Scripture Daily

Context No. 2341 of 4322 · Jude

Context · Reflection

Jude 1:1-16: in context

1Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: 2May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn’t believe. 6Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. 7Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having in the same way as these given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. 8Yet in the same way, these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings. 9But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” 10But these speak evil of whatever things they don’t know. They are destroyed in these things that they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason. 11Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. 14About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts—and their mouth speaks proud things—showing respect of persons to gain advantage.

Jude writes urgently to warn the church about false teachers who have crept in among them. He describes them as ungodly people who turn the grace of our God into a license for indecency, and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. They had taken the grace of God, his free forgiveness and favor, and perverted it into permission to sin, treating grace as if it meant they could live however they pleased. Jude warns the church to contend for the true faith against this corruption of grace into license.

The particular corruption Jude warns against is turning grace into license. God's grace is his free forgiveness and favor toward sinners, given not because we deserve it but freely. And these false teachers had perverted this grace, twisting it into a license to sin, reasoning that since grace forgives, it does not matter how we live, that we are free to indulge in sin because grace will cover it. They turned the grace of God into a cover for indecency, using the very forgiveness of God as permission to continue in the sin it forgives. This is a perversion of grace that we must guard against. Grace is free forgiveness; but it is not permission to sin. The very grace that forgives us is meant to free us from sin, not to license us to continue in it. To turn grace into license, to reason that since we are forgiven we may sin freely, is to pervert grace into its opposite, to abuse the forgiveness of God as a cover for the very sin it is meant to free us from. Shall we continue in sin, Paul asks, that grace may abound? By no means; how can we who died to sin still live in it? Grace is not a license to sin but the power that frees us from it. This searches how we regard God's grace. Do we treat grace as a license, reasoning that since we are forgiven, it does not much matter how we live, using God's forgiveness as a cover for continuing in sin? Or do we recognize that grace, far from licensing sin, is meant to free us from it? The false teachers Jude warns against turned grace into indecency; and we can fall into the same error, subtly treating forgiveness as permission. Do not use your freedom, Paul says, as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Grace frees us to serve God, not to indulge sin. This calls us not to turn grace into license but to let it free us from sin. Jude warns of those who perverted the grace of God into a license for indecency; and we are warned against the same error, of treating God's forgiveness as permission to sin. Grace is not a license to continue in sin but the very thing that frees us from it; and to turn it into license is to abuse and deny it. Let us not pervert grace into permission to sin, but receive it as the free forgiveness that frees us from sin, letting the grace that has forgiven us free us to live for God rather than treating it as license to live for ourselves.

Do I ever treat God's grace as a license, reasoning that since I am forgiven it does not much matter how I live, using God's forgiveness as a cover for continuing in sin, and can Jude's warning against those who turned the grace of God into a license for indecency, together with Paul's question, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound, by no means, move me not to pervert grace into permission to sin but to receive it as the free forgiveness that frees me from sin, letting the grace that has forgiven me free me to live for God?

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