JUDE 7

The Bible says in Jude verse 7, “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.” This is the third of three examples of situations where the judgment of God was brought against those who turned from Him and His truth. The first example in verse 5 had to do with individual Israelites after the Lord Jesus had delivered them from the land of Egypt. The second example had to do with angels who “left their first estate.” This example has to do with entire cities. One lesson from this is the fact that it can become bad enough and sinful enough in a particular city or country and then a holy God must exercise His holiness and His justice. A judge would be unjust if he passed over great wrong-doing and gave no judgment against the wrong-doers. God is not unjust.

The evil angels are said to be in “everlasting chains under darkness.” The citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Darkness and fire are two of the prominent characteristics of hell. Darkness represents the absence of God’s presence. Those who go to hell will be those who have chosen to reject God’s light. Jesus is the light of the world. Right now the blessings of creation shine down upon all the inhabitants of the earth. But those who chose spiritual darkness will get their desire given to them. They will have total darkness. Darkness means of course that they will not see, and therefore they will experience nothing except their own burning conscience as the consequences of their sins and the full weight of their guilt gnaws at them constantly. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when He described hell as the place where “their worm dieth not.” Perhaps the worm is their conscience constantly gnawing at them. They ignored their conscience when on earth, but evidently they will not be able to ignore it when they are cast into eternal darkness.

They will not be able to ignore the flames either. Jesus also described hell as a place of flames. The only reason that I can think that there would be flames is so that the damned will be tormented by the flames. That is what is implied here in Jude when Jude writes of the “vengeance of eternal fire.” Jesus quoted a man who was sent to hell as saying, “I am tormented in these flames.” Why the flames? Obviously the flames are to torment and to punish. God is a just God. He is not going to send anyone to hell unless they deserve to go to hell, of that you can be sure. And if they deserve to go to hell, they deserve to be punished in hell. Some people do not get punished the way that they should be in this life for the horrible things that they have done and for the pain that they have caused others. One lifetime is not enough time to punish them any way. Of course, going to hell is more an issue of the rejection of truth as it is the punishment for the committing of sins. But both are involved. A just God must punish sins. If you want to avoid such a fate, turn to Jesus now, repent, and ask for forgiveness from your sins.

Those who have sinned and who have not found forgiveness through Jesus Christ face judgment. Sodom and Gomorrah are an example of that. Notice the sins that Sodom and Gomorrah committed. At least two things are mentioned: “fornication and going after strange flesh.” The phrase that is translated “giving themselves over to fornication” is translated from one word. It is a good translation because the one word is the word that refers to the committing of fornication with a preposition added to it for emphasis. According to the Holy Spirit the people of Sodom and Gomorrah did not just commit acts of fornication, which would have been bad enough, but the people of Sodom and Gomorrah went to an extreme in their pursuits of sexual license. Evidently they were a society that constantly found new ways to present sexual immorality as though it were good. They were a society where sexual immorality was accepted and encouraged. They were a society that went over the bounds and stayed over the bounds purposefully and willfully. They did not repent of their sins. Instead they went further and further into pursuing the sins that had characterized them. Jesus said, “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” God designed sex. There is nothing wrong with sex, as long as the normal boundaries for it are kept. “The bed in marriage is undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

This pursuit of sexual excess that characterized Sodom and Gomorrah extended into homosexuality. Undoubtedly that is the meaning of the phrase, “strange flesh.” Flesh is a word that simply refers to human life. Human life is divided up into two sexes: male and female. The word that is translated “strange” means different and of a different kind: in other words different from what it should be. God created man as male and female. Jesus spoke of marriage and used the word “flesh” in Matthew 19:5-6. Jesus said, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh.” That is God’s plan for human sexuality. Those who go after “strange flesh” and go into homosexuality have terribly departed from the life that God meant for human beings to live.

Sodom and Gomorrah are examples of the judgment of God against societies that commit sexual sins in great excess and that includes homosexuality. Homosexuals should not be persecuted just as those who commit other forms of sexual sins should not be persecuted, but they should be encouraged to repent of their sins before they stand at the judgment of a holy God.

