“To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen!” (Jude 24-25)

 

Lesson #9

Vs 12-16 (The Message)

These people are warts on your love feasts as you worship and eat together. They’re giving you a black eye – carousing shamelessly, grabbing anything that isn’t nailed down. They’re puffs of smoke pushed by gusts of wind; late autumn trees stripped clean of leaf and fruit, doubly dead, pulled up by the roots; wild ocean waves leaving nothing on the beach but the foam of their shame; lost stars in outer space on their way to the black hole.

Enoch, the seventh after Adam, prophesied of them: “Look! The Master comes with thousands of holy angels to bring judgment against them all, convicting each person of every defiling act of shameless sacrilege, of every dirty word they have spewed of their pious filth.” They are the “grumpers,” the bellyachers, grabbing for the biggest piece of the pie, talking big, saying anything they think will get them ahead.”

 

    These verses give a description of the opponents that highlights the serious danger they pose... Their participation defiles the communal meals of the church. The term love feasts (agapais) can be defined as common meals eaten by early Christians in connection with their church services, for the purpose of fostering and expressing brotherly love. Jude does not specify clearly what the offensive behavior is in which they are indulging, he just simply says they eat together “without reverence” (aphobōs). Jude accuses these false teachers of only caring about themselves at the meals. That accusation anticipates the later charge of creating divisions within the community (vs 19). Since the very phrase used actually means “shepherding themselves,” it is the same accusation used in Ezekiel 34:2. The false shepherds of Israel do not feed the sheep but themselves. These evil folk were preying on the innocent. They were taking advantage of the church and its people, pure selfishness. Now, for the most part the people reading this study are Christians, so it is to us that Jude writes, are there people in our congregation that are preying on the innocent? If so, we must put a stop to it, we must be bold. There are ways to address evil people in the church, Matthew 18: 15-20 gives us much insight into how that should happen.

      But I want to go a different direction, I feel each of us need to evaluate the fellowship times we have in our own congregations. Why do we have fellowship meals, what is the real reason for them?

    Let’s return to the concept of “love feast,” it was a meal held on the Lord’s Day. Everyone brought what he could, and all shared alike. In this “love feast” was true safety, no one was seen as rich, poor, gentile (un-churched), Jew (churched), no race, no ethnicity, all equal, all one in Christ. As a matter of fact, for many of the slaves in Jude’s day it was perhaps the only decent meal they ever ate. Today, our fellowships may be the only place where some people can attend that is not permeated with sin, filth, loneliness, and hate. It may be the only decent place where they have ever been accepted without conditions or bias. Now, look at our fellowship dinners, who are they for? Is it a safe place for the poor, the rich, the un-churched, the churched, are all equal? Is everyone accepted with NO conditions, bias, prejudice or judgment? Or has it become a place for our little church cliques? If you are reading this today and do not feel perfectly comfortable at a church dinner PLEASE send back a comment as to why. It would do us all good to read those.

     Oh my dear brothers and sisters, it is my heart cry that all are welcome in our churches (that’s easy we all can accept that one); and in our fellowships (gets a little harder to befriend someone and have them sit by you and eat); yes, even our intimate circles (here’s where the rubber meets the road, do we really accept them as brethren/family)! May the dirty, drunken, defeated, destitute, empty, intelligent, atheist, wealthy, pierced, tattooed, gay/lesbian, AIDS victim, whatever … ALL find love and acceptance with us. And who are we… the people who claim to be followers of Jesus… Jesus, who was from Nazareth (the arm pit of Israel), homeless, poor, forsaken, often hungry, cursed, thrown out of the church, beat up, dirty, bloody and  murdered. Holy Spirit, help us to see our own attitude toward the acceptance of others regardless of who or what they are. Help us to see them as you do. Forgive us for our fear, our lack of love, and our high view of ourselves. Amen.

Resources: from “Interpretation Commentary Jude by Pheme Perkins; “Beacon Bible Commentary – Jude” by Delbert Rose; and “The Letters of John and Jude” by William Barclay