The Anathema of False Teaching. Lessons From Jude

Jude 12-13 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm--shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted--twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. (NIV)

The church needs more people like Jude. Tucked away toward the end of the New Testament is the singular chapter epistle written by the half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude is identified as such in the 6^th chapter of the Gospel of Mark and through Mark we also discover that Jude was not a believer or follower of Jesus while He walked the earth:

When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. "He's out of his mind," they said. Mark 3: 21 (NLT)

Somewhere after the resurrection, Jude became a believer, as did his brother James. James would lead the church in Jerusalem and perhaps after Jesus appeared to James (after His death and resurrection); it was James that led Jude to salvation. Either way, the result is this short letter which made it into the canon of Scripture and contains one of the frankest and to the point rebukes of false teaching that the Bible offers.

The entire letter from Jude is a warning against false teachers in the church. This subject matter seemed fairly relevant in light of the recent heresy from Harold Camping. Western Christianity is simply rife with false teachings today. We have prosperity doctrine designed to make the preacher rich and provide a false sense of what God actually considers prosperity and blessings. Does God want to bless you? Absolutely if you are living in obedience but that does not mean that there will be a shiny new BMW in your driveway. Maybe it means that doctor's report is negative. Maybe it means your children are healthy and safe. Maybe it means that your lost family members become saved. In modern day America we continue to conflate blessings with material worth and money. The result is a body of believers who take for granted the blessings they already have in search of something they do not need:

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4: 19 (NLT)

Now you and God may have a different opinion of what your needs are. Prosperity doctrine purposefully confuses our wants with our needs. But look at this verse from Philippians. The glorious riches from which God supplies all of our needs have already been given to us! Once we received salvation, we received all we would ever need in this life in Christ Jesus. But prosperity doctrine convinces us it is not enough.

Besides prosperity doctrine we see a slew of heretical teachings which mix pop culture, pop psychology, or whatever the world deems popular at that moment with Scripture. The result is a perversion of the Gospel; the kind that is more difficult to spot than Camping's ill advised dire prophecy. The fact of the matter is the Gospel message is not supposed to be popular by the standards of the world.

"A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one town, flee to the next. I tell you the truth, the Son of Man will return before you have reached all the towns of Israel. Matthew 10: 21-23 (NLT)

Jesus Himself described His purpose, the Gospel, as a sword that would divide one against another. Yet we continue in Christo-American culture to want to mix what is the latest human fad or trend with the Gospel. Christianity becomes another self-help source or small group training. The bottom line is a purpose driven sheep that knows only a watered down gospel is being driven by the wrong purpose. Your best life is not now:

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, God's home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." Revelation 21: 3-4 (NLT)

God help us if this is the best life we can have! Christianity is not about gemstones and gold dust. It is not about laughing uncontrollably or people wanting to be called a prophet without a prophet's sacrifice. You want a prophecy? Jesus is coming back. You don't need to know when. You only need to know what you should be doing until He comes. That answer is not found at a Christian leadership seminar. It is not found in the latest mega-church pastor's book. It is not found in the systems of man but rather in the Word of God:

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22: 37-40 (NIV)

Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28: 18-20 (NLT)

We do not need to overcomplicate what God has made so fundamentally easy. The first set of verses is Jesus specifically telling us how we are to behave until He comes back. Are the other commandments and instructions important? Of course but the beauty of the simplicity of Jesus' teaching here is you only really need to follow these two. Why? Because everything hinges on these two. If you disobey any other instruction or directive from God you can trace it back to one of these two. Adultery for example is a violation of a covenant you make with God. If you love God with everything you have, you would not break that covenant. It is also written though shall not steal. If you love your neighbor as yourself, you would never steal. All of the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. The second set of verses deal with Jesus instructing us with what we are supposed to be doing until He comes back. There is a world that is living in captivity, as we once did. We hold the key to their freedom. We hold the key to their sharing in eternal life. We need to be a witness to the glorious salvation we have been granted. How to act and what to do. God provides all of the answers within His Word. No additional steps required. No additional program needed.