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of their sexual immorality and homosexuality. False religious leaders also often commit sins of sexual immorality and a judgment similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrah awaits them. Concerning false teachers Jude writes in verse 8, “Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominions, and speak evil of dignities.” In this verse the false teachers are given a description, and then three things are said about them: one is something that they do, one is something that they think, and one is something that they speak.

False teachers are called “filthy dreamers.” Notice that in the KJV the word “filthy” is in italics. The translators added the word for clarification in order to show just what kind of dreams is being talked about. It is a good word to add based upon the context. These false teachers are dreamers. They use their imagination, but they use it in the wrong way. The imagination of man can be a wonderful thing. That which you can conceive, you can achieve (with help from Christ.) But the fantasies of the human mind can be the birthplace to doctrines of demons and terrible deeds. Be careful about your thoughts. Guard them carefully. Your thoughts will lead to actions, and your actions will bring consequences, and those consequences will determine your destiny. “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”

What do the dreams of false teachers lead to? It leads to them defiling the flesh. Remember that we are talking about sexual immorality here. The will of God is that your body and your spirit be kept clean. The will of God is that a human being learn how to properly take care of his or her body. There are activities that the body should not be involved in or it will be “defiled.” The Apostle Paul wrote of this principle in First Corinthians 6:15, “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid.” Paul also write in First Corinthians 6:18, “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”

False teachers are committing sexual sins. That is one reason that so many religious leaders commit sexual sins. We live in the last time, and there are many antichrists. Many of the religious leaders in every denomination and religious group of our day are false teachers. Therefore, do not be surprised at the sins that they commit. Such individuals are described very clearly here in the book of James. They “defile the flesh,” and they also “despise dominion.” The word that is translated “despise” means to work against and to try to set aside. What are they opposed to? They despise “dominion.” The word “dominion” means “rule.” It comes from the same word as the word “Lord.” The false teachers are opposed to the Lord, and therefore they are opposed to those whom the Lord would choose to do His work.

When Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave gifts unto men. The spiritual gifts should be used by the ones to whom the gifts have been given. Among these gifts is the gift to teach. The false teachers despise the true teachers. The false teachers will work against the true teachers. Given that the false teachers are often in leadership positions in the various religious organizations, the true teachers will find themselves opposed and despised too often by the religious leaders. These are the last days. These are troubling and difficult times. Why will true teachers be opposed by religious leaders? Jude gives us the answer. It happens because false teachers “despise dominion,” and therefore they despise the ones whom the Lord would set up.

The third evil deed that is done by false teachers as given in Jude verse 8 is that they “speak evil of dignities.” The words that are translated “speak evil” come from the word to blaspheme. Of course, the false teachers “blaspheme.” Who are the dignities that they blaspheme? The word that is translated “dignities” is a word that is very common in the New Testament and is usually translated as “glory.” The word is used two other times by Jude in verses 24 and 25. Those verses say, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” Just as in verses 24 and 25 usually the word “glory” is used in reference to the Lord. False teachers blaspheme the Lord. The reason that the false teachers are against true teachers is because the false teachers are also against the Lord. They speak against the Lord Jesus. As Jude said in verse 4 the false teachers deny “the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

But in spite of the fact of how bad the false teachers are and how much they do against the true teachers, we are never to resort to their ways and their tactics. Our goal is to do things the way that Jesus did them, and if we must suffer for it, then so be it. We will use respect for all human beings. We will show respect to everyone in a position of power or authority, even though we know what they are really made of. That is the point that Jude is making in verse 9 with the example of the angel named Michael. Jude wrote, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

The implication here is that we should have a certain amount of restraint in our attitudes towards every one of God’s created beings, even those that we know to be in error: even towards the evil angels. Michael the archangel would have had every justification to rebuke and to speak against the devil, but Michael did not do so. Instead Michael said to the devil, “The Lord rebuke thee.” We should be more like Michael, the archangel, and put our enemies into God’s hands and let God decide what He is going to do or not do. God is the Judge, and we are not. If we really believe that, then in our personal relationships we will not do or say anything that is judgmental. We will wait for God’s judgment in His way and in His time. We will speak the truth without judging.

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