"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."

Jude from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,

To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: ² May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

³ Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. ⁴ For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵ Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, ⁷ just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸ Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. ⁹ But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰ But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. 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. ¹² These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; ¹³ wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴ It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, ¹⁵ to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” ¹⁶ These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.

¹⁷ But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁸ that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” ¹⁹ These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. ²⁰ But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. ²² And have mercy on some, who are doubting; ²³ save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

²⁴ Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

In today’s text, the letter of Jude to the early church, we see yet another early church leader, one who knew Jesus well, warning and exhorting the church. Exhorting them to remain in mercy and  love, Jude begins saying:    May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.   And ends:   keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.   Jude, like the other early writers, Paul, Peter, James and John, balances this exhortation to live in love, grace and mercy, with a warning to live righteously, free from sin. Jude says:   I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.     There was then and there is today, a contending for the faith in Christ. Jude specifically points out those who turn the grace of God, the forgiveness and redemption of and from sin, into license to sin. Once again this letter is written to believers, its purpose is not to convince unbelievers to come to Christ and follow Him, but rather to encourage believers to remain in Him.

Jude uses history to teach about the present. A well known quote says:  "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."    In Numbers 23:19, God says:  “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” Hebrews 13:8 says:  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.    James 1:17 says:   Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.     If God and Jesus are unchanging, it makes sense then that we can learn about who God is, how He thinks and acts, by the way He was. Jude reminds us of God’s response to those who rebelled against Him. He says: Now I desire to remind you…that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.     Although God, in His great grace and mercy, went to great lengths to free the entire nation of Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, nearly that entire generation died in the wilderness, without entering into the promise of God, because they did not believe and follow God. Jude reminds us of God’s reaction and response to the immoral cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He says:   Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.    In verses 8-16, Jude continues with more examples of God’s judgment of sin and rebellion. Still, there were those then and there are those today, who believe that God’s opinion and His response to sin has changed. The grace of God, the cross of Christ was not and is not to make sin okay, justifiable in God’s sight. God’s grace, His love and mercy, demonstrated in the cross of Christ, was and is to reconcile, redeem and restore people to God. The cross of Christ and the blood of Jesus redeems sinners not sin.

Again, Jude is not alone in his warning and exhortation to the early church. In Romans 6, Paul speaks of grace, sin, righteousness and eternal life. He begins:   What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?      And ends:     But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.    In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus Himself says:    “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”    If the God of the Old Testament and Jesus Himself at a future time respond to sin and lawlessness in judgment, how can we believe that the God and Jesus we serve today would embrace it?

Jude’s exhortation:   But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,  keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting;  save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

His prayer:   Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.   Amen.