Jude 14-15 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
Jude now quotes the Apocryphal book called 1 Enoch. Enoch was an Old Testament hero of faith who pleased God by how he lived in righteousness (Hebrews 11:5). In this passage, Enoch describes the final judgment when the Lord will come with angels to judgment humanity. The thought here is similar to what Jesus says in Mark 8:38. This quotation serves as a strong warning to those who received this letter and an implied warning to the false teachers who are the problem prompting Jude to write this letter. The problems of these false teachers are listed in these verses. Ungodly acts or “impiety” are the opposite of God’s desire for how we should live. The opposite is godliness or committed moral living that imitates the love and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Ungodliness is the outcome of living according to the flesh, which these false teachers are doing. Ungodliness is the type of lifestyle of those who reject God (Romans 1:18). It shows up in “defiant words,” which is another way of describing their denial and blaspheme of Jesus in v. 4. Jude would rather write about something more uplifting (see v. 3), but the situation warrants the strong language of this letter. Sometimes we must be woken up from our complacency and moral dullness to see the danger of the lifestyles around us. It is one thing to deal with unbelievers who reject Jesus. It is another issue when there are people within the church with distorted theology and immoral lifestyles. This can be difficult to determine, but when it does surface, there must be loving confrontation and spiritual discipline like Jesus described in Matthew 18:15-20. We must take sin seriously but be vigilant about the purity of the church.
For older posts, click here.