What Jesus' Brother Jude Wanted Us to Know | Verse 4, Part 2 | Grace On Its Head
So what actually makes a ‘false teacher’ false? I hate to feign contempt for profundity, but the simple answer is that they teach something that is wrong. I know—mind blown.
This may seem to be painfully obvious, but judging the way in which masses of people so quickly defend, promote and support anyone who pens a best-seller you would be right to presume that they believe the Christian bookshelves are all accurately teaching people about God—Father, Son and Spirit—and what His Word says and means.
This begs the question(s): Do they believe that false teachers even exist? If so, do they understand that they are subtle and that by “false teachers” we mean what the dictionary would mean in that they are teachers who teach what is wrong?
I asked a pastor friend once if he believed "false teachers" were still around today. He had a thoughtful look on his face for a few moments as he stared at the ceiling and considered it until I finally interjected, "You need to be better at answering that question. It's 'yes'."
One of the main reasons pastors exist is to protect their congregation from the subtleties of false doctrine that comes from false teachers (Eph 4), so it is paramount that pastors have a sound and accurate grip on the Word of God—something Paul spent a lot of time explaining in his various epistles to Timothy and to Titus.
Jude, like others before him, has already told us that false teachers exist and that they are in fact a deviously subtle breed. In the context of the church and of biblical studies, this has massive implications, for only a true understanding of salvation can manifest a true salvation. It is not the human ability to have faith that one is saved, but the object in which man has placed his faith in, namely Jesus Christ, therefore the intricacies of Christology for example—the study of Christ—and the like are immensely important to get right.
Ultimately, there are false teachers of all stripes.
The Apostle John, for instance, dealt with the false teachers, namely the Gnostics, who held that Jesus did not come in the flesh, but was more of a phantom, or spiritual being only, hence his introduction to his gospel that the “Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14) and his warning about the deceivers in the world who do not “confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh” (2 Jn 1:7) was an important theme for the churches under his care.
Knowing these things we can understand just how valuable the placement of false teachers in the true church of God can be to Satan. Thus, we must stand our guard, contend for the true faith, and be ready to rebuke and correct what is false.
At the time of Jude’s writing this letter he found no greater value in his existence than to warn his beloved friends about this very danger. False teachers are real and they know what they’re doing.
Having covered the ungodly nature of the teachers themselves in our previous post, we look now to the teaching itself. Jude warns us of two things in particular: 1) they “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality” and 2) “deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
We'll look at the first one today.
These ungodly people who have snuck into the church do not necessarily stand up and announce that they have a different definition of grace and deny Christ. No, by their actions and their subtle nuances in what they say and do not say is what starts to influence unwary Christians into thinking that perhaps they haven’t thought of grace correctly, or perhaps the lordship and sovereignty of God carries less weight than they previously believed.
These two issues that Jude points out come from his keen sense of awareness and perceptibility of the error. These errors both go hand in hand and both must be rejected. The modern reader of the Bible has everything to gain from praying for wisdom in discerning these errors because as Charles Spurgeon wisely noted, “Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”
When Jude says that ungodly people “pervert the grace of God into sensuality,” what does he mean? This is hearkening back to the Apostle Peter’s warning in 2 Peter 2:2 when he stated that “many will follow their sensuality.” What are they talking about?
There is a perversion taking place. To pervert something is to twist one thing to mean something else, or to transpose two objects, one for another. Once something is perverted it is different than what it was intended to be, thus nullifying any claim to what it once was. The Greek word Jude used was metatithemi, which can actually mean to change or desert from one side to another, like a turncoat in a battle. In fact, some Bible translations like the NASB translate this word to turn: “ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness” (emphasis mine).
Jude’s warning is that there are certain people who are turning—changing—the grace of God into sensuality, or to allow for sensuality. In other words, the tenor of their teaching is the oft misused words of the apostle Paul that “we’re no longer under law, but under grace,” which numbs the minds of men and women to think they have no obligation to keep the moral law of God because they have been released from it. This is a perverted understanding of the truth.
Friends, to turn that which acted as an atonement and forgiveness for sin into an allowance to continue in sin is indeed a most abominable perversion of the gospel on so many levels. It is to those who promote this antinomianism that the Apostle Paul says should be accursed—damned (Gal 1:9). Why? Because there is no forgiveness for something that you do not repent of. Salvation is at stake, here. Paul would effort to save us from the delusion that leads to damnation.
There is no such thing as a Savior who is not Lord—looking ahead to Jude’s second point—so for Jesus Christ to be someone’s Savior presupposes that they have submitted to Him as Lord and Master who they now obey. It is in our failed efforts of obedience after our conversion that the Christian has the benefit of being covered by grace upon grace. This is why Paul says “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom 5:20).
The fruit of regeneration is seen in a changed life: “You who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (6:17–18).
Paul emphasizes in chapter upon chapter how the grace of God forgives our falling short of righteousness, but he never makes an argument for a dismissal of God’s law, in fact he takes pains to validate its necessary use in our sanctification: “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law” (3:31).
Paul spends more time in Romans and even 2 Corinthians and Galatians reminding us that true freedom is where the Spirit of the Lord is (2 Cor 3:17) and that though we were once free of righteousness (Rom 6:20) we are now free from sin (v. 22), but cautions us not to pervert this freedom into sensuality: “do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (Gal 5:13). Peter, likewise, exhorted us to “live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil (1 Pet 2:16).
Jude, now, is sounding the same alarm, telling us that the proponents of this very perversion of truth—that Paul took pains to explain through a series of prescient rhetorical questions that he knew people would fire back with—are on the loose. They are turning the grace of God that forgives sins into an opportunity to commit sins and run after the world's goods with sinful desires. “Because of them,” Peter said, “the way of truth will be blasphemed” (2 Pet 2:2).
The Greek word for ‘sensuality’ that Jude uses is aselgeia, also used four times by both Paul and Peter; once by Mark. It means unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, shamelessness, and even insolence, among other things. It is a word to define for us a type of debased behavior that is insatiable; a type of immorality that knows no bounds as it seeks to flesh out its carnal desires. What else would you expect from people who have not submitted to Christ as their Master and Lord? These characteristics are those of the unredeemed world.
This sensuality is the very wickedness that Paul lists as indicative of those who will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Gal 5:19, 21). In every instance it is a descriptive term for the lust that comes from the flesh and is evident in the fallen world. Any man or woman who changes the grace of God into an opportunity for this sensuality is a false teacher.
All of the vices of our modern culture continue to attempt to weaken and erode our sensitivity to the repulsiveness and wickedness of sin. We are not immune to this.
While this sensuality that the biblical writers refer to is often of a sexual nature, there is more to it than that. We have to remember that we can lust for many, many things as the Apostle John aptly pointed out: “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 Jn 2:16).
Sensuality is all over the TV and internet and so many professing Christians watch the shows containing it, indeed being entertained by the sins for which Christ died! We align more with the false teachers and the Devil himself when we think we can expose ourselves to, and be entertained by, sin. This is the perversion that Paul, Peter, and Jude are talking about.
Self-justification might sound like this: We can do things like that because we’re not under some type of strict law with rules about TV shows—we are under grace! We have the freedom to exercise our own discretion.
Wrong.
“Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you . . . do not become partners with them . . . Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness . . . For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret” (Eph 5:3–13) (emphasis mine).
We are commanded not to even talk about what wicked people do in their lives, let alone commit our God-given time to watching portrayals of men and women acting out those very things that are the cause of God’s coming wrath; the very things for which He flooded the entire world.
We are now at a point where the more time we spend in front of the TV will be more time becoming desensitized to homosexuality as TV series, movies, and reality TV shows of every stripe parade it as good.
Downton Abbey had an unapologetic homosexual story right from the start as well as other sexually promiscuous relationships, albeit veiled and sometimes cryptic, yet how many of us kept watching? I was guilty of that as I knew it was wrong in itself and just wanted the main part of the story, but we eventually stopped watching because where do we draw the line when we have already crossed it? I dare say we simply turn back and stand where God would have His people stand.
Beauty and the Beast has evidently become Disney’s second-gear for their progressive ideology. It’s producer, Bill Condon, commenting on Gaston’s sidekick’s behavior(s) in the movie, admitted, “It’s a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.”
Friends, the more exposure to sin we allow ourselves, the less we will recoil when it confronts us in a moment of temptation. The whole realm of sexual immorality and any kind of sensuality itself will hit us where we are weakest if we are allowing ourselves to handle other aspects of it, even via the TV screen. We must refuse to allow ourselves to be influenced by the sinful culture. If God hates sin and the glorification of it, then so should we.
Friends, be careful of those who turn grace into something that exists for our own worldly appetites. This is nothing more than unredeemed worldliness with a Christian veneer and Jude can tell us that we’ve been warned.
Forgiveness comes with repentance in faith and repentance is made known by its fruit. May we be careful to honor God with our obedience and enjoy the blessing that comes from it.
In Christ Alone,
Ben
