of the Latin dis, from, and astron, a star. It was originally a misfortune thought of as resulting from an "unlucky star."
Men who leave the faith once delivered, which makes us satellites revolving around Jesus, as the Sun of the spiritual universe, the center of light, write their own doom. The nether gloom of darkness awaits them. Nether means lower and "the nether region" was a term applied to the abyss, conceived of as a bottomless pit, thus a place utterly devoid of all light. It is interesting that Jude speaks in this fashion of the ultimate fate of those who professed to be purveyors of light. The Gnostic regarded those who trusted in revelation as ignorant of the greater mysteries of knowledge which came from inner light, and yet it was for those who made such claims that the gloom of darkness was reserved. They were waterless clouds! They were fruitless trees! They were wandering stars! They were empty, barren and erratic!
It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh with his holy myriads, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things in which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
This statement has been the source of great controversy among scholarly expositors. I have read reams of material on it. The contention centers around whether or not Jude quoted from an apocryphal book, and if he did, whether he sanctioned that book as an inspired piece of writing. That there is a Book of Enoch is a fairly well admitted fact. Its
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Actually, the book was not discovered until 1820, when it was found in an ancient Ethiopic version by Dr. Laurence of Oxford. In it occurs the quotation: "Behold he comes with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal, for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him." There is no way by which I know to prove that the book was in existence in the days of Jude, but if it was then in existence one could not prove Jude quoted from it. Both he and the unknown writer might have quoted from a common tradition.
As far as I am personally concerned, this is a matter over which theologians may feel free to wrangle at any length they desire. Regardless of the background from which Jude derived the statement, whether it be a written document, an oral tradition, or a direct revelation, he affirms that Enoch made the statement and that is sufficient for me. When the lightning of argument passes away and the roll of the thunder ceases, the passage will still be there as it has been for centuries, and I accept it.
At the risk of being boresome by repetition I must remark again that the people to whom Jude wrote were familiar with the characters mentioned in the old covenant scriptures. Among the revered ones in the Jewish heart was Enoch, who walked with God, and was not to be found when men sought for him, because the Lord took him, allowing him to bypass the portals of death. By such faith he continued to testify of the value of walking with God even though he was dead.
Jude identifies Enoch as a prophet who foretold the Lord's coming in judgment upon the wicked. The divine judgment was to be universal. It was to be directed against deeds of ungodliness and harsh things spoken against Him. This kind of wrath would certainly fall with powerful impact upon those under censure by Jude. In both word and deed they dishonored Jesus and disgraced His name before the heathen.
These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flattering people to gain advantage.
In this stern indictment there are five accusations brought. They serve to show how disreputable were the characters of those who would stoop to any depth in their defilement. They were grumblers. In its verb form the original occurs eight times and is always translated "murmur" in the Authorized Version. It means to mutter or grumble in discontent. It is a term used to describe sullen complaining against God by Israel in the wilderness. Sometimes the Old English word "chide" is used to describe the attitude of those who rebelled against God's leadership and providential care.
They were malcontents. The original is found only here in the scriptures. It is from a combined term which means to find fault with or to blame one's allotted fate. It describes a person who is never satisfied but blames circumstances for his condition. To such an individual nothing is ever good. He is always surly, disgruntled and down-in-the-mouth. He is convinced that today is bad but tomorrow will be worse. When he has a choice of two evils he takes both. To such a person every cloud has a sable lining. Someone described such an individual as one who feels bad when he feels good for fear he will feel worse when he feels better. Nothing can discourage a congregation of saints more than to have someone dump a truckload of gloom upon them every time they gather.
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They were loud-mouthed boasters. The Authorized Version reads "their mouth speaketh great swelling words." The original huperogkos is used only here and in 1 Peter 2:18, where Peter is dealing with the same men. All of us know men who are vacuous and empty-headed but who strut and parade around, loudly trying to demonstrate a knowledge they do not possess. A boaster has been described as a man "who every time he opens his mouth, puts his feats in." It is observable that those who brag the most generally accomplish the least and vice versa. There is no other sound in nature as sweet to the ear of a braggart as his own voice. He is loud, not so much to convince others as to convince himself.
