Do You Know What Jude Teaches About False Teachers?

Jude: The False Teachers and Apostates (Part 1)

Judgment is Coming!

Jude 1-25 (Read it!)

Introduction:

Jude, is the writer of this epistle; he is the brother of James (per verse one) who was the half-brother of Jesus (Please compare Matthew 13:55. James and Jude are the names of two of the half-brothers of the Lord.) They are the writers of the epistles of James and Jude.

Both James and Jude introduce themselves as “the servant…of Jesus Christ.” They do not claim any special privileges or authority due to sharing half his gene-pool. Until late in His ministry, they were not even believers, so it seems fitting that they see themselves as “servants,” not “special-case super-saints.”

They finally realized that Jesus was not “just their older brother,” but truly God in the flesh. So, they repented of all they had previously imagined of Him. (They once thought that He was crazy, or that He was promoting himself as a prophet or a leader.) They abandoned all their former opinions. Therefore, they no longer knew Him from a fleshly perspective: So now they simply called themselves His servants. 2^nd Corinthians 5:16 says, “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” This is a good way for us to see Him, too!

These men, with ample cause to think of themselves more highly than others, did not do so. It behooves us to follow their example. In my own case, the longer I “toddle along,” trying to walk with Jesus, the more I realize that I am nobody special…I’m just a servant of Jesus!

To Whom is the Epistle Addressed?

¹Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified (sanctified means “Declared holy: Set apart for His service”) by God the Father, and preserved in (kept in) Jesus Christ, and called: (Yes, you are called! If you are a believer, you are called to serve Jesus with your life. Read Romans 8:28-30, and spend some time thinking about the implications for your own life!)

Years ago, an older woman emphatically told me that “Yes, you are saved by faith, but you are kept by works!” This verse clearly refutes that false teaching: He says we are “preserved in Jesus Christ”. That is a passive truth on our part. God is the one taking action on our behalf. He does the “keeping,” as well as the calling.

²Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. (Notice the order in which these things are offered: You cannot have peace with God before having received His Mercy as a guilty sinner. And, after receiving His Mercy, and His peace, His Love should begin to take root in your heart.)

The Result of Genuine Faith

³Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common (that which all believers share: what we “have in common”) salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

What does it mean to “contend for the faith?” Titus 1:9-13 makes it clear that deacons should at least be able to use God’s Word well enough to spot false teaching and show it to be false. But this passage seems to make it the responsibility of every believer to grow into that ability… taking a stand for the faith. (Compare Ephesians 6:10-18. The armor of God is definitely for all believers!)

When a verse begins with the transition word, “for,” it is giving the reason for the previous statement. (Why should believers contend for the faith? Because… false brethren and false teachers abound.)

The Subject: Men who have “Crept In Unawares:” False Teachers.

⁴For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

We have this clue that perhaps not all those who came out of Egypt were actually believers. However, it may be noted that ALL of them had placed themselves under the blood of the Passover Lamb. All had left Egypt with Moses. All had crossed the Red Sea on foot. There was no one among them who did not “qualify as a believer,” by those standards.

Unbelief Among Believers

But, in Numbers 14, the LORD commanded them to go into the promised land, and they ALL believed the evil report of the ten spies, as opposed to the godly, correct report of the other two (Joshua and Caleb.) They did not believe God, when it came time to actually enter into His promises. And ALL of that (huge) group of people, who assumedly were believers, were destroyed. They died in the wilderness. The ten spies who gave false testimony, discouraging the people, died on the spot, under God’s Judgment. But, over the next forty years, that entire generation died, before God took their children into the land, and fulfilled His promises.

So, the question for us remains: Were they “under the blood?” Evidently they were! No one died in their homes. Were they “followers of God?” Evidently they were! I seriously doubt that I would have just “taken off across a desert with Pharoah’s army chasing me,” much less walked between the “walls of water” (See Exodus 14:22) to cross the Red Sea on foot. So…were they believers? I think they were! But God still judges unbelief among believers, too.

A Warning to Believers

Hebrews 4:1-11 warns us that due to unbelief of that same sort, we, too, can fail to enter into the “Rest” of God. Jesus’s finished work at the Cross should enable us to “Cease from our own works” and rest in HIS works.

If you think that your works are somehow making you righteous before God, or that they are maintaining your standing with Him, then you are not “resting” in His completed work. You are supplanting His work with your own! As a result, you can never rest, because you fear that without your continued Good Works, you may be lost. But God says we are to place our full trust in His completed work, and that, on the basis of that faith, we can KNOW that we have eternal life (John 5:11-13.)

