Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
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Scratching
the Surface of Jude
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Following Jude's lead,
let's be honest about churches.
Historically,
church membership rolls have been polluted by people who really don't get
it/Him and often don't really want to get it/Him but just wanna be listed as posingly getting it/Him
for mostly social reasons or something equally hypocritical; noting the Greek
word for hypocrite that Jesus used referred to people who wear masks to conceal
who they really are.
Again,
historically, we know lots of clergy who have been employed by churches without
being called by God who don't get it/Him and often don't really want to get
it/Him but just wanna pose for a catalogue of reasons suggesting pejorative
pathologies rather than confessional intentions.
Biblically, we
know Jesus knows who they are; or as He said, "They come in sheep's
clothing..."
They slither into
churches like terrorist sleeper cells to ravage and rape the sheep at "an
opportune time": "...unGodly people, who pervert the grace of our God
into sensuality and deny our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."
Yes, they may mouth faith and go through the motions of
faith; but their true character is exposed by their antics to distract, detour,
divide, destroy, and damn: "...ungodliness...These are grumblers,
malcontents, following their own sinful desires...loud-mouthed boasters,
showing favoritism to gain advantage...scoffers, following their own unGodly
passions...cause divisions...worldly people...devoid of the Spirit..."
While Jude wanted
to be warm and fuzzy and extol everybody and everything, his discipleship
demanded honesty to God and the Godly: "Although I was very eager to write
to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to
you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for
this condemnation..."
So it's nothing
new.
Bad apples find
their way into barrels of fresh ones and threaten to make 'em as rotten as they
are.
Truly authentic Christian
leaders - there's a need for redundancy to press home the importance of The
Good Shepherd's call to undershepherds
to encourage, equip, and protect the sheep - know they must, in obedience to
clear commands in Matthew 18 and Romans 16, identify the irregular, irascible,
and irreconcilable; isolating them from the immature and maturing and praying
and laboring for their redemption via confession and repentance and removing them if they continue
their dark behaviors.
Jude's concerns
then remain contemporary as churches are inhibited and sidetracked from
becoming part of the Church by unconverted clergy, unconvinced laity,
and Pharisaical reincarnations.
Succinctly, unconverted clergy are
women and men without faith in church leadership who lied about their
infidelities to "get" ordained, never really believed but faked it to
"get" ordained, or abandoned Biblical Christology somewhere somehow
along the way but lack the integrity to admit it. Unconvinced laity are the
children of unconverted clergy. Pharisaical
reincarnations substitute organizational order and human traditions
for the commandments of God as enfleshed in Jesus and explained in Holy
Scripture.
They were a
problem exposed by Jude while continuing to expose themselves today;
particularly in their faithless inability to talk about Jesus by name; "If
you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that
God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
While we've gotta
love 'em enough to call 'em back to Jesus and leave the ultimate judgment to
Him, Jude makes it equally clear and conclusive that they will be judged for
their distracting, detouring, dividing, destroying, and damning: "Woe to
them!"
Jude concludes
with a glorious doxology preceded by practical preparations echoing the truths
of John 3:16-21, 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, Ephesians 6:10-20, 1 John 4:15-18, and
parallel texts certifying our empowerment over darkness by remaining in the
Light: "Build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy
Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God...have mercy on those who doubt;
save others by snatching them out of the fire...Now to Him who is able to keep
you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His
glory 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."
Jude acknowledges
the challenges.
He exposes the
contrast between churches corrupted by the world and the Church
remaining faithful to Jesus by
the book.
He never doubts
the outcome.
Jesus wins in the end; and people who
really believe in Him and behave, more than less, like they believe in Him
share the victory.
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...to be continued...
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Blessings and Love!
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