Yet we still see the apostasy running throughout the church as Jude warned us about so many centuries ago. The key verses today are some harsh language from Jude about who these people are. First of all, they are blemishes at our love feasts. The language used here actually refers to them as dangerous reefs which can tear open the bottom of a ship. What perfect imagery. Or faith and beliefs are the ship in which we run this course in life. It protects us from the dangerous waters in the world which seek to drown us. False and heretical teaching is like a reef that rips open the bottom of what we believe in. The water from the world starts to seep into what we believe, contaminating it. If we allow too much of it in, our faith starts to erode. Our thinking becomes distorted. Eventually, we can slip back into the waters of the world and find the waves crashing over our heads.

Jude continues to describe these people as having no qualms about eating with us. They do not feel the conviction they should if they had the spirit of God in them. Instead, they believe they are correct in what they say or have no conscience about it. How many Christian leaders do we see each day that seemingly fall into this category? You can convince yourself God is in anything if you do not bother to check the fruit.

"A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. Luke 6: 43-44 (NLT)

If your undertaking is an effort of God, then the fruit will be plentiful and obvious. If you leave people hurt in your wake, divide the body of Christ, or need to do things in secret then the fruit reveals the tree is rotten. Jude continues to say that these false teachers are shepherds that only feed themselves; a most odious charge. Shepherds are entrusted with a flock. They are expected to care for, nurture, and tend to the flock. That is why Pastors have been called shepherds. But the false leader does not care if there are flock members missing or hurt. The false leader will not leave the 99 to search for the one as Jesus taught. Their concern is only for their own well being according to this verse from Jude.

False teachers are like clouds without rain, in other words they lack true purpose. Another way we can view this is that they are deceptive. When ones sees a cloud, one might reasonably expect rain. Think of rain as the accurate Gospel. What else does rain provide? Rain provides refreshment. It also renews life and enhances growth for living things. One cannot survive without water. Plants cannot survive with rain. The deception is that we come to the cloud of false teaching expecting to be refreshed. Expecting to be renewed and grow. We come expecting to thrive but in the end there is no rain. There is no refreshment. There is no renewal. Like a withering plant we start to starve without the rain and dry up spiritually.

In similar style, Jude continues that they are like twice dead trees bearing no fruit in the autumn and uprooted. Strong word pictures for false teachers and would-be prophets. Autumn is the time of harvest. It is the time when trees, whose purpose is to bear fruit, should be bearing fruit! Again, an unmet reasonable expectation. False teaching does not care about fruit. Its goals and purposes are not to glorify God. Besides being fruitless, the trees are uprooted. They have no solid base from which draw anything good. The roots of a tree convey the nutrients and the life sustaining matters the tree needs. Without the roots firmly in the ground, the tree will of course die. Without a believer's faith firmly rooted in the correct Gospel of Jesus Christ, their faith will die.

The final two admonishments from Jude are that these people who infect our churches are like wild foaming waves and wandering stars. The wild foaming waves are showy and proud. They do not care if people see them they want to be seen. But only by men not God! They seek the accolades of men, not God. They seek reward in this life, not in heaven. Lastly, they are wandering stars. For centuries untold men have used the stars for reference points and guidance. Similarly, the Word of God is meant to be our main reference point and guidance. But if the star is wandering than it provides no direction or a false direction. That is what these false teachers do. They lead people astray and because of their wickedness, God has reserved for them the blackest darkness forever.

False teaching is a subject God takes very seriously. It is a matter of eternal life and death. This is how serious God takes it:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse! Galatians 1: 6-9 (NIV)

The church needs more people like Jude. People will to stand up and speak the truth. In this age of political correctness, to say what is sin and what is not. To say what is perversion and what is fruitful. To declare what is Gospel and what is anathema!

Reverend Anthony Wade May 31, 2011