The Israelites (in Numbers 14) should have “rested in God’s word,” and entered the land in full confidence: But they saw the question as being “Can we defeat the giants?” not, “Has God truly given us the land?” Joshua and Caleb argued that “Because God has given us the land, we cannot fail!” But, because the people completely rejected that specific promise, God judged them for their unbelief.

Judgement of Fallen Angels

⁶And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

We might ask ourselves, “which angels fell into this specific judgment?” The ones we call demons evidently did not, as they were present in the time of Christ, and apparently still are today.

But, if we think of a specific group of angelic beings who “stepped across the boundary” between Angelic existence and Human existence and (Genesis 6:1-4) interbred with humans, then this comment may make perfect sense. Those angels are “in everlasting chains under darkness” waiting for the final judgment. But Satan and the rest of the fallen angels are not chained…yet.

Judgment of Specific Humans

⁷Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

We still remember Sodom and Gomorrah as examples of God’s fierce judgment. And, ironically, the people who “go after strange flesh” in the same manner they did are still called “sodomites” today (though not very often, as public opinion has shifted to actually approve of them.) But the Law still calls the sins they commit “sodomy” in today’s legal terminology. God “set them forth as an example,” as the scripture says, and the example still stands.

Beginning A List of Examples

⁸Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

Once again, this is nothing new: In Romans 1:21-32 Paul describes the pattern of behavior and deterioration of morality and faith, within the Human Race. The pattern hasn’t changed. Humans still follow this pattern! We wallow in our sin, and we proudly say things like, “Ain’t nobody tells me what to do!” I had a man who claimed to be a believer tell me those exact words, angrily declaring himself to be the only authority in his life.

Additionally, and even more common: We feel free to slander politicians we don’t like, as well as other people in authority. Unbelievers even go so far as to mock the Lord himself. They mock His Word with impunity, and make gross allegations against Him, sometimes very publicly.

Jude Includes Extra-biblical Examples

⁹Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

Here is a peculiar comment…it stands alone in scripture. There is no other reference to this event. All we know about the body of Moses (other than this snippet) is that GOD buried the body of Moses, and no one has ever known where.

This is actually a quote from an apocryphal text, claiming an argument regarding the burial of Moses. We don’t see the original text as authoritative, but Jude used it as an example of treating high rank with respect. It is the concept of “we salute the rank, not the man.” That is pretty much all we can use it for. We recognize and respect the authority of the badge, for example, even when the person wearing it is acting in an unrespectable manner.

But regarding this specific incident, please read Deuteronomy 34:5, 6. God says that He buried Moses’s body, and that no human knows where it is. Make of it what you will.

This is not the only place in scripture where a writer cited an extrabiblical source to support an argument. Paul did so in Acts 17:28 as well as in Titus 1:12. We may be uncomfortable with that fact, but it remains a fact. (Jude does it again in verse 17.)

More Examples

¹⁰But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

Jude says, effectively, that these people are acting as though they are animals, without a consciousness of right or wrong, without an awareness of a sovereign God’s authority over them. I have witnessed a male robin, fighting his own reflection in a shiny hubcap. It was funny to watch, but the bird was not playing. He was attacking something he could not understand.

The people Jude addresses, here, speak evil of things they know nothing about. I have had people defiantly tell me that “The Bible is nothing but fairytales!” When I confronted them with the fact that they had not read it at all, and thus they did not know what they were talking about, they were angry, but they could not respond. It was the truth! They did NOT know!

¹¹Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Here are three examples in one verse:

Cain tried to circumvent his own guilt as a sinner: He avoided a blood sacrifice. When that failed, he attacked the one who had already been accepted by God on the basis of that blood sacrifice, and killed him! This has been a pattern throughout history, as well.

Balaam was a real prophet, a real believer, but he sold out and was killed. Today he is only remembered for having sold out and having betrayed Israel, in direct disobedience to God.

Core (Old Testament spelling “Korah”) in Numbers 16:1-34, defied Moses as the appointed authority, assuming that Moses was promoting himself as the leader, when in fact, God had appointed him, and had proven it over and over, in supernatural ways. It is astonishing to me that Korah and his comrades could assume that they could take over, and that God would empower them in similar fashion. But God supernaturally put to death all those who followed Korah. At the authority of God, through Moses, the earth swallowed up Korah and his comrades, so that alive, they and thier familie fell into hell. (Wow! What an awful judgment!)

We will have to continue this passage at a later date. Jude has a lot more to say about false teachers, and false brethren. But the Judgment of God is Prominent throughout this epistle.

