Reflections on the Epistle of Jude: the Faith We Have to Contend for

A deeper apprehension, through the power of the Holy Spirit, of the prevailing evil in the professing church turns Jude from his original intention. He had purposed writing to the faithful of the salvation common to all Christians, but his heart was moved to exhort them to be faithful and earnest in contending for their most holy faith. “ Beloved,” he says, “ when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” We must go back for the true ground of faith, not to the fathers, nor to the founder of our adopted system, but to the Lord and His apostles. The weight of antiquity, the authority of great names, and the influence of favorite teachers, are not enough to command our faith. We must have a revelation from God Himself. “ Let that, therefore,” says John, “abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning (the beginning of Christ). If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.” (1 John 2:24; 4:6.) This is what we are to contend for, and to contend earnestly for; not so much to attack what is false, as to contend for the plain, simple, unmistakable word of the living God. All theories, dogmas, and systems must be brought to this test; and if the connecting link with holy scripture is not found, they cannot be matters of faith, though sometimes they may be matters of instruction, either directly or indirectly. But it will ever be found that even sincere Christians contend more earnestly for a favorite notion than for the positive truth of scripture, the latter being quite capable of standing alone on its own basis, but the former requires all the ardor of our zeal to uphold it.
“Remember therefore,” says the blessed Lord to the angel of the church in Sardis, “ how thou hast received and heard.” We must go back to the original to judge the present state. This is the ground of our responsibility—what we have received, and what we have heard. We must account for both—the grace we have received, and the truth we have been taught. Hold fast these, says the Lord, and repent; and, says His servant, earnestly contend, agonize, for them. And there is another saying of the Lord on this subject of the most solemn weight, which we have recorded in Luke 9:26: “ For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.” Few, if any, who profess Christianity would admit that they are ashamed of the name of Christ; but few, if any, could say, I have never been ashamed of His words. We know of no warning in scripture more deeply searching, more thoroughly sifting, or more detective of our unfaithfulness, than this passage—” Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words.” The Lord had just said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” In how many instances we have failed to take up our daily cross, He only knows; and to neglect or avoid the plain force of His words, is to be ashamed of them. How far have they governed our actions, especially in defending the faith we hold, showing grace to our enemies, kindness to all around us, love to our brethren, and in the innumerable details of daily life? The words of Christ are often so directly opposed to the sanctioned maxims of society, that they are willingly overlooked, and consequently we are drawn into the smooth flowing current of things, and His words are treated as merely figurative or obsolete. We speak, of course, in general terms; every one must judge himself in the light of His sayings, which liveth and abideth forever: but we fear that the addition to His name, “ and of my words,” has not been sufficiently thought of; their depth and breadth are without measure.
Take two examples: one as to social life, and one as to ecclesiastical position. 1. The golden rule—” Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matt. 7:12.) Surely we must all feel how far short we have come, how utterly we have failed, in carrying out the true spirit of this divine maxim. It would be out of place here to refer to particular instances, but they are the words of our blessed Lord and Master, and as His disciples we ought to allow them their due place and full weight in our hearts and ways. It is a rule of easy and of universal application. Are all my dealings with others, whether buyer or seller, master or servant, on the principle that I would like myself to be dealt with? The Lord would have His disciples to act, not according to the ways of men, but according to the grace of their heavenly Father. It is the spirit of this relationship He would have us to cherish. He had just said, “ If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.”
It is not a mere principle or dry rule affecting our transactions with others, but it implies habitual communion with the God of all grace. It is a direct appeal to our spiritual feelings as the children of our Father which is in heaven, and as such knowing His ways in grace with the evil and the good, with the just and the unjust. “ Be ye therefore perfect,” says our Lord, “ even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” This does not refer to the absence of sin in our nature, for as long as we live here below the principle of evil will be in us; but He calls upon us to be perfect in grace according to the perfect pattern which we see in our heavenly Father’s dealings with His enemies now. This is the substance of the golden rule—perfect grace. It is supposed that we know the Father, that we know what His grace is to the evil as well as the good, and what will be well pleasing to Him on the part of His children, and that, whatever others may do to us, our business is to act towards them as becometh the children of such a parentage. What true dignity! What real nobility, both of birth and nature! How pitiful to see such high-born souls stooping to what is mean and selfish, and even questionable as to principle, in order to increase their earthly riches! Their spiritual condition must be immensely lowered by such a course. How can they walk in fellowship with the Father of mercies when their thought is, how can we save here, and gain there? and that without considering the welfare of others? Self is the ruling passion, not the honor and dignity of the heaven-born family. Great and eternal is their loss, though their riches may increase. They will be as rust upon the soul. Even the Jew under the law, that knew God and acted graciously, puts all such to shame, “ for this is the law and the prophets.”