They flattered people to gain advantage. One compliments others for their own good, but he flatters them for his good. Flattery is obnoxious to all except the flattered. It is interesting that these men are described in one breath as loud, arrogant boasters, and in the next as fawning, cringing, servile camp-followers. They were like chameleons, changing their color to match their surroundings. Their description by Jude can be summed up by the words complainers, critics, callous, conceited and contemptible.
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions." It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
There is an indication here that the words of the apostles regarding the rise of scoffers were generally known. We cannot remember that which we have not heard or known. It is enough for us to have the general predictions as recorded in the letters and it is not necessary that we conclude that Jude was giving an exact quotation. Paul had told the Ephesian elders with whom he conferred at the maritime center of Miletus, "From among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them" (Acts 20:30).
He wrote to Timothy that "in the last days there will come times of stress" and describes those who would be "treacherous, reckless, and swollen with deceit" and who would hold the form of religion while denying the power of it. He says "Avoid such people." He compares them to Jannes and Jambres, the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses. In view of this the recipients of the letter from Jude should have expected the infiltration of the unscrupulous purveyors of deceit who came among them.
Peter says that "scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions." He asserts they would ask "Where is the promise of his coming?" and would postulate continuity in the future based upon conformity and regularity in the past. He declares that they deliberately ignore the fact of the flood. All of this serves to help us understand the kind of men against whom the saints were to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered.
The scoffers who followed their own passions, and walked in their own ways, set up divisions. Division in the body of Christ is a sin. It is a shame and a scandal. It denies the purpose of God, the prayer of Jesus and the plan of heaven. Division of the brethren is not a remedy for sin, it is a sin. To set up division is the work of those devoid of the Spirit, for the purpose of the Spirit is to make us one. The party spirit unties us while the Holy Spirit unites us.
Division is a result and it is produced by a cause. It is not an accident but a
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The term rendered worldly people is translated "sensual" in the Authorized Version. This is a significant expression because it means that those who considered themselves to be the spiritually elite were actually living on the animal level. The word is used as the reverse of the spiritual, and it is implied that those who set up or create division do so because they live and act upon a baser level than the spiritual. Those who justify and condone division ordinarily do so upon the ground of spiritual correctness and closeness to the divine. The ones of whom Jude wrote were devoid of the Spirit.
But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Here we have the four ingredients essential to the successful spiritual life. In the previous passage there is a description of the character of those who scoff at the way God has ordained. The word "but" indicates that we should expect a different character to be discussed. In my childhood days, when medical doctors were scarce, a lot of home remedies were used. Each autumn the children were subjected to a tonic made of a concoction brewed from various roots and herbs and which was to "build up resistance" against the encroachment of winter's cold. The prescription Jude here administers is the divine formula for building up resistance against false philosophy.
1. Build yourselves up on your most holy faith. It is easily seen that faith is regarded as a foundation upon which the secure life is constructed. There are three bases upon which man can build his life--knowledge, faith and opinion. It is a demonstration of divine wisdom that our hope is not based upon either the first or the last. Knowledge results from the testimony of one's own senses, faith results from the testimony of others to what they have seen or heard. Faith is based upon fact attested to by witnesses. When that testimony is found to be credible the honest mind is forced to accept it, or else, in order to be consistent, it must reject all testimony even though properly certified and authenticated. To do this would render the mind dishonest.
It is easy to see that any relationship based upon a unique phenomenon, a one-time occurrence which is non-repetitive, must be conditioned upon belief of testimony. It is dependent upon the experiences of those who were present and participated in the event. The rational mind asks only about the character and qualification of the witnesses, and having been satisfied as to both, will accept the testimony as conditioned upon fact.
One who builds upon knowledge will always have an inadequate foundation because of the human predicament which is created by limitations of time and space. Paul affirms that "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up," and adds, "If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know" (1 Cor. 8:1, 2). Increasing knowledge only serves to prove the limitation of knowledge in the past, and acts as a warning that further knowledge will prove the insufficiency of that in the present. The inadequacy of opinion is recognized when one remembers what some wag has said. "An opinion is a vagrant idea without visible means of support."