Lord Jesus, please open our eyes to see Your truth, and to apply it to our own lives. Help us to consistently reject the false claims of the World, of our own deceitful hearts an of the enemy. Let us shine as lights in the current darkness and present You as the Only source of Light.

July 12, 2025July 12, 2025

How to Understand the “Other Side” of John 13:34, 35

A Letter to the Children (Part 8)

1^st John 3:7-16

Examining The “Other Side” of John 13:34, 35

Remember that Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples….” Well, the word, “ALL” includes us, as believers. Jesus gave the World three means by which to judge the church…meaning us! They are to “critique” us…we who “claim the name of Jesus.” Jesus gave those three criteria to the World. He invites them to look at our lives and judge whether what we say is true, and whether our lives reflect the truth of God’s Word.

The Agapé Love: John 13:34, 35
The Unity of the Spirit: John 17:21; Ephesians 4:3
The Good Works that God has ordained for us to do. Matthew 5:15, 16; Ephesians 2:10

We can use those same three ways (and others,) to look within the church and recognize potential trouble before it grows too big to deal with. Paul warned the Ephesians elders, in Acts 20:28-31, that predators (“grievous wolves”) would arise from within the church, even from among the leadership, trying to lead away people to follow them instead of Christ: They try to persuade people to believe their doctrine instead of believing the sound teaching of the Word of God.

And those elders in Acts 20 were to guard against such predators. So, how can we recognize the counterfeits? Primarily by becoming so familiar with the “genuine article” that fakes are obvious.

There are Different Sources of Wisdom

In James 3:13-18, God warns all the believers, as to how to distinguish the difference between Godly Wisdom and counterfeit “wisdom” from other sources. He names three “other sources:” The world, the flesh, and the devil (He used the words, “earthly, sensual, devilish.”) But He gives a nine-fold “checklist” as to how to recognize God’s Wisdom. If any of those attributes of Godly Wisdom are clearly missing, especially in a continuing, repeating pattern, then we can safely conclude that the source is not the Lord.

Self-Will-Sourced “Wisdom”

Some people claim their “own wisdom.” But it is rooted in the flesh: Self-will. Self-proclaimed wisdom. (Romans 1:22 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”)

Crowd-Sourced “Wisdom“

Some may say, “Well, Everybody knows that…” but if whatever it is that “everybody knows” is not in full agreement with the Word of God, then they are simply tapping into the “pooled error,” and “pooled folly” of the World. Romans 3:10-12 says, regarding the human race, “¹⁰As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: ¹¹There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. ¹²They are all gone out of the way, they are together [collectively] become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Paul was quoting Psalm 14.)

And some will go so far as to teach counter to the Bible: They imply that the Bible is just “out of date,” or “obsolete,” or they claim that parts of it are “mythological” in nature. This practice is directly from the pit, as Satan said, in Genesis 3:4, “Thou sssshalt not ssssurely die…!” (Hear the hiss of the Serpent!)

You see, one of Satan’s “sharpest weapons” is Denying the truth of God’s Word. First, He convinces us that “We are pretty sharp characters! We are really wise!”

Then he convinces us that collectively, we are obviously wiser than any one of us acting alone could be. (Many times, in history, ONE person alone has stood for what was right. Others persecuted and often killed them for their faithfulness to the truth. But history proved that the ones who stood alone were correct, and that their persecutors were simply murderers!)

The teaching, here in 1^st John 3:7-16 corroborates all the other passages about “false brethren.” (Compare 2^nd Corinthians 11:26 “…perils among false brethren.”

Also, Galatians 2:4 “…false brethren unawares brought in.” Unbelievers infiltrated the church, and were corrupting the teaching.)

False Brethren

⁷Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. [Remember that the verbs here are continuous, not intermittent. This is a lifestyle issue, and a “common practice” issue, not a question of “sinless perfection.”]

⁸He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

⁹Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

It is possible that this verse is in direct reference to the New Nature of the born-again believer. It would fit, as it refers to “His Seed:” the new nature of a born-again believer is created in the likeness of God in righteousness and true holiness (see Ephesians 4:24.) that new nature truly cannot sin. But our problem is that we still have our old sinful nature, which cannot be repaired so as to practice righteousness. So there is a constant war in progress.

¹⁰In this the children [tekna] of God are manifest, and the children [tekna] of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Origin of All Humans

Please remember that all of us began life as the “spiritual offspring” of the Evil One. (Ephesians 2:1-3 says, “¹ And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; ²Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: ³Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

No human (apart from Jesus,) is exempt from this fact: Jesus confirmed it in John 8:44. He told His accusers that they were the children of their father the Devil. But the Ephesians passage tells us that we all started there, too! (Paul included himself in that “we.”)