There is one other passage to which we would refer under this head, as we fear it is also much lost sight of. “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Matt. 26:29.) This is the Nazarite vow. Christ separates Himself from the joys of earth till the Father’s kingdom come. He takes the place of the heavenly Nazarite; and we, being associated with Him as the ascended Man, are under His vow, and ought to be true Nazarites during His absence. This is the Christian’s calling—separation in heart and spirit, as well as in practice, from the pleasures of the world. Wine is the symbol of the natural delights of men; but Christ here says, “I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” That is, He separates Himself from joy with His people on the earth until the millennium; and if we as Christians are seeking the pleasures of the world, the joys of earth, the natural delights of men, He can have no fellowship with us) it must be Without Christ, He is a heavenly Nazarite.
Now we may see something of the immense weight and the extensive application of the words, or sayings, of the blessed Lord, and how important it is not to overlook them, or to suppose that they are not applicable now, times being so changed. “ The word of the Lord endureth forever.” If the golden rule is intended to be a guide and guard for us in all our dealings and ways in this world, the Nazarite vow should separate us entirely from its unhallowed pleasures. And when the conversion of the soul is real, and Christ known and enjoyed, this will be no hardship. It will be an immense relief. Like the spouse in the Song of Songs, every young Christian should be able to say from the heart, “ Thy love is better than wine”—Thy love to me, my Savior and Lord, is better far than all the attractions and entertainments of this present life. In Thy presence there is fullness of joy, and at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Reflections on the Epistle of Jude: the Faith We Have to Contend for
2. Ecclesiastical position. As to our second example, are there not thousands of true Christians who would honestly shrink from the thought of being ashamed of the name of Christ, but who have never fairly considered His words, or the words of His apostles, as to their ecclesiastical position? Multitudes, without examination, remain in the religious systems in which they were brought up; others may make a choice according to their own opinion, for on this subject most men think that they may please themselves, just as they would do in choosing a business or a profession. They speak of essentials and non-essentials, and the constitution of the church is reckoned to belong to the latter. Still, the saying of the divine Master remains unchanged—” Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” And has He not said, as to the principle of our coming together to worship, “ Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them?” This passage clearly implies that the constitution of the christian assembly should be according to His revealed will, not mere human opinion or expediency. To constitute a church according to the opinions of men, or to make choice of such an one, is plainly to set aside the word and the authority of Christ, seeing He has spoken so plainly.
Although this is not the place to explain such a passage, as we have only referred to it as an illustration of the point before us, yet we may say that to be gathered together in the name of Christ must be with His approval, with His blessing, and under the sanction of His presence. “ There am I in the midst of them.” Here we find two things essential to the assembly of God: 1, Christ as the center; 2, a power that gathers believers to that center—the Holy Ghost. No room is left for human opinion; at the same time we are bound to examine, and prayerfully to weigh, the words of our blessed Lord. It is not said, where two or three meet, this would imply that the human will was at work; but where two or three are gathered, this implies that a divine power is at work in gathering.
This subject is fully developed by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians, but we will only refer to one verse at present. “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” This is an exhortation not to form an assembly, nor to maintain the unity of our own spirits, supposing all to be of one mind; but to keep the unity of the Holy Spirit’s forming—”the unity of the Spirit” This is the expression in principle of the body of Christ, the church of the living God. “ There is one body, and one Spirit.” Are we endeavoring to keep, to maintain, to exhibit, this unity in the bond of peace? Are we honestly desiring to do so? or would we be ashamed to be found in the place where these words would surely set us—outside of every human system, in company with a rejected Christ, and with those who have gone outside the camp to where He is?
How searching, then, Ο my fellow Christian, is this saying of our Lord, “ Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” It weighs heavily and solemnly on the mind of the writer, and fain would he press its weight and importance on the minds of all his readers. May the Lord give us to be perfect in grace, separate as the Nazarite, outside the camp, and to contend earnestly for the whole truth of God, especially for the precious sayings of our Lord and Master, Christ Jesus.
We now return, after this long digression, to verse 4: “ For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here we have the two great elements of evil that were introduced into the church by the instruments of Satan during the days of the apostles—the denial of the rights of Christ as Lord and Master in His own house, and turning the grace of God into a principle of dissoluteness; as many have said, in excuse of the grossest guilt, “ Are we not as God has made us?” Thus was the way cleared by the enemy for the full indulgence of the human will, it was set free from everything that restrained it.
