11.14.24 ~ Read the Fine Print
Good morning!
President elect Trump is actively appointing new leaders into key positions within our government; and upon further review they are high quality choices to get our country out of the woke-ism and onto solid constitutional ground. Through diligent study and significant observation, as most conservatives know, his appointees are intended to drain the swamp of political corruption.
On the flipside, what many know and possibly have forgotten or just dismissed, the top 10 "light" apps for an I-phone have mal-ware on them. Huh? Yes, mal-ware is a program for spying and gaining information from your personal life. What's even more interesting to me, finding and confirming this information, is they actually put it in the agreement. We, speaking of me, myself and I, however, are so ready to accept every agreement for the convenience of having a flashlight on our Iphone that we automatically click accept. Officially, by your consent, they are off the hook, because they warned us and two, we're on the hook because we just want what we want and we want it now!
The book of Jude and 2 Peter are sister books. Jude being much shorter than 2 Peter, actually outlines the entire Jude. In Jude verse 4, Jude says,
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed/pareisduo, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness/aselgeia and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
How can this be? How is this possible? How can it be that some slip into the assembly to do harm and no one notices? Those who crept in unaware/pareisduo settled alongside twice in both the open and the hidden. How did they get in? Well, they must have said the right things. They must have pretended to be worshippers. They had to look the part. If this reminds you of something in Genesis 3, don’t be surprised. They were unnoticed because they appeared to share a common commitment. But time will tell, and in this case, their true colors soon became apparent; and they're not red, white and blue or within God's economy, 'white'.
What were those true colors? How did Jude conclude these people were the enemy? He tells us that they turned Yahweh’s grace into licentiousness. What does that mean? Grace/charis, where we get the word charis-matic from, or the Hebrew equivalent, chen, employs a term of rejoicing both inwardly and outwardly, while moving a person from one realm to another.
The feelings result in action. In particular, chen/grace is the experience of Yahweh’s saving acts. Joy comes when Yahweh delivers. This is the sense that Jude has in mind. Yah has saved us. We rejoice. But Jude sees the need for a warning. Salvation does not mean life without obligations. Our rejoicing entails a certain code of conduct – a path of righteousness (Eph. 2:10; Matt. 5:13-16). Yes, we have joy because Yahweh has delivered us, but that does not mean we are free to do whatever we wish. It means that we are free to obey His instructions. Without the visible sign of obedience to His instructions/torah, we are pseudo-believers. We might have a wonderful warm and fuzzy feeling on the inside, but we lack all the outward evidence that indicates that we've actually been delivered. You don’t get one without the other (Rom. 12:1,2 vs 2 Cor. 11:14).
Notice that Jude expressly indicates what kinds of behaviors deny the true inner experience of grace (Jd. 1:4). He uses a term used with Sodom and Gomorrah's filthy/aselgeia conduct (2 Pet. 2:6, 7), which we will talk about on Friday night's zoom call: 699 858 9149 at 8:00 p.m. EST (Gen. 18-22)
But perhaps, as we noted earlier this week, we are too quick to relegate the meaning only to sexual immorality. While this is the usual meaning, the word carries the idea of license, not simply sexual permissiveness. In other words, Jude warns not to turn the goodness of God’s benevolence into an excuse for permitting any behavior we wish. Grace comes with rules. That doesn’t mean grace depends on rule-keeping. That would be the mistake of associating Yahweh's goodness with human achievement. But just because Yahweh sheds abroad His grace through the faith of men does not mean that grace in action has no boundaries. Grace is demonstrated by the change in behavior that accompanies its transformative character. Grace, as Paul reminds us, is never an excuse for sinning all the more (Rom. 6:1; 3:31; Gal. 5:13; 1 Pet. 2:16; 2 Pet. 2:18,19).
All of this seems perfectly reasonable. At the human level, we love our children but that doesn’t mean we let them do whatever they want to do. Love comes with obligations and expectations, not for the good of the parent but for the good of the child. But notice what this implies. It implies that there is an acceptable and recognized standard of conduct. It’s no good trying to tell your children that they need to live according to the family expectations if you don’t tell them what those expectations are. And that’s Jude’s point. Those who are part of the assembly of the Messianic community have been grafted into the commonwealth of Israel (Eph. 2:12-22) and therefore, they have been given instructions that accompany what it means to be Israel; Abraham's seed (Isa. 41:8; Gal. 3:16, 29). To suggest that people can experience Yahweh’s grace and reject these instructions is contradictory – and Jude knows it. That’s why he warns his flock about the destructive nature of those who teach that the rules no longer apply.
I suppose we should ask ourselves if we have turned Yahweh’s grace into permission to do what we want to do rather than what He wants us to do. And, obviously, we aren’t talking about Sodom and Gomorrah anymore. Welcome to my hometown U.S.A.
