Plymothian

¹⁷ But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ They^[a] said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” ¹⁹ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. ²⁰ But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. ²² And have mercy on those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment^[b] stained by the flesh.

Building Yourself Up

Selfish.  That’s how it sounds:  selfish.  Aren’t we meant to build others up?  Aren’t we meant to build up the Kingdom of God?  Why would we build ourselves up?  Doesn’t this whole passage seem narcissistic and self-centered.  To many Christians who have struggled with a dominant parent or friend who told them to stop being selfish, these ideas seem alien.  Any thoughts of self are to be diminished.  In my case, my father would call me selfish when his needs weren’t being met.  In some cases I was too young to meet his needs, in other cases he would ask me to do things that were beyond my capability.  His lack of self worth and fear that something would be his fault resulted in anger and condemnation toward others.  So, as I grew up I thought it was normal to try and not develop myself and to think of myself, with no resources to draw upon in myself I was then expected to sacrifice myself for others.  I talk to students who can not say that they even accept themselves, let alone build into themselves.  Some shame stops them because they were not told they are accepted enough outside of performance.  People in their present feed the shame by making them a scapegoat for their own need to control and dominate.  People who have a poor view of self too often connect themselves to people who have an inflated view of self.  In both cases the self is not built up.  A childish, stunted self tries to be an adult and compensates by withdrawing into a corner or dominating everyone in the room so that no-one can get close.

The adult builds themselves up in the most holy faith.  They learn about God with eagerness, and feeding on the word of God develops faith which rides through storms and is not easily shaken.  The Holy Spirit guides our prayer when we are dependent on Him for what to say.  The relationship cultivated through the prayerful conversation keeps us in our love relationship with God.  Reflecting on His mercy and grace develops an attitude of gratitude.  I am grateful for iron sharpens iron relationships with friends and students.  I am grateful that a student has come in and wants to chat with me now.  God is using these times to build me up and I hope he builds me up in the conversation.

 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, ¹⁵ to execute judgement on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁶ These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favouritism to gain advantage.

Enoch

Before we get into the meaning of the passage, our minds go on a rabbit trail.  Enoch is mentioned here, but this quotation does not come from Genesis.  In Genesis we just read that Enoch was one who walked with God and did not die.  God took him to heaven without the necessity of passing through death.  One preacher I heard growing up at Underwood Chapel said it well when he said that Enoch walked so long with God that when it came time for them to part at the end of one day, God said, “How about if we go home to my house today?”  Enoch was a righteous man, so where do these words of his come from.  Jude was familiar with other books that described the life of Enoch, not least among these was 1 Enoch.  In that book there is a passage that describes the words that Jude quotes here.  1 Enoch 1:9 reads, “And behold!  He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones to execute judgement upon all, and to destroy the ungodly:  And to convict all flesh of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

If we know that it is not biblical, how can Jude quote it?  A couple of explanations come to mind.  The most likely is that he was inspired to validate this part of a text which is in other parts uninspired.  Another explanation is that he uses it as an illustration in just the same way that a modern preacher might refer to a quotation in a well-known movie in order to support his main point.  In either case, the fact that this is not biblical does not invalidate its truth.  The truth is that there are ungodly people in the church who come together for social support, or financial support, or to bolster their own egos.  Some people do not come to church because of God, they come to church because of themselves.  As the church seeks to teach and grow, it has to distance itself from such people.  How do you spot them?  They grumble and complain that nothing goes right for them.  They see their problems as located outside of themselves.  They do not see their need for change.  Bad things just happen to them.  Then they grumble and complain.  Their children don’t behave rightly, their worship service doesn’t cater to them, and the wrong people are leading in the wrong ways.  In their own minds they are committed, faithful and diligent, but even the casual onlooker can see that they blame others when the problems are close to home.

Prayer

May I not be one of the ungodly who pursue church fellowship to manipulate the crowd.  May I not be one who sees all their problems as circumstances that can’t be avoided.  May I see hardship as opportunity for growth.  May I enter into community for the sake of the community.

Questions

1. How do you solve the problem that Enoch quoted a book that isn’t scripture?
2. What does this say about the truth in books that aren’t in the Bible?
3. What were the recipients of the letter faced with?
4. How would you respond to Enoch?
5. How might it be possible that the reason life seems so difficult is because of your own attitude?

