False Teachers And Their Followers Will Be Judged

People’s memories change over time, unless there is something to keep them fresh.  Like the other writers of the New Testament, Jude realized the need to write down what God taught so people would be able to go back and correct things that got distorted.  It is especially important because false teachers play on those forgotten or distorted details to mislead people.  Jude 1:3-4 explains, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”   

As any organization or group grows there are people who want to take it over and use it for their own purposes.  They infiltrate and blend in, working at progressing up through the ranks, until they can seize control.  Once they are in control, they change the focus to accomplish their goals rather than the original purpose of the group or organization.  Unfortunately, this is just as true of Christian groups as of political organizations or businesses.   As Jude says, they are ungodly men chosen by Satan to distort the Gospel into a justification for sinful behavior and deny that Christ is God come in the flesh.  Far too often Christians blindly go along with them, without question, because they are in positions of authority or have a large following. 

Jude 1:5-7 warns that there are serious consequences for just going along with the crowd.  “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.  And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.  Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”  In each case there were many who did not actively rebel against God, but just went along with everyone else.  Only those who actively stood for the Lord were saved in each case. 

Just like the ones who rebelled against God in the instances cited, false teachers today reject God’s authority, ignore his standards of morality, and accuse those who maintain his standards of evil, as Jude 1:8-10 describes.  “Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.  Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.  But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.”  Michael, the most powerful of the angels did not dare say the evil things about Satan these say about God or those who serve him.  They violate the natural order of things, ignoring even their own conscience.  One example of this is when a man insists that he is a woman despite the fact that he is genetically a man. 

 Romans 1:25-32 describes the moral state of these false teachers and their followers.  “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” 

Judgment is certain to come on such leaders.  Jude 1:11 says, “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.”   These false teachers and their followers are like Cain, who I John 3:12 tells us, “…who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.”  They slander and even kill people just because they have a higher moral standard than themselves.  Others are like Balaam, in Numbers 22-24, who would do anything for money, including disobey God.  Still others are like Korah and his followers, in Numbers 16, who rebelled against God because they wanted power.