“I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.” Jude 1:5
Devotional Thought For The Day
This seems a rather strange and harsh reminder – but Jude is warning about people coming into the church who distort and reject “the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.” [v. 3] He goes on to remind these early believers of what happened to the fallen angels and to the communities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, in regard to the latter he wrote that “giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh,” these people “are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” [v.7] This is at the heart of the issue in regard to homosexuality, same-sex “marriage,” and for that matter acquiescing to any form of sexual immorality, especially adultery – the abuse and dissolution of God’s institution of marriage. No one should trifle with these matters; they are directly related to “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
It is not a “lapse” into such behavior that disqualifies one for salvation and destines one to eternal fire. Such circumstances are recorded in Scripture along with repentance and God’s gracious mercy and forgiveness. Rather, it is a commitment to ongoing participation in such behaviors and/or the attempt to legitimate and justify such behaviors that is dangerous and deadly [v. 4]. Such posturing and advocacy destroys repentance and faith, and also service to God. We know that this goes on outside of the church, in various societies and cultures, but Jude and the other apostles were concerned that this same cancerous poison not have any place within the church. They knew from the record of Holy Scripture what happens to people who espouse and encourage such immorality – that they “believed not” and were ultimately destroyed by God.
Sadly and somewhat shockingly, in our own day and time “certain men have crept in [into the church] 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.” [v. 4] This has occurred right before our eyes – in just the past 20 years or so. Jude would have reemphasized these same things to us, as would all of the apostles of Christ, reminding us that to do such things brings condemnation and eternal fire, for this is clearly a rejection of “the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” One cannot advocate these immoralities and have faith or any kind of reconciled relationship with God. These are the sad and dismal realities that Holy Scripture insists that we be aware of, warning us to continue in the exact and precise “faith which was delivered once and for all to the saints.” It is a matter of life and death, and of eternal life in Christ’s kingdom or eternal fire in hell.
Again, what happens out there in the world among those who have already rejected God is not the chief concern of the apostles, but rather what happens within the church and especially within the hearts, minds, and souls of those whom Christ has claimed for His own and brought to faith. The world tells us that such immorality is of no concern or consequence, simply a matter of preference and freedom, and demands that we in the church agree with them. One wonders what other perversions are waiting in the wings for their turn on stage. Woe to us and our loved ones if we crumble and agree. Indeed, the stronger our love for our fellow believers, for Christ’s church, and for all people, the louder and longer we will decry such immorality and self-destruction, urging and pleading for repentance and restoration to fellowship with God. And it is the same for those engaging in heterosexual immorality and destroying God’s blessing of marriage. So let all beware, and in love for Christ hold to the faith He has given us in His written Word, the Bible.
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, You are well aware of the insidious sink holes which lure people to death and damnation, destroying repentance and faith and love for You. Keep and preserve us from all such temptations, and especially from the deadly temptations to legitimate and justify such perversions. Protect Your churches from the incursions of these deadly errors, and keep Your people in humble repentance and faith and joy in Your forgiveness and salvation. We face difficult and dreary times; help and preserve us always. Amen.