¹¹ Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

¹² These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

What is the way of Cain?  There are traditions outside of the Bible that Jude is probably referring to.  However, Cain, Balaam and Korah all were hung up on themselves.  Cain was petulant because God did not look on his offering as equal with his brother’s.  Abel offered the first-fruits to God.  This does not only include what came first, but it includes what was first in quality.  Cain seems to have given his offering with indifference and duty.  He was not focused with lavishing love on another, but he wanted to look after himself.  Balaam was hired to prophesy against Israel.  His donkey tried to stop him and God warned him not to do something so foolish as to prophesy against those set apart by God.  However, he persisted in trying to prophesy against Israel but was unable to.  For profit he insighted the King of Moab to send his women to sexually lead the men of Israel astray.  The end was disastrous for Israel and Moab who both suffered at the hands of God.  Korah turned people against Moses but the motives are somewhat unclear.  It seems that they wanted Moses to share his power with them, but he did not.  In summary, then, false teachers are seeking glory, praise, wealth, and power.  We have to gauge ourselves to see if that is our motive.

No wonder, then, that these leaders are ruining the church.  They feed their own appetites by devouring the very flock that they claim to serve.  Theough they should be bringing life to the churches and its congregants, they are sucking the life out of the church.  Instead of being creative and bringing life, they are the anti-creation of the primordial seas of chaos.  They destroy.  We see, too, allusion to the spiritual nature behind the teachers’ physical presence.  Like fallen angels, they will be consumed with darkness.

Listen to Wandering Stars and read the lyrics below the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEQNAZGoZrw

³ Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. ⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about^[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Spoiling for a Fight

We are urged to fight.  It seems like many of us do not like conflict.  we would prefer to hope that everything would pass over without any nasty words or other cruelty passing between us.  However, whether it is perceived as cruel or not, the truth must be spoken.  Sometimes the truth has to be unleashed because holding back the tongue will have far worse consequences.  We should live at peace with everyone, as far as it rests on us, but sometimes peace can not be preserved without losing too much.  In many churches people arrive who want to hear pleasant things from the pulpit.  I mean that there are some people who can not abide the truth if it demands change or uncomfortable thoughts.  They will go around the church seeking comfort and seeking to promote what is called Post-Christian Moralistic Therapeutic deism by Christian Smith and others.  People want to melt Christianity into a balm that provides comforting words in life and meaningless platitudes at a graveside.  We need to fight this desire for relief with a desire to change.  It will mean fighting for control of the church for those whose focus is fun, selfishness, or even permissiveness.  God’s people are set apart and our difference is one of walking on an adventure not one of sitting in an armchair grading the worship leader as one grades a contestant on American idol. 

Prayer

Help us to know when to contend for things that are being swept under the carpet by our culture.  I think of same-sex marriage.  Is this a battle that we need to fight?  I think of the way that we do not take care of the poor.  Do we need to be stirred?

Questions

1. How are Peter and Jude similar?
2. What did Jude want to write about?
3. Why did Jude change his mind?
4. What issues bring conflict in the church these days?
5. How might you be challenged to become a ‘contender’?

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for^[a] Jesus Christ:

² Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

No Proof Text for Deity

Douglas J. Moo writes this about whether Jude 1,2 could be used as a proof text for Jesus’ deity:

Once we recognize the theological overtones in the phrase “servant of Jesus Christ,” we can find in the phrase a reminder of the exalted nature of Jesus.  his exalted status is something that, after centuries of orthodox teaching, most of us take for granted.  But many do not, and many who do give him a unique status fail to give him “equal billing” with God the Father (e.g., Jehovah’s Witnesses; Mormons).