I have no problem in erecting my dwelling on faith which is a firm confidence as to the things for which I hope and a firm conviction as to things not yet seen." In fact, my whole life is governed by and ordered upon the principle
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We must not carelessly pass by the fact that Jude calls this your most holy faith. When I see the word holy applied to anything by the Spirit I immediately recognize that the thing mentioned is different. Actually, that is the implication of the word holy. A thing is holy because it is different, and it is different because it was dedicated or devoted to God. Under the old covenant the presence-bread was different than other bread, the table upon which it was placed in the sanctuary was different than other tables, the perfume used as incense was different than other perfumes, the robes of the high priest were different than other robes. All were said to be holy. This means that a thing was sanctified or holy (for the words mean the same), not because of its nature or construction or character, but because it was consecrated to God.
Jude speaks of the most holy faith exactly as other inspired writers talk of "the most holy place." That place was the inner sanctuary where God communed with His people from the mercy seat. And the most holy faith is the closest one can come to God while in the flesh. It is this faith which makes the individual heart the true sanctuary in which God dwells in this age. When men speak of an auditorium as "the sanctuary" they indicate that they are caught in the web of mingled Judaism and Romanism. They are speaking as if Jesus had not come and died to rend the veil of the temple.
The faith is holy because it is different from every other faith. It is not the result of man's rationalization but of God's revelation. It is not a glorified guess but a glorious gift. It is holy because it came from One who dwells in absolute holiness, the one who is wholly Other or different, and it is holy because it can transform a sinful man and make him holy. The most holy faith does not enable one to turn over a new leaf but to turn up with a new life. It caused God to become like man in Christ, and enables man to become like God in Christ. "Be ye holy for I am holy."
Pray in the Holy Spirit. The secret of inner strength to resist evil is prayer. The reason why this is so is quite simple. As long as man relies upon himself he is trusting in a broken reed. Not long ago I asked a friend when he first realized that he was falling away from God, and his answer was, "When I quit praying." In prayer we acknowledge three things--dearth of ability, dependence upon God, and desire for help. Phillips Brooks wrote, "A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned God-ward." Archbishop R. C. Trench wrote, "Prayer is not overcoming reluctance; it is laying hold of his highest willingness."
I must confess that for years I do not think I really consciously prayed in the Holy Spirit. I knew the admonition was there for I had read the letter of Jude. However, I suspect that I read the words without grasping the thought. But I knew very little about the Holy Spirit. He was the forgotten and neglected one-third of the Godhead, and was like a rich uncle in the family of which we had heard but had never seen. I am afraid that I recited prayers to the Father as a kind of religious exercise, in discharge of a solemn duty, or in fulfillment of "the law's demands." It was a kind of "pray or be damned situation," so we prayed at the proper times.
Of course, it is no longer like that and I am glad. One big thing is that I have learned what it means that through Christ "we have obtained access to this grace wherein we stand." And just as it was promised I now "rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God." And to cap the entire experience is the marvelous truth that "hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given us" (Romans 5:5).
There is a big difference between a
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I no longer read the precious word as if it were a divine arsenal especially provided with shafts to hurl at specific organizations created by men in their bumbling attempts to please God by reading their own theological computer print-outs. I can distinguish between a loaf of bread and a baseball bat or a club with which to assail an opponent. And two things have happened. First, I am farther from being a Roman Catholic, Methodist or Baptist than I have ever been in my life. I no longer like even our own brand of sectarianism. Secondly, the sacred scriptures mean more to me than ever before in my uneventful life. I cherish this Book and it nourishes my soul.
"Access to grace" is no longer a phrase but an experience. "Rejoicing in hope" is not merely a quotation but a participation. "Sharing the glory of God" is not a lilting statement but a living hope. I know what it means to have God's love poured out into my heart, and since that pouring out was the work of the Holy Spirit as God's marvelous gift it is easy now to pray in the Spirit, and comforting to know that He helps my infirmities by making intercession for me with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Keep yourselves in the love of God. All of us realize that the love of God may be either His love for us or our love for Him. I do not think I need to try and keep His love for me from waning. Even if He decided not to love me, and He will not, I could do nothing about it. God's love for me does not grow cold but there is a danger that my love for Him may do so. Jesus, in his prediction of the distress preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 said, "And because wickedness is multiplied, most men's love will grow cold" (Matthew 24:12). The word for cold here is psycho, and literally means to cool by blowing upon. Just as a cold wind blowing across a vessel of warm food will cause it to grow cold, so exposure to evil and wickedness will cause the heart to grow cold.
