Why did Jude write to the churches about apostasy? What is apostasy and how do we recognize apostates?
As we learned previously in the study of Jude’s reason for exhortation, certain intruders have joined the churches to which he writes. Jude describes them as ungodly people who pervert God’s grace. He accuses these apostates of denying our Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude
5 [NASB] Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.
Why a reminder from the Old Testament?
The approach of the church is different in Christ than that of the Jewish culture from which they have been redeemed by the Lord.
A first century view of the church
Donald Guthrie in The New Testament Approach to Social Responsibility writes:
The New Testament assumes the validity of the Old Testament view that man was made in the image of God.1 The whole conception of sin requires that there must have been a state from which man has deviated.
Guthrie continues with reminders of the social nature of the church of the first century to which Jude writes:
The New Testament doctrines of redemption and reconciliation are central to the whole Christian message and involve a disarming of man’s natural enmity against God and of his self-centredness.7 …
The consequence of this is that redeemed man finds himself with an entirely new set of values and yet remaining in his former alien environment. A tension must at once develop between his former way of looking at social responsibility and his new principles in Christ.
The New Testament concentrates on the privileges and responsibilities of the Christian life, because this was the aspect which was new. The Christian faith demands new attitudes and actions which are of prior importance for those who have just turned away from a pagan background. This will explain the relative paucity of specific exhortations towards social responsibility.
Examples from the Old Testament
Jesus, nevertheless, teaches the validity of the Old Testament from where Jude takes examples of exhortations as contemporary reminders for our faith.
“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Matthew 5:18 KJV – the words of Jesus about the Old Testament
Jesus told numerous stories from the Old Testament as well. For an excellent of His view of Scripture you can read this article by Don Stewart.
Apostasy
Before we continue with the examples of Hebrew history, let’s define what Jude does not specifically name. (You already know the challenges of Hebrew, Greek and Latin translations into today’s English.)
Apostasy – definition
from the OXFORD dictionary
The abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief or principle.
‘the execution of their leader for apostasy brought widespread criticism’
Origin
Middle English from ecclesiastical Latin apostasia, from a late Greek alteration of Greek apostasis ‘defection’.
ἀποστασία – apostasia
Definition from the Greek: defection from truth (properly, the state) (“apostasy”):—falling away, forsake.
מְשׁוּבָה
Definition from the Hebrew mĕshuwbah : turning away, turning back, apostasy, backsliding
The Bible warns of the apostasy of the Lord’s chosen people more times than the New Testament church specifically warns believers against it.
“Your own wickedness will correct you,
Jeremiah 2:19 NASB
And your apostasies will reprove you;
Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter
For you to forsake the LORD your God,
And the dread of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord GOD of hosts.
Jude’s Old Testament Exhortations
Various Biblical headings for the verses to follow from Jude’s letter read:
- Apostates: Past and Present -CSB
- False Teachers – NTE
- Old and New Apostates & Apostates Depraved and Doomed – KJV
- Judgment on False Teachers – NSRV
- Past history warns us that the unfaithful have mingled with the faithful & Be on your guard against these wicked men – PHILLIPS
So as not to extend exposition of this twenty-five verse letter into another post, I will link the important cross-references for these Old Testament verses for your further study. I suspect the the first century readers of Jude’s exhortations warning against apostasy knew these examples much better than I can remember.
- Jude 1:5 – Egypt
- v. 6 – Angels – a multitude of examples throughout both Testaments
- vs. 7-8 – Sodom and Gomorrah
- v. 9 – Michael the Archangel, concerning Moses
- v. 11 – Cain, Balaam & Korah
- vs. 14-15 Enoch
Egypt
For I should like to remind you, my brothers, that our ancestors all had the experience of being guided by the cloud in the desert and of crossing the sea dry-shod. … many of them failed to please God, and left their bones in the desert. Now in these events our ancestors stand as examples to us, warning us not to crave after evil things as they did.
1 Corinthians 10 excerpt – J.B. PHILLIPS
Angels and Archangels
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 NASB
Michael, from the vision of Daniel 10 [audio]
Sodom and Gomorrah
“I destroyed some of your cities,
Amos 4:11 NLT
as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
Those of you who survived
were like charred sticks pulled from a fire.
But still you would not return to me,”
says the LORD.
Cain, Balaam & Korah
All apostates! And for the most part we know their sins. Yet do we recall their warnings from the Lord?