True, we cannot use Jude’s description of Christ as a proof text for his deity.  But the phrase clearly moves in that direction.  It is, in fact, in just this transfer of language about God in the Old Testament to Jesus that we find some of the best New Testament evidence for Jesus’ deity.  Specific texts in which Jesus is called “God,” such as John 1:1; 20:28; Romans 9:5; 2 Peter 1:1; Titus 2:13, and so on, are important.  But even more impressive is the abundant New Testament evidence that the early Christians, most from rigidly monotheistic backgrounds, came to act toward Jesus and to speak of him as if he were God.  They worshiped him (e.g. Matt. 14:33; 28:9; 17; cf. Heb. 1:6); they applied Old Testament verses about Yahweh to him (e.g. Rom. 10:13); they prayed to him (e.g., Acts 7:59). Though much less direct than a proof text and harder to use in arguing with Jehovah’s Witnesses on our doorstep, these indications of how the early Christians viewed Jesus are some of the most valuable arguments for his full deity.

So it would seem that we can argue from this text that a significant change happened in the perception of Jude regarding his brother, Jesus,  The family did not buy into Jesus’ descriptions about himself as he was raised with them.  Imagine having an oldest brother who, rather than just acting like he ruled the household, was God incarnate.  It would be a hard pill to swallow.  However, both James and Jude acknowledge that Jesus is totally other than they thought he was.

Prayer

Jesus I am thankful for these texts that reinforce our faith in who you are.  You transcend our limited perceptions of you as merely human. You are more than just an example of how to live a selfless life.  You are the God and Creator of the Universe.  You are distinct from and co-equal to the Father.  You are to be praised and worshiped.  Amen.

Questions

1. By his own account, who is Jude?
2. How might Jesus’ deity be indicated in these verses?
3. Why does Jude expand on the traditional greeting to include mercy, peace, and love?
4. What are your views on Jesus’ deity?
5. How does the fact that Jesus is God inform your life?

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. ¹⁵ And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, ¹⁶ as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. ¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. ¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

The Standard

In light of all that Peter has written about the end of time, and the final judgment of God on mankind, Peter promotes the same alert living that we find in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24,25).  After the disciples had asked Jesus when the last days would be, Jesus tells them that war and famine will be common occurrences in the times following his advent on earth.  However, when he returns it will be the kind of event that the world could in no way miss.  He encourages his disciples to live prepared and vigilant.  Here, then, Peter shows that he took Jesus’ words to heart.  He encourages them to be found holy and living in harmony with each other.  The inference is that it would be bad to be found at odds with people and corrupted.   To be set apart by God means that our lives should show how set apart we are.

Paul also writes about Jesus’ return, but it is acknowledged by Peter that Paul’s letters take some interpreting.  It is in the interpretation that things can get twisted and lose their intended meaning.  For example, many people fall out about the nature of the end times today, but they miss Paul and Peter’s emphasis on peace and unity.

Peter already thought of the writings of Paul as authoritative on the level with Old Testament writings.  This is important for those looking at the canon of scripture.  Canon means measurement, and asks the question, “By what standard can books written in the ancient world be certified as scripture?”  If we accept this book as written by Peter, we can see that Peter had measured the writings of Paul and found them to meet that standard (canon) which he was looking for.  Peter was sometimes in conflict with Paul, but he had to acknowledge that Paul’s writing was authoritative.  Having been given an authority to live by, we need to be careful not to be led astray onto other paths.  We must ask ourselves what our lives are about.  What is the starting point for your way of life?  What would people say defines who you are?  What are your goals?  The Bible speaks to all these areas and gives that standard by which our choices are to be measured.

⁸ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,^[a] not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies^[b] will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed

One Day Is As A Thousand Years

We have a limited perspective as humans and none of us should forget that.  We live, at most, to just over 100 years old.  Some of my friends are already gone.  Our view of history is skewed.  The God who is outside of time can see all things at once in ways that we can not.  He created time, and I guess that means he created history.  He will know when it comes to an end and he will take his own sweet time about it.  He has patience with people.  He wants to save them.  He has given a way that will lead people back to himself.

I take a diversion here because of the challenge to my Calvinist perspective.  If God knows who will be saved and predestines them, how can it say that he is waiting so that more people would reach repentance?  Doesn’t imply he is waiting for them to choose repentance rather than choosing them?  I would say that he is waiting for the lect who are not yet saved, but I do acknowledge that the text can be used by Arminians as a seeming support to their case.

