Summary for Jude 4- 16

v 4 & 5 – Jude shows a shepherd heart, protective towards believer and since we are prone to forgetfulness reminded us that we are in a battle. The threat of our faith is coming from inside as godless men have secretly slipped in.

v 5 to 7 – Illustrates the consequences of forgetting our calling. The Israelites are God’s chosen people, witnessed God’s power and truth but failed to trust God. Angels instead of keeping God’s rules for them left their own domain. Sodom and Gomorrah went after strange flesh. Angels aside, the people had all encountered God’s grace and were given chances to repent. Grace does end for the unrepentant.

v 8 to 10 – Jude started off with In the same way to depict that the false teachers who are under grace misused grace and judgment will accordingly be passed on them. The false teachers create their own truth by relying on their feelings and understanding and not God’s word. The three characteristics of false teachers: pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings sum up to having the “I” syndrome.

v 11 – This verse shows the progression of sin. Cain started by disobeying God’s word, Balaam opposed God’s word and caused the people to be stumbled and Korah went against the authority structure God and perished.

v 12 – These men lead us further from God and are destructive. “Clouds without water, carried along by winds”, “autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted”, “wild waves of the seas, casting up their own shame like foam” and “wandering stars” all point to the fact that the false teachers do not direct us to Christ but distract us further.

v 15 & 16 – Right from the beginning, ungodly has been recognised and God will come and judge the ungodly.

In modern day context, I do behave like Cain, Balaam and Korah even though I don’t adopt their extremity. My application with reference to Balaam and Korah would be to really seek God’s heart and share His heart and attitude rather than displaying outward obedience of reading Bible, praying and abiding in rules.

Though grace is freely available for me I should not disregard the importance of grace. My application is to examine my areas in my life that presumes God’s grace too much.

Sharon