The Lord warns Cain
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent? 7 If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
Genesis 4:6-7 CSB
The Lord & an Angel warn Balaam
And God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
And the Angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me.
Numbers 22:12,32 NKJV
Moses warns Korah & The Lord warns Moses & Aaron
Moses also told Korah, “Now listen, Levites! Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the Israelite community to bring you near to himself, to perform the work at the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the community to minister to them?
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this community so I may consume them instantly.”
Numbers 16:8-9, 20-21
Have we recognized the apostates opposed to the Lord and separated them from His church?
The Lord requires both our faith and our loyalty. He cautions us concerning those who would turn against the faithful, loyal congregation of believers.
Jude warns:
These people are dangerous. They share communion of Christ with you, but only care about themselves. These men (and presumably women) are a menace to good fellowship. They are shepherds (pastors and priests) who care not for their sheep. These opinionated apostates are clouds without water, trees without fruit, twice-dead, and uprooted. Do not listen to them.
Jude makes other comparisons of these apostates to raging waves splashing up their own shame and wandering stars ‘for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever,’ a clear reference to the eternal punishment of Satan’s apostate angels.
Enoch Predicted an Apostasy of Israel
The study of Jude’s source material [linked above] is complex. See Jude 1:14. Yet to simplify the apostasy of Israel which the Lord spoke to Moses at the time of his death, here is an excerpt from its scriptural background.
Deuteronomy 31 & Intro from the Song of Moses
The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them…
“They have acted corruptly toward Him,
Deuteronomy 31:16-17a,32:5:6a NASB
They are not His children, because of their defect;
But are a perverse and crooked generation.
“Do you thus repay the Lord,
O foolish and unwise people?
A Reminder of Scoffers
Jude reminds the church that the Apostles also warn of those who deny the power and judgment of Almighty God and turn from the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.” It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions.
Jude 1:18b-19 NRSV
But you, beloved…
Jude addresses the church agapētos, beloved ones, just as James in his letter had cautioned: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.”
Jude and also James knew the familial love of Jesus. Both letter writers love those saints of the church faithful to Christ, their brother, the risen Lord.
But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
Jude 1:21-22 CSB
How shall we view the apostate?
Have mercy on some who are doubting.
Is this unexpected as our attitude toward some who temporarily turn against Christ?
Jude shares the same teaching as Christ.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
The words of Christ, Matthew 5:7
By our mercy and Christ’s grace some may be built up in the true faith.
Save others
‘Snatching them out of the fire,’ Jude pleads, a clear reference to saving their souls from hell.
σῴζω – sōzō – Save – to rescue from danger or destruction
It is the same Greek word for save familiar to all from John 3:16. Jude urges the church to save those of the world who come to us.
Have mercy with fear
“And on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh,” Jude cautions.
But what fear?
φόβος – Most know the word phobos and its meaning: dread or that which strikes terror.
What strikes terror in your heart?
Your own death?
Judgement? Eternal damnation?
Or do you fear for the souls of others more than you fear them? For these are loved ones, friends and those who you know as a part of the church. Some apostate ‘christians’ have turned against the Lord Jesus Christ!
Do you fear man or the Lord God?
Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles,
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.
Acts 9:31 NASB
Jude’s reference to ‘hating even the garment polluted by the flesh’ clearly calls the church to hating the sin, yet not the sinner. Let us clearly identify the spotted speech of apostates among us, urging those with such worldly coverings to purify their sins in the blood of Christ.
And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
James 3:6 NASB
Let us watch that we condemn the sins of the apostates among us, while not judging their souls which the Lord may choose to snatch from the fire.
Benediction
Jude wants to encourage the church, giving those saints faithful to the Lord praise. Yet he has chosen to exhort the church against apostates, warn us against the sins which defile us and turn our witness against Christ.
He briefly makes his strong warning and now closes with praise to the Lord. You may have heard such comforting benedictions from a pastor of your own church congregation.
Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25 CSB Benediction
Christ Jesus can keep you from stumbling so that you may stand in His holy presence. You will know His glory, because of His mercy and grace of covering our sins by His shed blood.
God IS our Savior, through the sacrificial love of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Anyone who does not believe in the only One who can save us is an apostate, turned against the Lord our God!
To Him be all glory, majesty, power and authority. As it was in the beginning, it will be now and forever. AMEN.