Popular opinion and the church. “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” Benjamin Franklin.

Vice. “Error is to be pitied and pardoned: it is the weakness of human nature. But vice is a foul blemish, not pardonable in any character.” Thomas Jefferson...

Failure assured in the end. “Man can certainly keep on lying … but he cannot make truth falsehood. He can certainly rebel … but he can accomplish nothing which abolishes the choice of God.” Karl Barth

Review

1.  Why is it important to remember who Jude is speaking to (see verse 5)?

2.  What is significant about the people Jude is talking about being called “dreamers”?

3.  Note how Jude separates their understanding from their instinct. Why is this important?

Jude 12-19

¹²These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm--shepherds who feed only themselves.

1.  What does “eating…without the slightest qualm” tell you about these people? If you are stuck read 1 Timothy 4:2. Why is this important?

They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted--twice dead.

2.  How has this scripture been born out in the Episcopal Church?

3.  Think about how this scripture contrasts with Colossians 1:10.

¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

4.  How do these images relate to people whom today fall under Jude’s indictment?

¹⁴Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

5.  What is this section describing? What will be so hard about that moment?

¹⁶These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.  

6.  Why should you beware when these men speak well of you?

¹⁷But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires."

7. To scoff - to mock at or treat with derision. How does this charge relate back to the problem discussed in verses 8-9?

¹⁹These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

8.  What is the most significant charge here? How is this ironic considering what has happened in the Episcopal Church in recent years?

Assignment

Read verses 20-25. Note especially the contrast in verse 20 and fear expressed in verse 23.

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