“For 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.” Jude 1:4 ESV
Reflection: what do you “use” the grace of God for?
Let’s say you have, unknowingly, hurt someone you care about for years. Might have been by your words or your actions. Or even what you didn’t do or say. But then you are made aware of this, that your words or actions, or lack thereof, have been hurtful to the other person. And, after being made aware of this, you ask them for forgiveness to keep the relationship with them. Now, let’s say the same situation happens again, but you continue to do the same hurtful thing. You might decide to ask the person for forgiveness again. And, you know that, as a Christian, we are instructed to forgive a brother. But, since this time the action was done knowingly, the situation is different, right? Although the person forgives you, it becomes very difficult for this person, to maintain a relationship with you.
And, to reflect on, if you hurt someone knowingly, what does it say about you?
There is an idea here that most are probably are familiar with, that you might even have run into. It is the idea of “using grace” for selfish purposes. It is taking advantage of someone’s “good graces”, as the expression goes. In today’s focus verse, Jude talks about exactly this. Someone had “crept in unnoticed” into the church, probably certain positions in the church, and promoted false teachings. Jude doesn’t mince words here, calling them “ungodly people” and “who long ago were designated for this condemnation”. And he explains what they were doing, “who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Jude 1:4b ESV. Basically doing whatever they wanted, in the flesh, claiming God’s grace. And, by doing so, ignoring the Lordship of Jesus Christ; basically denying Christ.
Matthew Henry, Bible commentator, wrote about this section of Jude, “Christians are called out of the world, from the evil spirit and temper of it; called above the world, to higher and better things, to heaven, things unseen and eternal; called from sin to Christ, from vanity to seriousness, from uncleanness to holiness; and this according to the Divine purpose and grace. If sanctified and glorified, all the honour and glory must be ascribed to God, and to him alone. As it is God who begins the work of grace in the souls of men, so it is he who carries it on, and perfects it. Let us not trust in ourselves, nor in our stock of grace already received, but in him, and in him alone. The mercy of God is the spring and fountain of all the good we have or hope for; mercy, not only to the miserable, but to the guilty. Next to mercy is peace, which we have from the sense of having obtained mercy. From peace springs love; Christ’s love to us, our love to him, and our brotherly love to one another.”
The transformational power of Christ in us, if we allow Him to be Lord of our lives; not our flesh.
Otherwise our faith in Him is without meaning. It is pointless. We are fooling only ourselves. So, we need to fight for, to contend for our faith in Christ, as Jude wrote “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 1:3 ESV. The mercy and grace God so generously gives us through Christ, is for our salvation and our sanctification; not to be misused as a license for immorality and sensuality.