Also, the fact that this earth is destroyed clarifies my thoughts about renewal.  I have heard some say that the earth is renewed rather than destroyed and built again.  I am confused on the issue.  It does seem like ‘dissolved’ is a synonym for ‘destroyed’.  However, I could see how something can be refined by being burned up and then dissolved may describe a process by which it is reconstituted.  At what level is it important for us to understand these details?  Probably not too important.  The thrust is that justice will be done on the earth and the creation and its inhabitants will be exposed.

Exposed.  I am afraid of involuntary exposure.  We all have things that we are ashamed of.  It is good to confess sin and process it voluntarily in this life.  However, it requires places of safety and security.  Are we willing to provide those places of healing and disclosure before terrible judgment reveals all things at the end of the age.

Prayer

You could come back today.  I do not live with a constant expectation, but as I grow older it becomes more sustainable.  I am not afraid of your coming.  I wish that all this world would end, and that your own would be with you.  Now I see you in ways that are incomplete and unsustained.  I want to be constantly aware of your presence and to live with a giddy expectation of your return.

Questions

1. Why does Peter explain that one day is as a thousand years?
2. Why would some have thought God was slow?
3. Isn’t it negative to live in constant expectation of judgment?
4. How do you feel about the passage of time in general?
5. Why might you need to be reminded of the scale of God’s plan in history?

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, ² that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles, ³ knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. ⁴ They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, ⁶ and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. ⁷ But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgement and destruction of the ungodly.

Reminder

I was reminded by my mother that I missed a dental appointment today.  It was written on our calendar and I didn’t see it.  I now have regrets because I feel irresponsible.  However, my children were up all night last night and I had to take care of Amelia today.  She had two naps instead of her usual one.  I joined her on the second one.  We could say that I have an excuse, but the fact remains that I did not see the reminder and I missed it.  Peter gives us a reminder in the text above.  Each of us has capacity for thoughtful and significant living, but we miss it because we forget.  We fill our lives with things that seem important and we miss what is more important.  We are busy completing our to-do list and never quite get the time to read the Bible, pray, or think about God.  In so doing we are not mindful of God’s word, his presence, or what he wants to do.  Like I missed my dental appointment, we miss divine appointments and our lives are impoverished.

Recently I have been aware, more and more, of how I am not the man I want to be.  I have tried to organize my life spiritually to provide a service to others.  This might sound like it is in line with the second commandment, “love your neighbour as yourself,”  but it is not.  I have not put the things of God before the wants of others.  In some ways I have pandered to the dissatisfied consumerism of others and become unsatisfied myself.  I have been reminded that God has given me insight into the kind of living he wants and rather than descend to the level of others I need to uphold the standards I espouse.  For example, when I think of how my small group reports each week that they do not read their Bible regularly, I do not feel motivated to read mine.  I am too focused on them.  Instead I must continue to read the Bible for God.  When the small group could dissolve because of lack of commitment, I should remind myself of God’s command that people keep meeting together.  I should then be committed to those who show up rather than bemoan the lack of commitment others might have to me.

One thing that should inform all of our thinking is the thought of Jesus’ return.  We should live with a sense that it could be at any moment, but we are prone to forget.  In fact, the false teachers of Peter’s time were scoffing at those who lived with expectant hearts.  I know that I can think that 2000 years of waiting is a long time.  Then I remember that these huge amounts of time are nothing to God.  As America slides into a dreamless sleep, where all religious memory is lost and a new age spirituality replaces the truth, we Christians must remind each other and stay awake and alert.  Some of us are so consumed by the culture that we are unaware of our lack of authentic relationship with Jesus.  Is this a sign that we are apostate, or can we be awakened by Peter’s reminder?

Prayer

Jesus, lack of sleep leaves me drained.  I feel like I have forgotten something more than a dental appointment.  My flesh seems to drag me down and encourage my mind to turn to trivial and temporal things.  Change my mind, may it be renewed, that I may have a day when I think of you deeply and sincerely.  Let me pursue you and exhort others to do so.  May I not descend into apathy, but be conscious of what is good, and right, and true.

Questions

1. What had the recipients forgotten?
2. What two elements are referenced in the passage?
3. How do you think Peter adapts his style for a Greek audience?
4. How do others around you teach you to forget?
5. How do you counter the apathy and forgetfulness around you?