So what do you do with the mal-ware? Take your phone down to the store that you bought it, back up the important information, and have them do a hard reset. What do you do with the individuals who creep in unaware? Read the fine print carefully before you click "accept."
Shalom!
On the flipside, what many know and possibly have forgotten or just dismissed, the top 10 "light" apps for an I-phone have mal-ware on them. Huh? Yes, mal-ware is a program for spying and gaining information from your personal life. What's even more interesting to me, finding and confirming this information, is they actually put it in the agreement. We, speaking of me, myself and I, however, are so ready to accept every agreement for the convenience of having a flashlight on our Iphone that we automatically click accept. Officially, by your consent, they are off the hook, because they warned us and two, we're on the hook because we just want what we want and we want it now!
The book of Jude and 2 Peter are sister books. Jude being much shorter than 2 Peter, actually outlines the entire Jude. In Jude verse 4, Jude says,
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed/pareisduo, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness/aselgeia and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
How can this be? How is this possible? How can it be that some slip into the assembly to do harm and no one notices? Those who crept in unaware/pareisduo settled alongside twice in both the open and the hidden. How did they get in? Well, they must have said the right things. They must have pretended to be worshippers. They had to look the part. If this reminds you of something in Genesis 3, don’t be surprised. They were unnoticed because they appeared to share a common commitment. But time will tell, and in this case, their true colors soon became apparent; and they're not red, white and blue or within God's economy, 'white'.
What were those true colors? How did Jude conclude these people were the enemy? He tells us that they turned Yahweh’s grace into licentiousness. What does that mean? Grace/charis, where we get the word charis-matic from, or the Hebrew equivalent, chen, employs a term of rejoicing both inwardly and outwardly, while moving a person from one realm to another.
The feelings result in action. In particular, chen/grace is the experience of Yahweh’s saving acts. Joy comes when Yahweh delivers. This is the sense that Jude has in mind. Yah has saved us. We rejoice. But Jude sees the need for a warning. Salvation does not mean life without obligations. Our rejoicing entails a certain code of conduct – a path of righteousness (Eph. 2:10; Matt. 5:13-16). Yes, we have joy because Yahweh has delivered us, but that does not mean we are free to do whatever we wish. It means that we are free to obey His instructions. Without the visible sign of obedience to His instructions/torah, we are pseudo-believers. We might have a wonderful warm and fuzzy feeling on the inside, but we lack all the outward evidence that indicates that we've actually been delivered. You don’t get one without the other (Rom. 12:1,2 vs 2 Cor. 11:14).
Notice that Jude expressly indicates what kinds of behaviors deny the true inner experience of grace (Jd. 1:4). He uses a term used with Sodom and Gomorrah's filthy/aselgeia conduct (2 Pet. 2:6, 7), which we will talk about on Friday night's zoom call: 699 858 9149 at 8:00 p.m. EST (Gen. 18-22)
But perhaps, as we noted earlier this week, we are too quick to relegate the meaning only to sexual immorality. While this is the usual meaning, the word carries the idea of license, not simply sexual permissiveness. In other words, Jude warns not to turn the goodness of God’s benevolence into an excuse for permitting any behavior we wish. Grace comes with rules. That doesn’t mean grace depends on rule-keeping. That would be the mistake of associating Yahweh's goodness with human achievement. But just because Yahweh sheds abroad His grace through the faith of men does not mean that grace in action has no boundaries. Grace is demonstrated by the change in behavior that accompanies its transformative character. Grace, as Paul reminds us, is never an excuse for sinning all the more (Rom. 6:1; 3:31; Gal. 5:13; 1 Pet. 2:16; 2 Pet. 2:18,19).
All of this seems perfectly reasonable. At the human level, we love our children but that doesn’t mean we let them do whatever they want to do. Love comes with obligations and expectations, not for the good of the parent but for the good of the child. But notice what this implies. It implies that there is an acceptable and recognized standard of conduct. It’s no good trying to tell your children that they need to live according to the family expectations if you don’t tell them what those expectations are. And that’s Jude’s point. Those who are part of the assembly of the Messianic community have been grafted into the commonwealth of Israel (Eph. 2:12-22) and therefore, they have been given instructions that accompany what it means to be Israel; Abraham's seed (Isa. 41:8; Gal. 3:16, 29). To suggest that people can experience Yahweh’s grace and reject these instructions is contradictory – and Jude knows it. That’s why he warns his flock about the destructive nature of those who teach that the rules no longer apply.
I suppose we should ask ourselves if we have turned Yahweh’s grace into permission to do what we want to do rather than what He wants us to do. And, obviously, we aren’t talking about Sodom and Gomorrah anymore. Welcome to my hometown U.S.A.
So what do you do with the mal-ware? Take your phone down to the store that you bought it, back up the important information, and have them do a hard reset. What do you do with the individuals who creep in unaware? Read the fine print carefully before you click "accept."
Shalom!
Comments
Post a Comment