Being Watchful

DEVOTION

JUDE

BEING WATCHFUL

Jude 8-10

8 In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"   10 Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals — these are the very things that destroy them.

NIV

Can this be about people who are supposed to be sharing the gospel message? It sounds more like people who hate God and hate anything that has to do with Christianity. Yet Jude is talking about false teachers. He is talking about men who come in the name of the Lord, but teach that which does not resemble anything close to the truth. They have dreamed up their own doctrine, their own set of rules and regulations, establishing what we would call today a new denomination. These men reject the civil authority. It would appear they claimed that being a follower of Christ meant the civil government had no authority over them, which we know now is not truth. They even rejected the fact angels existed, yet who ministered to Jesus? These people simply had no idea what the truth of the gospel was, they just lived as base as animals not understanding anything. Surely we do not have such false teachers like this today. But maybe we do and we are just not aware of them. Hopefully we would be able to recognize them by they incorrect approve to the truth. It does appear these false teachers spoke with a passion about their beliefs, but still were wrong. There are people today who speak with such passions, trying their best to prove they have the correct way for us to live, but they are misguided by their own desires. We need to be careful not to get catch in their snare. The guidelines of the local church have been established in scripture, elders and deacons with all the qualifications of each. These people are known and from the local group, they are not “traveling evangelists”. These people have references and live they lives in front of others. We need to be cautious about people who promote themselves as purveyors of the truth. Some of them even sneak their way into the church under the pretense of being one of us. But their purpose is the same. We surely cannot apply these comments to ourselves as we are just the little people, the ones Jude is warning about those who come in the name of the Lord, but preach false doctrines. So once again we need to be on our guard against such people. We know the truth; we have the Word of God and are able to see the truth for ourselves. We do need to assemble, we do need to be under the spiritual guidance of a shepherd and we do need to continue to grow in our faith. But we also need to be watchful, especially in this age of multi-media for those false teachers who attempt to garner our allegiance