Jude 11-12
This message closes our year in the letter of Jude, and I want to pick up at verse 11. “Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Jude 11). You have heard of the Holy Trinity. This is the unholy trinity. Who is “them”? Verse 4 says they “have crept in unnoticed” and “turn the grace of our God into licentiousness” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Jude 4). Crept into the church. “Woe” is a warning, and the order of the three names matters, because they describe a progression.
Free Study Outline
Work through Jude 11-12 on your own or with your small group. The outline includes the passages, discussion questions, and the six weekly steps.
The Way of Cain
We think of Cain as a murderer, but he murdered his brother over an offering. Hebrews 11:4 gives the commentary. Abel offered by faith and Cain did not, and “whatever is not from faith is sin” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Romans 14:23). Jude 3 tells us to contend earnestly for the faith, because an adversary is working to steal the word you received.
How did Cain arrive at an offering without faith? Apathy. Genesis says that “in the course of time” Cain brought his offering (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Genesis 4:3). When he got around to it. You do not know anyone like this, of course, but perhaps you have seen someone who attends church when it is convenient and lets the group meeting fall off the calendar. Jude calls that the way of Cain.
The Error of Balaam
Jude says they went “for pay” into the error of Balaam. Balaam, in Numbers 22 through 24, was a diviner whom kings hired, and Jewish tradition holds that he served in Pharaoh’s court before that. He could touch the spirit realm, but not by the Spirit of God, and if the pay was right he would do it for anyone. Jesus still warns a church about him in Revelation 2:14. Here is the progression. Once convenience becomes the driver, appetite takes the wheel. Nobody likes the word greed, but that is what it is, and it steers toward the third name.
The Rebellion of Korah
Korah stood before Moses and said, in effect, who decided you have all the answers? You can picture someone who started well, grew lazy, put personal desire ahead of God’s revealed priorities, and finally arrived at, what does that preacher know anyway.
Jude calls these people “hidden reefs in your love feasts” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Jude 12). The early church called communion the love feast. A hidden reef tears open a boat far from shore. You saw nothing, and now water is coming in. These people are not skipping the communion service. They are at the table.
Desire Is Idolatry (Colossians 3:1-5)
That is heavy, so let us go to a friendlier letter, the one with the T-shirt verses. “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Colossians 3:1-2). Then verse 5. “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Colossians 3:5).
The Greek word behind “immorality” is πορνεία / porneia, anything unclean and against the revealed will of God. The list ends with greed, πλεονεξία / pleonexia, the desire for more. Notice the subject. Paul does not ask God to put these things to death. You deal decisively with you. And notice where we practice the desire for more. At the lunch table. I taste something and want the taste to continue, so I keep feeding it, and I am no longer feeding my body. I am feeding desire. The flesh does not discern between appetites. It only knows it wants more.
All of this, Paul says, amounts to idolatry. If you found a golden image with a dead chicken in front of it in a friend’s living room, you would ask what on earth they were doing. Or does idolatry simply look different now? Instead of wood covered in gold, the idol is made of ones and zeros.
She Does Not Know (Hosea 2:8)
Hosea shows the heart of the matter. The Lord’s first instruction to His new prophet was, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Hosea 1:2), because the land was doing exactly that to Him. Listen to the wife’s reasoning in chapter 2. “I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Hosea 2:5). Her motive was provision. I have to get what I need for me.
Then verse 8, which lies at the heart of spiritual adultery. “For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil, and lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Hosea 2:8). She does not know. Jude says the same of his intruders. They revile what they do not understand.
Spiritual adultery is when I lift my hands on Sunday and sing that no one else is worthy, and on Monday my whole focus is what I have to get for me. At the center of that harlotry is a failure to understand that the Lord is my provider. That is exactly why the enemy amplifies the teaching that God does not want to provide for His people, and why those who ridicule that message so often do so for their own gain and standing. Jude has a phrase for them. Clouds without water. The bride drifts into idolatry when she forgets who gave her the grain. This does not only apply to others. My heart’s cry is that each of us would take a hard look at ourselves.
Peter’s Idea of Jesus (Matthew 26)
Let me close with Peter. Jesus said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Matthew 4:19), and Peter left everything. Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Matthew 16:16). When the crowds left in John 6, Peter stayed. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, John 6:68).
Then, on the night of the betrayal, Jesus told the twelve they would all fall away, and Peter answered the word of God. “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Matthew 26:33). In effect, You have the words of eternal life, but these words do not apply to me. Peter was committed, and I believe him. The problem was what he was committed to. He was committed to Peter’s idea. The Christ would put down the corruption, set up the kingdom, and Peter would hold a position in it.
That very night, not a soldier but a servant girl said, “You too were with Jesus” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Matthew 26:69), and the commitment came apart. What would it take to shake yours? For a man who walked with Jesus for three years, it took a servant girl at a campfire. For many of us it takes a better offer with good reasons attached. Many say yes to a gospel that costs them nothing. Very few give everything to the One who gave His all. Do you know why prayer meetings and leadership meetings are the least attended gatherings in a church? They require the most and promise the least.
Surrender
Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Matthew 16:24-25). The cross was a violent instrument of execution, and it is the only fitting instrument for our desires. God gives you the desires of your heart by planting His desire in you until yours and His are one.
Many of you can name the day you said yes to Jesus. But if you look at this past week, you might have to say, I am serving me. I am not carrying His cross. I am looking for someone to build me my own. My ask is simple. Give up. Surrender what you want, your desire, your plan. Say with Jesus, “not My will, but Yours be done” (New American Standard Bible, 1995, Luke 22:42).
Live From It This Week
Here is how to follow Jesus rather than your idea of Him.
- Check the progression. Ask where apathy has crept in. Name one commitment to God’s house you have been keeping only when convenient, and keep it this week.
- Find the driver. Write down the last three decisions you made about time or money and name what steered each one, God’s revealed priorities or your own desire for more.
- Deal with it yourself. Take one appetite that has been feeding itself and put it to death this week, before you ask God to do it for you.
- Answer Hosea 2:8. Each morning, name three things you received yesterday and say aloud that the Lord gave them, so provision stops being the reason you chase anything else.
- Locate your servant girl. Identify the offer, comfort, or fear most likely to expose what you are committed to, and decide now, before it comes, what you will say.
- Pray Gethsemane. End each day this week with, “Father, not what I want, not what serves me. Your will be done,” and mean it about one specific thing.
Jesus is the head of the church. Be lifted up in this place. Be lifted up in this nation. Not that we would be seen or known, but that He would be glorified.
Take It Further
Download the study outline and work through Jude 11-12 with your family, your team, or your small group this week. This article completes our series in Jude. For more on the seated position Paul describes in Colossians 3, read Get Over It, and for standing on the word when circumstances argue, read If God Is For Me, Who Can Be Against Me?
Watch the Full Message
This article is adapted from a message preached at GoChurch Beirut. Watch the full teaching below.
References
Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible. (1995). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.