The history of the outward professing church, from the days of Jude down to the present moment, is the history of the operation of these two elements of evil under the fair name of Christianity; for although the authority of Christ is denied, His name is owned, to give weight and sanction to the pretensions of men. In one brief verse the parent evils that have afflicted and corrupted the church of Christ in all ages are here given. We see them at work in the present day on every side: where is it they are not to be seen, more or less? Infidelity, rationalism, and ritualism are abounding on every side. Yet God, in His infinite mercy, may use the very parading of the cross, and the sanctity that is thrown around the name of Jesus, to save precious souls. Many are saved through faith in that blessed name and His cross, though mixed up with much that obscures the plain truth of the gospel. “All that the Father giveth me,” says Christ, “shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will in nowise cast out.” (John 6:37.) This word infallibly secures the gathering out of all such to Him, wherever they may be. Hence we find souls are converted in the most corrupt systems of men; but the ignorance in which they are found as to the mind of God, proves that the Holy Ghost who quickens them does not teach them beyond the system of which they are members. It is questionable if a person ever sees beyond what he is.
Jude now speaks of the character and judgment of apostasy. The Second Epistle of Peter, which is similar in various ways to the Epistle of Jude, has been spoken of by some commentators as the same, or as if the one borrowed from the other, but this is a mistake of unbelief; they are essentially different: Peter speaks of sin, and the reward of unrighteousness, and Jude distinctively of apostasy. “ If God spared not the angels that sinned” says Peter; but Jude speaks of them as “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation.” This is apostasy—departure from the first estate, from the place that the goodness of God had set them in. This is the solemn character of apostasy, not merely sin or unrighteousness, but abandoning the position in which the grace of God may place us at any given time. It may be individual; alas, how often it is so! and how completely both the testimony and the vessel that carried it are ruined. In place of the humility of faith, there is the pride of reason and the exaltation of man. The truth has no deadlier enemies than those who once professed to be its friends, when Satan has done his terrible work. But Jude is speaking of the moral corruption which characterizes the general state of Christendom, and cites several examples as solemn warnings to the professing church.
Examples Of Apostasy.
1. The case of Israel.—The Jews, typically, were a sacred people, yet fell in the wilderness, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. “I will therefore put you in remembrance [warn you], though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.” Unbelief was the root of their apostasy, their downfall, and their judgment. It was not a question of immorality and corruption, like Sodom and Gomorrah, but of abandoning the truth and the ways of God. This is the deadly evil which pervades the general mass of professing Christians. Their walk is blameless; they may even be charitable, and cover all their ways with a strong odor of sanctity. But the truth, the plain word of God, is rejected, the authority of Christ is denied, the operations of the Holy Spirit in the assembly are hindered, His presence as sovereign leader is not acknowledged, and the testimony, as established by God at the beginning, is corrupted; and, alas for the church! with every appearance of becoming reverence, there is full license for the will of man, which manifests itself in rebellion against God, by ignoring His word, and carrying out its own superstitions. And this is called human progress, or the universal progression of man; but all is ripening for the approaching judgments, and of this solemn fact Jude faithfully warns professing Christians.
2. The case of Angels.—Those spoken of by Peter sinned, these by Jude, apostatized. They departed from the position in which God had placed them, hence their judgment is spoken of in strong terms—they are “reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.”
3. Sodom and Gomorrah.—Immorality, in this case.
is the cause of judgment: but it is evident that it was excessive, and contrary even to fallen nature. Yet Capernaum, the most highly favored of places, falls under a heavier judgment than depraved Sodom. “ And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell; for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.” Most solemn thought for our highly-favored land, and for every mere empty professor! If there was one city in the land of Israel more favored than another, it was Capernaum; and yet the judgment of this city will be more unsparing than that of Sodom. And why? Not because they were guilty of grosser sin than Sodom, but because they refused to listen to the voice of heavenly wisdom; they believed not in Jesus, though most of His mighty works had been done among them. Theirs was the deeper and darker sin of unbelief. Alas, how little this sin is thought of, and even by those who could not tolerate the taint of immorality! They would be offended—and properly so—with the slightest impropriety, yet the most Christ-dishonoring unbelief may be cherished, and the word of God, as for all practical purposes, totally disregarded. Books of human composition have taken the place of the book of God, as to the regulation of all their christian services. The Lord is very merciful in view 0. all this, He is long-suffering, slow to wrath, but when He does rise up to judgment, who shall be able to stand? Oh that we could reach the ear of every mere nominal professor who is zealous for empty forms, but has no faith in Jesus, and no proper regard for His word! In the anguish of our spirit, knowing the state of multitudes, we can only cry to Thee, Lord. Raise up, qualify, send forth messengers, who will break in upon their soul-ruining delusion.
4. Dreamers, in whom there is no truth.—Contempt for authority, self-will, an unbridled tongue, speaking evil of v the apostasy common in our own day. M Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” Even the angels who excel in power and might rail not, but appeal to the judgment of God. How daring is man, and how prone to give license to the tongue!