“How would you have ended the letter?”

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I encourage you to look at the passage in Jude before you read this Blog entry.  What do you see in the text yourself?  What questions come to your mind?  How would you interpret what the writer says?  After even a few minutes examining and thinking about the text you will be much better prepared to evaluate the comments in the Blog.

Since several weeks had passed since our last discussion in Jude, we began by reviewing what Jude had written in verses 1-19.   (This brief, incomplete description of our discussion was not written until several weeks later.  Those who participated in the conversation are welcome and encouraged to add clarifying comments to fill in my omissions.)

Jude in Review

Even a brief re-reading of Jude’s letter reminded us of the general tone or atmosphere he communicated.

• • The original topic of “our common salvation” was set aside for an “appeal to contend earnestly for the faith” (v. 3).
  • Jude repeatedly warns about “certain persons who have crept in unnoticed” (v. 4) and their unacceptable behavior (vv. 8, 10, 12-13, 16, 19).
  • Numerous examples (from biblical and traditional sources) describe the certainty and severity of God’s judgment on such behavior in the past (vv. 5-7, 9, 11, 14-15, 17-18).

A Cliffhanger

But the handout we used to start our discussion (Jude 1-19) ended at the beginning of verse 20:

But you, beloved …

So, the question was, what would be the expected ending that Jude wrote?  What would we have written to end a letter so full of warnings?  Our group had several reasonable responses.

• • What’s wrong with you? Don’t you see what these people are doing? Maybe Jude would have followed the same pattern as Paul writing to the Galatians, “Who has bewitched you?” (Galatians 3:1)
  • Expel them from your fellowship! Don’t let them contaminate your community! Maybe Jude would have followed another pattern of Paul, this time to the Corinthians regarding sexual immorality, “Let this one be removed from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:2)
  • Confront them! Point out their errors. Paul also did this, for example, in Ephesus, “I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.” (Acts 20:31)

Jude doe snot follow any of those patterns.  Instead, he focuses on relational responses.

First, he concludes his letter as he began it, addressing his readers as “Beloved” (vv. 3, 20).  Second, after all his warnings and examples of judgment, he gives three more commands: “Have mercy, save, have mercy….”  All three are present imperatives, suggesting an action in progress that is to be continued,[1] a continuous or repeated action:[2] “keep on having mercy….”

In spite of his serious, urgent concern, Jude exhorts his beloved brothers and sisters to focus on mercy.  He does, however, distinguish different expressions of mercy (vv. 22-23).

• • and have mercy on some, who are doubting.
  • save others, snatching them out of the fire.
  • and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

Jude does not offer a “one size fits all” reaction. The expression of mercy depends on the recipients of that mercy.  Perhaps Jude intends the warnings that fill his letter to prepare his audience to practice mercy wisely.

          Doubting

We discussed the meaning of “doubt” (διακρίνω, diakrinō), the same word used in James 1:6, “the doubter is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed about.”  Jude also uses the word earlier in his letter (v. 9) referring to the archangel Michael’s “debate” with the devil.

Motive seemed to be important as we thought about doubts or “debates” or questions.  Honest questions or doubts can be sincere attempts to understand the faith better.  Certainly, patient mercy is appropriate to help that questioner, the one doubting.

The problem is that too many Christians treat any doubts as a threat to be rebuked.  Questions are discouraged or even forbidden.  Several in our group have been on the receiving end of that attitude in previous fellowships where mercy was not even considered part of the response.  One of our goals as a fellowship is the freedom to ask awkward or even difficult questions or to express doubts.  Good questions from everyone in a group make for good inductive Bible study!

          Out of the Fire

“Fire” definitely connotes the idea of judgment or destruction.  Jude here seems to indicate those who have gone beyond honest skepticism looking for answers to doubts.  There are those whose “doubts” are insincere cynicism, looking to discredit the faith.  The merciful response in that case is to “snatch them out of the fire.”  Perhaps Jude means a much more direct, confrontational approach.

The word “snatching” or “pulling out” in KJV (ἁρπάζω, harpazō) is used of the description Jesus uses for the wolf attacking the flock without the protection of a Good Shepherd.  It is also used in the positive sense of believers “caught up” in the clouds at His return.  In both cases, there is a direct, forceful action.  Those who are on the edge of the fire require that kind of confrontation. Pointing out their sin and warning of judgment (as Jude did throughout his letter) are appropriate and necessary.

          Polluted by the Flesh

Finally, there is an expression of mercy combined with fear.  Jude doesn’t address doctrinal issues.  However, there are those whose behavior is so objectionable that any interaction must be guarded.  That seems to be the situation mentioned earlier when Paul forcefully instructed a person to be expelled from the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 5:2).  Even that action is to be motivated by mercy (as in the continuous or repeated action: “keep on having mercy….”).  Paul himself further criticized the Corinthians for an apparent lack of continuous mercy, possibly on the same offender.

Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. (2 Corinthians 2:6-8)

Even in the case of the flagrant behavior of the “certain persons” in Jude’s warnings, mercy is an appropriate response.  The expression of that mercy must be cautious and thoughtful to protect the flock from the spread of the moral and spiritual pollution.

Jude’s Doxology

With that cautious mercy in mind, Jude closes with a reminder that there is One who can keep believers from stumbling, from falling into the surrounding pollution.

And not only can He protect us in this life, He also provides our hope, our anticipation, to “stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy” (v. 24).  Jude leaves his readers with that foundational truth.  Even in a troubled church in a fallen world, believers look forward to standing in the presence of the savior God, fully justified because of the work of Jesus our Lord.  And that hope is the source of great joy, now and forever.  That anticipation enables our endurance.

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[1] Ray Summers, Essentials of New Testament Greek (Nashville:  Broadman Press, 1950), 112.

[2] H.E.Dana and Julius R. Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament (Toronto:  The MacMillan Company, 1927), 300.