Wednesday 29th November - Jude

Today’s chapter is Jude

Tom writes:

In his very forceful denunciation of false teachers Jude seems like he is playing bingo with every naughty bloke from the Old Testament; Sodom and Gomorrah, Korah, Balaam, Cain. Jude name-checks them. Bingo! Jude also deploys hyped up hyperbole when heaping holy hell upon the heretics. They are like bad clouds, bad trees, bad waves and bad stars. All of them bad things. All of them false. And that, I think, points to the primary thing we can take from this letter; that we should not be complacent about the threat of false teaching. We are going to need to contend for the faith. Let’s try to pick our way through this minefield. None of us want to be the angry bloke who causes a church split over a misplaced comma. I think we realise it isn’t helpful to constantly howl about heretics. But - if we are to trust the authority and wisdom of the New Testament -  we must beware going too far in our desire to love and be generous, to “let things slide” and generally to be nice. The key seems to revolve around who we let preach; who we give ear to; perhaps who we follow on social media. False teaching is not a small thing. It is a massive threat. It has the worst of all consequences; it will eventually send people to destruction.

Most commentators think Jude was a brother of Jesus. You know, one of the ones who initially called Jesus mad but then - after the resurrection - decided he was God. Jude knows what it is like to sit on the wrong side of Jesus, to fall off the cliff of faith, only to be snatched back by God’s mercy before he hit the flames. He wants us all to avoid such a terrifying and ugly experience. And so he calls us to deliberately and repeatedly build ourselves up in the truth of the faith. He wants us to pray in the Spirit and to remain conscious of God’s love. Essentially Jude wants us to keep his brother at the centre; to keep our Christianity about Christ. So here’s the question. Are our conversations at small group keeping the main thing the main thing? Are the people who preach to us prioritising the Prince of Peace? When people ask questions about God and faith, does our answer make reference to who Jesus actually was and what Jesus actually did? Is our life putting Jesus on his throne and making his truth our own? If we aren’t, let’s come back to Him. Let’s stick to the one who can keep us from stumbling. Let’s refocus on the one who can keep us pure and keep us true. Then our future will be joy and we will live without fault forever more.

Question for reflection

Are the people you are listening to elevating Jesus in your eyes?