Immoral teachers and Heresies

Jude verses 1-2

This letter was written as a warning to the church against immoral teachers and heresies, which if believed will endanger the faith of believers.  How different Jude sees himself than many who attend church today.  These are his words: “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.” Some have wondered why Jude did not come out and say, I am the half brother of Jesus, but instead he stated, and a brother of James.  It could have been his earlier unbelief in Jesus found in John 7:5, “For not even his brothers believed in him.”  It was after the Resurrection that Jude and his brothers put their faith in Jesus Christ, you can find the account in Acts 1:14, “All of these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the woman and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

This letter was written to the Church, and the Church was never a building or a denomination: it has one head and that is the God/Man Jesus Christ.  The apostle Paul gives this insight; “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”  (Ephesians 1:22-23, ESV)  We are also told in Ephesians 5:23, “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is, Savior.”

We do not enter into a denomination, but into Christ by His grace and the faith He has given us, and by doing so we become members of the body of Christ, and the Church is His bride.  In 2 Corinthians 11:2, the apostle Paul has this to say to the church, “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.”

So this thing we often refer to as the Church, when looking at some grand building made by the hands of man, is far from the Church.  The Church has one head, His name is Jesus Christ, we who come by faith do not have anything to brag about, for it was God who gave it to us and we have entered into a personal relationship by that faith with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  We are one body, and the apostle Paul explains how it all works together in Romans 12:4-8,“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

The Holy Spirit made clear to Jude that He wanted you and I to know these truths; we are loved by the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.  And the Holy Spirit wants us to experience in this present darkness, mercy, peace, and that it would be multiplied to us that are in a personal relationship with Christ.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice