What Jesus' Brother Jude Wanted Us To Know | Verse 23, Part 2 | Show Mercy With Fear
“To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.” | Jude 23b
This is a most interesting verse.
This statement concludes a three-pronged exhortation from Jude in how to deal with those who have been influenced and infected by false teachers. He is not telling us, as some have presumed, how to deal with the false teachers themselves.
The first was to have mercy on those who, as a result of the heretics, have doubts about the faith and the nature of sound doctrine. Secondly, he told us to snatch others out of the flames of Hell, as it were, that are fed by false religion and the promotion of immorality. Otherwise, it would most certainly consume them. Finally, he tells us that others require our “show[ing] mercy with fear” (emphasis mine). These people are not simple doubters. They are at another level—one we actually need to practice a higher level of discernment with. His warning to be “hating even the garment stained by the flesh” is most telling and will be the object of our attention today.
Logically, we can deduce what it is in Jude’s statement that is to be feared and why. It is clear that the garment, which is stained by the flesh, is supposed to be something we avoid like the plague—almost literally. He is giving us a word picture which suggests that what these types of people are involved in is something that could very well infect us. It would not be enough to practice discretion and caution around the diseased person themselves, but their very garments and coverings must also be avoided so as not to contract their deadly disease. You would never think to borrow a blanket from someone who has been recovering from a high fever. On the contrary, you would avoid the garment infected by the person themselves.
As is usual for Jude, he is appealing to the Old Testament to express his grave concern.
One particular principle that was repeatedly taught in Scripture was that a holy thing cannot make an unholy thing holy simply by touching it. In fact, the very opposite happens. An unholy thing can make a holy thing unholy by touching it.
The Lord, speaking through the prophet Haggai, asked a rhetorical question of the priests of Israel: “If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?”
The priests correctly answered: “No.”
Haggai continued, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?”
Again, the priests correctly answered: “I does become unclean.”
In Haggai’s immediate context, he was indicting Israel with their uncleanness, pointing out that everything they touched became unholy as a result of their wickedness. Thus, whenever they approached God with offerings, they were offering an unacceptable sacrifice. The ultimate source of their impurity was in their unrepentant hearts. Haggai was using the same principle that Jude is echoing, which is that impurity can and will infect whatever it comes into contact with, so Christians must be careful with whom they are associating, even if in an evangelistic context. The proverb is true that “bad company ruins good morals” (1 Cor 15:33).
The Mosaic Law explains this all very clearly as it details the numbers of ways in which the people could become unclean and, consequently, what they would have to do to purify themselves. Of note, though, is the fundamental principle behind it, articulated well in Numbers 19: “Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening” (vs. 22).
If the unclean person were to use a walking staff, that staff would be rendered unclean. Thus, if anyone else—even someone who was ceremonially clean and holy—would become unclean themselves if they touched the staff afterwards. Therefore, great care had to be taken with these cases of purification and uncleanness. Once the unclean person went through the ceremony of cleansing, then they could resume their lives as a part of the congregation of Israel. If they did not go through with the appropriate purification rites, then there were consequences.
“If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord” (vs. 20).
In other words, they were cut off from the blessings and promises associated with Israel. They were proving their lack of obedience and desire to honor God as holy and to be holy as He is holy. The parallel is significant and bears on Jude’s writing. Those people whom we love and to whom we approach with good intentions to evangelize and recover from sin may in fact not possess the desire to be recovered. They may, in fact, be quite content to remain in rebellion against God.
There are two considerations here: 1) Jude’s point first and foremost is to watch our own selves in this endeavor. Those who have sold themselves to a false gospel, or an atheistic worldview could be trying to do some convincing of their own. We must part ways when reconciliation is rejected; 2) We risk giving unbelievers an opportunity to slander God and His precious Word when we try to evangelize too much in the wrong place. Is this possible? Yes.
Jesus said in Matthew 7, “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you” (vs. 6).
The pigs and dogs pictured here are the unholy and filth-consuming animals that happily wallow around in the dirt and clay. Would we ever, in seeing this willful condition, throw pearls to them? Obviously not. There is a point when we ought not to evangelize any further when it will only result in hostility.
As the Apostle Peter said, “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire” (2 Pet 2:22).
Unfortunately, false teachers leave their deadly marks and claim their weak victims. We must be willing to pursue those we know and love who have been impacted by them, but we must practice discernment as we do lest we become contaminated ourselves by those who are unwilling to turn from the error of their ways.
In Christ alone,
Ben