In What Way is the Church Different?

So, how does the church differ from the rest of the human race? 1^st Peter 1:16-23 says,

“⁶Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. ¹⁷And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: ¹⁸Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

¹⁹But [you were redeemed] with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: ²⁰Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, ²¹Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. ²²Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: ²³Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

Those are all “Positional Truths.” They are true of all believers, because of their “position” in Christ, without regard to “how they are doing” right now. But, if those things are not true of a person, he or she is not a believer at all. Can I “see into another person’s heart?” (No, I can’t!) But God does give us certain clues, and He expects us to use them for the protection of ourselves and of the flock.

So, What is the Primary Command in Question?

¹¹For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. [John 13:34, 35]

¹²Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

John draws a sharp contrast, here, between Righteous behavior and Evil. The evil will always desire to destroy the righteous: It will not seek peace and reconciliation.

¹³Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

Remember that Jesus warned us about this: In John 15:18, 19, He said, “¹⁸If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

Believers can Fail in this, too!

We don’t want to be too quick to point a finger and declare that someone else is not a believer. But it does remain a possibility. How people respond to the Word of God is a good predictor to how they will respond to Jesus Himself: He is the Word!

¹⁴We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

I can at least apply this test to my own heart: Do I love the brethren (with the Agapé love?) Or do I see them primarily as a “bother,” and an irritation, as opposed to a “brother,” and a blessing? Do I wish for restoration of full fellowship, or do I just wish they would all “just straighten up and fly right?”

Remember that, in Revelation 12:10, Satan is called “the accuser of the brethren.” I do not want to be a “junior accuser,” and join him in that evil work. I want to be careful not to become critical of others.

However, if we can easily see a continuing practice of accusations, gossip, harsh criticism, etc., a total lack of regard for God’s Word, and if we can observe a general discomfort around other believers, it might be a cause for suspicion that the person may not be saved. We need to be careful, though: A believer who is out of fellowship can behave exactly like an unbeliever. (In similar manner, a person in a deep coma looks pretty much like a dead corpse…but we don’t bury them…because they aren’t really dead! They just look that way!)

The Love of the Brethren as a “Litmus Test”

¹⁵Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

It is interesting to see that the teaching Jesus gave (Matthew 5:21, 22) in the Sermon on the Mount, regarding “hatred vs. murder” is reiterated in very clear terms, here in 1^st John. Jesus expanded upon His Law, and pointed out that the root cause of murder was unreasoning anger and hatred. He said that the motive itself made you guilty before God.

But here, we see a contrast laid out for us!

¹⁶Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Notice Two things:

First,

It does not say, “We perceive the love of Christ.” It says, “We perceive the love of GOD, because HE laid down His life for us!” It (again) highlights the Deity of Christ! He is truly “God in the Flesh,” and He (as GOD) has laid down His life for us! (Ponder that one for a while!)

And,

Second:

The opposite of Murder is “laying down one’s life” for others. It usually does not mean “losing one’s life.” But it always means “laying down” one’s own life, with its plans, privileges and priorities, to meet the actual need of the brother or sister in question.

It means setting aside what seems good for me, in favor of what the real need in the other person’s life is. And what they need may not even be what they want: A brother whose sin is about to destroy his marriage (or in some other way is having serious consequences) probably will not “truly appreciate your pointing it out to him.”

Jesus Commands us to Go!

But Agapé love requires that you do so, anyway. Jesus taught that responsibility in John 13:6-16, in the washing of the disciple’s feet. Galatians 6:1-5 spells out that responsibility, and makes it clear what the real issue is: Restoration is the only acceptable motive. If you think you are there to “straighten ‘em out,” please don’t go.

Am I “comfortable” with coming to a brother and “washing his feet” by alerting him to the danger of the sin in which he is entangled? NO! I am not! But it has to be done. And, in truth, it may “blow up in my face!” He may mark me as his enemy, for my attempting to help. That is a risk we take. But if someone who is calls himself a brother continually rejects all admonition, God tells us to understand that he may not be a believer. (Matthew 18:15-17)

In that case, we approach him as we would approach a non-Christian, and we offer forgiveness and eternal life on the basis of the Blood of Jesus. We do not malign them, nor do we reject them, but rather, we consider them a “mission field.”

It is entirely possible for an unbeliever to “infiltrate” a local church. We don’t have to be blind to that possibility, nor need we be alarmed when it happens. We have been warned in advance!

Lord Jesus, help us to see the World through Your eyes, and to Love the Brethren in sincerity! Give us the Wisdom from Your Word to discern reality and meet their needs appropriately in the Love of Christ.