Faithful on Fridays Blog

Every week I have an inclination in my mind of what I’m going to write on Friday and sometimes God totally changes the direction. Jude experienced that when he sat down to write a joyful letter of encouragement to the church regarding their shared salvation in Jesus … God had other plans. He knew something else was more critical to the church at this point: Deception.

Now that’s a loaded word … in the church? Yes, we’re continually to be aware and on guard of those who’ll try to lead us away from the pure gospel by slipping in some attitudes or perspectives that don’t represent Christ. This new writing that Jude didn’t plan was to remind believers that we’re in a fight, a battle, to keep our faith strong and holy. ‘Contend for the faith’ (vs. 3), that’s combat language for the church to stand our ground and even step into the ‘good fight of faith’ (1 Tim. 6:12).

Clearly Jude had experienced people, false teachers, sneaking in without anyone noticing; it’s happened before. He used many examples in this message, highlighting sexual sin, and those who excuse it. If you go back to Gen. 6 you’ll find ‘sons of God’ and ‘daughters of men’ engaging in sexual sin that God viewed as wickedness, in Gen. 9 Noah got drunk, stripped, and his son lusted after him. Who can forget the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18) and the result of their sexual sin? God is serious.

This writing was a wake-up call for the church to fight for holiness, reject those who pervert God’s grace by calling sin acceptable, in some circumstances; He sees that attitude as denying Jesus, who is our Master and Lord. The world declares that sensuality, any kind of sex, is OK; just watch a movie, a Tik Tok video, or other social media, Jude is speaking to the Church today. Fight for purity.

Many examples are given to help us understand that this fight isn’t a new one, godly and ungodly people have always been a contrast by design. He cites the destruction of Egyptians who refused to believe, fallen angels who were expelled from heaven, and Sodom and Gomorrah; they will all suffer for eternity (vs. 5-7). 

What does that mean for us today? These people, counterfeit Christians, who secretly influence our thinking may attend our church, Bible study, or serve alongside us, but they’re actually what Jesus called, ‘weeds among the wheat’ (Matt. 13:37-43), making grace seem very cheap. “God understands”, “He forgives me”, or “I still believe” is what we may hear, in spite of what Scripture teaches: be aware. False, worldly teachings are stealthy, can fool you into softening God’s Word against sin, and are dangerous to Christ-followers (Gal. 1:6-7).

I’m thankful Jude changed his direction giving this short message to help us in the fight for faith in Jesus Christ and live according to His divine plan; you may have noticed, it’s always better than ours.