What Jesus' Brother Jude Wanted Us to Know | Verse 4, Part 1 | False Teachers Still Exist
Having seen Jude’s urgency in appealing to Christians to strenuously contend for the fixed, unchangeable and authoritative Word of God that was handed down to the prophets and apostles and finally to us, he now specifies why this firm hold of the faith is so necessary. Again, we remember Isaiah’s words, that “if you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (7:9). Jude knows this, so he desperately wants to bolster the faith of those precious believers that he often calls “beloved”.
One interesting thing that we will start to notice in Jude’s writing is the strong influence of one of the closest and strongest men of faith that personally walked with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is none other than the Apostle Peter. It is an encouraging thing to see the passing of the baton, so to speak, of one biblical writer to the next and then to see Jude’s reemphasis of specific things that were needed for further audiences and their spiritual growth. Such is the sovereign orchestration of God.
So as not to be confusing as we continually go back and reference Peter over the next weeks and months of Jude’s letter, we will begin by inserting an excerpt of one of the Apostle Peter’s letters that Jude is obviously referencing himself. There is a predominant focus of Jude on 2 Peter 2, almost in its entirety. First, though, here is Peter on the topic of false teachers in the midst of the church:
“There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep” (2 Pet 2:1–3).
Now compare that with Jude 4, which is our focus today:
“Certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
This is the climax and thrust of Jude’s letter. This is why he wrote. This is the reason that he felt the need to postpone writing about their common salvation—an infiltration of deceitful men armed with destructive heresies were on the loose and (probably) already in their presence.
This verse can logically be divided into two parts: 1) the false teachers, and 2) their false teachings.
Jude’s deep concern here echoes that of Peter's, in that that these men are unnoticed. They arrive and work in secrecy. This is what makes false teachers so incredibly dangerous—not to mention faithful men like Jude so incredibly valuable. Their entrance is unnoticeable. No one but the Lord Jesus Himself would be able to pick one out at first glance without having spoken to them, or heard from them—even that can take time to become more obvious.
The only thing that Christian men and women have to go by is in the judging of the fruit of someone who professes Christ. Jesus told us that we will know false teachers by their fruit (Matt 7:20), thus we are required to discern it. Likewise, the Apostle John warns Christians: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 Jn 4:1).
Too often, people think that false teachers—that is, people who teach something that is counter to God’s revealed truth—arrive in a fanfare, dressed differently than everyone else, spouting off their ideas. They may just think of false religious leaders like Buddha, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, and the Pope. While each of these certainly fall into the category of false religion, the false teachers in particular that the biblical writers are usually warning about are those that operate in a unique way—they are those who wear the garb of the gospel in order to fit into the Christian circles. After enough time has passed to establish trust and a platform, they work their unbiblical ideas into the church where people who do not discern, or judge fruit, blithely assume and affirm their orthodoxy simply because of their personality and tenure.
Jude isn’t warning them against those in the Greco-Roman world who have polytheistic worldviews and publicly denounce Jesus’ Messiah-ship and lordship—all of that is obvious and easy to identify. No, Jude is warning them about people who pretend to be orthodox believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace he offers to forgive sins, yet from the safe haven of the church itself they twist these truths to mean something different—something damning. They are secretive and subtle. These are the people that the Christians need to be warned of because they aren’t expecting that kind of spiritual attack.
The Lord warned us: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt 7:15). The Apostle Paul likewise warned the Galatians about “false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in” (2:4). He alerted Timothy that eventually there will be some who “depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars” (1 Tim 4:1).
Of these types of men, Paul points to the spiritual reality that is behind these evil teachers:
“Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness” (2 Cor 11:13–15).
This subtlety and secrecy and slipping in unawares is literally a fleshing out of Satan’s plan of attack against the sovereign Lord and His church. This is malicious activity at its core. The fact that pretenders play along with the church in order to be received just reveals the intense desire for selfish gain that they have, for in any other context they would stay as far away from the people who confess the truth of Christ as possible. They are, after all, enemies of the gospel. And yet, they bottle their hatred for truth and instead don the cloak of Christianity in order to get their own way in a world of options.