The way for me to maintain the warmth of my love for God is either to stay out of the draft, or, if I am forced to come into contact with the wind of wickedness, to insulate myself against it. Of course, it will help a little if I continue to throw fuel on the fire by study of the Word and keep the embers glowing by poking them up now and then. But if the wind gets to you it will cool you off. The word "keep" means to guard. I intend to wear the overcoat of grace and faith wherever I go so my love for God will not wane or weaken. I have seen too many people move to the city with a firm resolution to stay in the path of righteousness, only to allow themselves to become sidetracked and go to the devil before two years were up.
Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. The most difficult thing for most of us to do is to wait. Although the poet said we should learn to labor and to wait, it is easier to learn the first than to learn the latter. People waiting for a bus pace up and down the platform like caged animals. Those who have an appointment in the dentist's office are as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking-chairs. I think a lot of people have given up on life because they are tired of waiting. I am not one of them. My expectation is
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I am fully persuaded that Christ must be merciful unto me, or I've had it! I do not expect mercy because I deserve it, but because I do not! Mercy is not extended to one who gets "straight A's" on his report card, but to one who does his best even while realizing it is not good enough. One of the philosophers whose name I have forgotten said, "The greatest attribute of heaven is mercy." I am inclined to agree, probably because of the recognition of my stark need for mercy. I read somewhere that "to sin because mercy abounds is the devil's logic, he that sins because of God's mercy shall have judgment without mercy. Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not."
The mercy for which I am waiting is unto eternal life. Eternal life is the life of God. It is life on the divine plane made possible to human beings like myself through Jesus. We have it now, but not in its fulness. Because we are in the flesh we cannot experience it in a glorified state. All of my early life I grew up among people who argued that we do not have eternal life now. They thought of eternal life as an old-line insurance policy which you had to die to collect. I no longer believe that but I do not argue with someone who says he does not have eternal life. He is probably right!
John wrote, "He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son has not life. I wrote this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life." I have it because I accept implicitly what John wrote. I have the Son and He has me, so I have eternal life and have it now. Just being in the church does not mean that you have eternal life any more than being in a bank means you have a deposit in it.
I am a little bit like an heir for whom ample provision for the present is made in a will until time comes for possession of the enjoyment of the estate in its fulness. While I have eternal life I am limited in my enjoyment of it. God has more in store for me and the mercy of Jesus Christ will ensure my coming into it. Meanwhile, I am not going to scrap and fight with the other heirs about it until I cannot enjoy what I do have. I am living by grace now but grace will not exhaust itself on earth. There's a great day coming, and I am getting ready for it. Thoreau wrote, "All good abides with him who waiteth wisely." So I am waiting and it will not be in vain. I will take care of the waiting and He will take care of the blessing!
And convince some, who doubt; save some by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
I don't mind telling you that translators have been beset with problems in this sentence. The Greek text is a little obscure and uncertain. Barclay, after admitting this was so, says that he only gives what he believes to be the nearest to the sense of the passage. Despite his erudition I am not sure that his is an adequate treatment. Here is his rendering:
"Some of them you must argue out of their error, while they are still wavering; others you must rescue by snatching them out of the fire. Others you must pity and fear at the same time, hating the garment stained by the flesh."
The Authorized Version translates: "And of some having compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh."
The Authentic Version has it: "Take pity on some, of course, and save them with eager resolution, snatching them from the blaze. Take pity on others too, but save them with repugnance, loathing even the tunic soiled by the flesh."
In spite of difficulties encountered in ascertaining the correct rendering, some things are obvious. Not everyone can be approached on the same basis. Men in different degrees of guilt and of diverse temperaments and attitudes must be dealt with differently. According to the implications of the Revised Standard transla-
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There are those who are in doubt, wrapped in uncertainty and hesitancy. They are undecided and indecisive. They must be convicted in their own minds before they take the plunge. It is essential to get to them in time to overcome their doubts with genuine faith.
There are those who must be dealt with abruptly as you would jerk a person out of flame into which he was backing unknowingly. Perhaps the picture is one of a volcano with a person walking too close to the edge or rim. It is certain that many are ensnared by sin because they take undue chances with it. Drastic action must be taken to snatch them back to safety.
