Week 51 Jude
I read Jude today.
I didn’t come away with the feeling that Jude was an indifferent or comme-ci-comme-ca kind of guy. Of course, the problem he was talking about was a biggish one.
He said he was writing: because some godless people have wormed their way in among you saying that God’s forgiveness allows you to live immoral lives.
If those people had come to the church and taught that God’s forgiveness allowed me to live a moral life then no problem.
Or if they had come to the church and taught that satanic deceptions could bamboozle me into living an immoral life then again, no problem.
But it was more like they said it’s okay to act in exactly the way that the Lord said it’s not okay to act.
So Jude wrote his seriously fearsome letter.
By contrast, at the end of the letter Jude says what believing people in the church should be aiming for: …continue to build your lives on the foundation of your holy faith. And continue to pray as you are directed by the Holy Spirit. Live in such a way that God’s love can bless you as you wait for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you. Show mercy to those whose faith is wavering.
I read it a couple of times, and Jude doesn’t say anything to advocate immorality.
Note: quotes from Jude 4, 20-22 (NLT)