These are your Rob Bells’ of the world; Your Brian MacLarens’; Your Joel & Victoria Osteens’—to name only a few. This is seen so painfully in the realm of “Christian” music where groups like Jesus Culture, Hillsong, Elevation Music, and Michael Gungor act as the spoon full of sugar to get the heresy down. It ends up bringing legitimacy and trust to the names and brands behind the bands, men and women who downplay repentance of sin, elevate man’s worth in God’s eyes, downplay the need to confront sin in a secular culture, dabble with demons while claiming the Holy Spirit, and—as Jude states—pervert the grace of God into sensuality and licentiousness.
The Apostle Paul pulls no punches when he writes to Timothy about these men and women and is worth quoting at length:
"If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain" (1 Tim 6:3–5).
Like Jude exhorts us, Paul exhorts Timothy: "But as for you, O man of God, flee these things . . . Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called" (vv. 11–12).
Such is the urgent call to arms that these holy men have called us to.
Jude warns us of what we could be unaware of, which means there will be an element of surprise here when we finally notice it ourselves. To think we do not need to heed his advice as if false teachers do not exist is to lambaste God Himself as a pettifogger.
The unfortunate reality of fallen human nature is that we will become comfortable and used to almost anything given enough time. This is precisely the concern of the biblical writers! More time creates more trust.
In the secular business world, even, since change is generally a difficult and potentially volatile endeavor, the prudent leader will implement change slowly over time in order to ease the transition and warm their constituency to the new normal. In the same vein, false teachers strategically enter the environment they want influence in and just by way of their mere existence they will get some. Before you know it, people will like them well enough to listen to whatever they have to say that sounds intriguing—things they haven’t heard before or otherwise orthodox doctrines they haven’t heard taught a certain way before. In other words, those in the church who do not discern the lives and teachings of teachers and preachers are no different than the pagan, Athenian philosophers in Paul’s day who “would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21).
For Paul, this created an opportunity for the gospel since they were open to anything, but for the Christian who has discovered the unchangeable truth of the gospel of God, opposing ideas are seen in the light for what they are—destructive and damning—and they must be avoided.
There is another aspect of false teachers seen in Jude’s reiteration of Peter’s previous warnings and that is their imminent judgment. Again, Peter says that they “[bring] upon themselves swift destruction . . . Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep” (2 Pet 2:1–3). Peter actually mentioned this idea of pre-judgment more than once. In his first epistle, he wrote that “they disobey the word as they were destined to do” (1 Pet 2:8). Jude, similarly, attests that long ago they were “designated for this condemnation” (v. 4)
What does all of this mean? Were they predestined to be false teachers?
Scripture’s own systematic testimony is clear on the fact that God has not caused people to be sinful or to fall in sin, nor does He tempt anyone to sin as James says explicitly (Js 1:13). The language here in Peter’s writings and Jude’s letter is not teaching what is known as double predestination—that is, God predestines people to Heaven and to Hell—rather it is teaching that the sin of false teaching has already been judged, so that when one becomes involved in it, their condemnation has already been decreed and it will come to pass, barring genuine repentance—if that is even possible for these types of men, considering the eternal sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit (Mk 3:29; Lk 12:10).
It is not, then, that certain people have been predestined to sin and then to judgment, rather certain types of people have long ago been promised judgment because of this very sin. They have been written about beforehand, or marked out ahead of time—prographo—being the Greek word employed by Jude. Pro means ‘before’; grapho means ‘to write’.
John 3:18 emphasizes this very point: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already” (emphasis mine).
Friends, realize that Jude warns us of these men and women precisely because many will not at first recognize them. We cannot claim ignorance however because we have now been entrusted with the Word of God to know the difference. Stand firm, hold tightly to the faith that has been delivered in final form, and keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a responsibility to test and discern the spirits.
Our next post will look more specifically at the actual teaching of these false teachers. What actually makes them false teachers? We need to know this so I encourage you to stay tuned.
In Christ Alone,
Ben