There are those whose garments are so corrupted and tainted that one must hate the garment. He does not hate the person in the garment for to him he seeks to show mercy with fear. But he cannot condone the wickedness of a life which is immoral and sensual.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 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.
I never read or recite this ascription of praise without feeling that I am standing upon holy ground. It is filled with a blessing for the present and a promise for the future. Nothing can be more reassuring than to know that God our Father is able. It was this which sustained the patriarchs and prophets of old. "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son...accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead" (Hebrews 11:17, 19). Faced with the sentence of death by burning, the three young Hebrew captives boldly said, "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace" (Daniel 3:17).
The word able is the Greek dunarnai, inherent power. God is able. He is able "to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20). He is able to subdue all things unto himself, and that power also belongs to Jesus. Our God is able!
He is able to keep us from falling. The word in the original is aptaistos, literally "unfalling." It is used to describe a beast of burden or a pack animal which will not slip on a steep trail. Anyone who has watched the sure-footed mules working their way down the switchback trail into Grand Canyon can appreciate what is meant. God is able to keep us from slipping on the ski trails of life even when the slopes are icy and slick.
Not only is God able to make us stand but He is able to make us stand without blemish in the great presentation ceremony in the face of His glory. Peter refers to the false teachers about whom he writes as "spots and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings." The word for blemish is momos, and the opposite of that is amomos, the word in our text. It means spotless, unstained or blameless. God is able to cleanse us from all stain in the universal detergent, the blood of His Son.
Generally Jesus is spoken of as Savior, but here God is referred to as Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is able to save to the uttermost. The word glory in both verses 24 and 25 is doxa. It appears in doxology, a hymn of praise. When God manifests His glory it simply means His presence, but when the creature gives glory to the Creator, that glory adds nothing to the Creator. That which is created gives glory by praise and adoration. He thus acknowledges the existence, nature and work of the Creator.
Majesty is a translation of megalosune. Most of us will at once recognize the first term in this combined form. Megalo is the word for big or great. One who is afflicted with megalomania suffers from a mental disorder in which he thinks
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Dominion is from kratos, strength or power. It occurs twelve times. Four times it appears as dominion, and six times as power. It is found in such English words as democracy, autocracy or plutocracy, where it is easily detected as relating to rule or government. Our English term dominion in derived from the Latin dominus, lord, and thus refers to sovereign or supreme authority over a given domain. Involved in it is always the concept of government or domination, so that God is not simply the possessor of the kingdom, but the supreme monarch.
The word power in this instance is from exousia, a fact which has created some little consternation among students since it is applied to "the only wise God." Generally exousia is thought of as delegated authority or responsibility, and how such authority could be delegated to the fountain or source of all power escapes some who make too rigid a distinction between exousia and dunamis. But exousia is first the freedom to do a thing, and then, the authority to do it. Barclay suggests that when the two are used in conjunction, dunamis is the power to do a thing, while exousia is the freedom to do it. I like my more homely illustration that the first is a keg of dynamite and the second is the right to strike a match to it.
Both the power and freedom of God are absolute. We cannot bind Him with the laws He gave to bind us. The source of all authority cannot be confined by the authority derived from or conferred by it. There is no inconsistency in the exercise of sovereign authority, for whatever it authorizes is consistent with its sovereignty. God gives power but He does not give it away. It is still His and returns to Him. In reality, the power He bestows is simply Himself acting through channels of His own creation. I intend to be one of them.
I am thrilled that Jude closes this brief letter, this little spiritual note, with such a magnificent benediction. A letter written to urge men to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered, needs to point us to the fountain of that faith. When the sweet singer of Israel saw the transgression of the wicked, he said, "There is no fear of God before their eyes," and thus put his finger squarely upon the reason for the prevalence of sin. Men are not deterred by fear of consequences when the fear of God is erased from their hearts. It is my very eager hope and fervent prayer that we may serve Him as our only purpose, remembering the words of Soren Kierkegaard, "Purity of heart is to will one thing."
It was not my intention to bore our readers with this analysis of Jude which has taken us through three issues of the paper. It is possible to be too meticulous in our study and to become bogged down in our investigation of words, but that is not generally the problem with most of the saints. Rather, there is a kind of spiritual indifference to what God has said, which makes us easy victims of those who would impose upon us what He has not said!