Jude 17-23

Jude has told his audience negatively to beware of false teachers, but he hasn’t told them positively how to prepare for false teachers. That’s what he does in this section. In v17-19, Jude says to remember what the true teachers have said, in v20-21 he gives an exhortation to growth that has four parts to it, and in v22-23 he says to show mercy. In this very complete and positive way, Jude gives instructions on how we can not only survive and defend in this world where Christianity has been infiltrated by false teachers, but how we can thrive and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

¹⁷But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." ¹⁹These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. ²⁰But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. ²¹Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. ²²Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear--hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

It’s discouraging to see false prophets in the church. You want to think that at least the church would be a safe place. But the reality is that there’s never a time when you’re completely safe from false teaching. We’ve got to remember that and be on our toes. So Jude begins in v17-18 by calling his audience to remember the various biblical admonitions regarding false teachers. The apostles prophesied of unbelievers scoffing. Matthew 24:11; Acts 20:29-30; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1, 4:3; 2 Peter 3:3 There are a number of places we could go in Scripture to see these warnings. In v19, Jude again lists some characteristics of these false teachers. “Don’t forget what they look like!” They’re worldly-minded. They present themselves as super-spiritual, but actually they are completely carnal, consumed with the things of this world. They claim to have spiritual gifts, but they don’t really even have the Spirit. And they cause division. Now be careful with this last one, because often those who stand on the truth of God’s Word and the sound doctrine are those who are accused of being divisive. It’s those who depart from God’s Word who are the divisive ones. So Jude says first, “Remember the Word of God.”

You’ve heard that the best offense is a good defense. But the problem is that nobody scores. The result is a standoff. Well, Jude turns it around and says here that the best defense is a good offense. If you are scoring – growing – all the time, then your defense isn’t on the field. You’re never defending against sin, because you’re on fire with Christian growth. That’s a good place to be. I love to experience the passion of studying God’s Word, because I want to do it so much that I don’t have time to meander in the tempting fields of surfing the internet or flipping through the TV channels. That passion’s not always there, so I have to play defense at times, but it’s great to be growing. One of the best ways to defend against falling into false teaching is to attend to the positive things of the Christian life, so Jude gives us a four-fold direction for growth in v20-21:

He exhorts us to grow in doctrine, prayer, experience, and hope. Build yourself up in the most holy faith (doctrine), pray in the Holy Spirit (prayer), keep yourselves in God’s love (experience), and wait for the mercy of Jesus to bring you to eternal life (hope). That’s good stuff. First, devote yourself to doctrine. Know how to defend your faith. Why do believe this about that? Can you show me in Scripture where this happens as a result of that? And so on. Second, we’re dependent on God in this life, and so we pray. Paul tells us to put on the armor of God. We get the same thing here from Jude. People of prayer will not easily be led astray. Healthy, regular, biblical prayer is an index of a healthy Christian life. Matthew Henry once said that “those who live without prayer live without God in this world.” Third, live in the sphere of God’s love, dwell on it, delight in it, draw on it, and rejoice by it. When you are overwhelmed in the sense of God’s grace and love for you, you are not vulnerable to the false teachers’ pitch. There’s nothing we need if we lean constantly on God in Christ. Fourth, hope for mercy at Christ’s return unto eternal life. The idea here is to say, “Come Lord Jesus! Maranatha!” And nobody who doesn’t know where they stand with God based on sound doctrine, prayer, and experience, would dare long for the return of Christ apart from the mercy of God unto eternal life. Jesus is our blessed hope – but He is not that to unbelievers. So grow in those things aggressively.

Finally, in v22-23, Jude is telling us that Christians are to deal with erring brethren wisely and mercifully. Jude speaks of three categories of people in danger: those who are doubting; those who are duped and need to be saved from the fire, and those who are devoted to false teaching as need mercy mixed with fear. First, we are to be merciful to the doubting, people who are confused by false teaching. They’re not sure what to believe. We’re not to be harsh; we’re to deal with them wisely and compassionately, distinguishing between the weak and the willful. Second, the duped are those who bought into the lies of false doctrine without realizing it. They’ve been duped. They’ve committed to false teaching, having been misled, and so we need to deal with them urgently and directly – saving and snatching them out of the fire. Third, those are so far into false teaching that there’s probably no turning back. They seem gone, but we are to still be merciful to them with a godly fear. We don’t associate with them; we hate their behavior – even their clothing. But there is to be mercy mixed with fear because of God’s divine mercy shown to us.

Let Jonah’s failure in this regard be an example for us. Here’s another example, given by Derek Thomas: In Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf, early on, was talking with Frodo about Bilbo’s previous adventure. Frodo says, “It’s a pity Bilbo didn’t kill him (Gollum / Smeagol) when he had the chance.” And Gandalf responds, “Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life… Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends… The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.” And as you probably know, that’s exactly what happens. The mercy of Bilbo to that wretched creature ends up saving the day in the end. “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord. So we need to show mercy – mixed with fear. God holds sinners responsible for their sins, but He also reaches out to them in mercy. If you really understand the doctrine of God’s sovereign mercy, you will not be judgmental or proud. You will become a messenger of God’s mercy.