Jude verse 10 is a warning against false teachers:
The
deceivers among you despise what they do not understand; they live without
reason like animals, reacting only with primal instincts; and their ways are
corrupting them.
Jude is warning the church against people that are
corrupting the word of God and the message of Jesus. This is huge today with
the “Mega Churches” and often biases people from them. This is why it is
important to READ YOUR BIBLE and not just assume the preacher is feeding you
the truth. Jude is making sure we are diligent in watching for these teachers.
I’ll continue pick on Joel Osteen who preaches what people
want to hear. He was on Larry King in 2008 where Larry asked if Jesus was the
only way. His response was “I don’t know”. This is “un-Orthodox” and is totally
against the message Jesus spoke. Either you believe Jesus is the Messiah or
not, there is no “maybe” in the eternal world. Jude is protecting us from that.
2 Peter verses 1:5 – 8 lays down what we need to do as “believers”
in Jesus:
5 To achieve this, you
will need to add virtue to your faith, and then knowledge to your virtue; 6 to
knowledge, add discipline; to discipline, add endurance; to endurance, add
godliness; 7 to godliness, add affection for others
as sisters and brothers; and to affection, at last, add love. 8 For
if you possess these traits and multiply them, then you will never be
ineffective or unproductive in your relationship with our Lord Jesus the Anointed;
Our path is not just to say a prayer and then attend church
each Sunday; we need to grow our faith and relationship with God. Peter is
making sure we understand we need to grow and mature and this is the simple
path that starts with faith. Knowledge will give you an understanding of the links
from the Old Testament to Jesus being the “One”. Discipline will allow you to
remain focused. Endurance will allow you to handle life’s problems with an
eternal perspective. Godliness comes later once you have established a solid
footing in the Lord. Affection and love are by products of knowing and implementing
the truth.
Verse 1:9 is the other side of this coin:
but if you don’t have these
qualities, then you will be nearsighted and blind, forgetting that your past
sins have been washed away.
We must not dwell in the past and live in the now. Sure we
may have messed up royally and could even be on death row for our sins, the key
is not to keep dredging up old wrongs and punishing yourself or others for
them. Sure the death row inmate will still pay the price for their actions, but
they should remain at peace with their salvation through Jesus.
Verse 2:21 is a warning to us who are “in the know”:
They would have been better off
never knowing the way of righteousness than to have known it and then abandoned
the sacred commandment they had previously received and dived back into
the muck!
If you know something is wrong and still do it has
larger ramifications than unintentionally doing the same thing. If you notice
in the Hebraic Law there is a difference between not knowing and premeditated
sins. It’s the same today, if you accidently kill a person the penalty is much
less than if you plan their murder. So know and don’t do!!