Notes on Jude 17-23

The important thing to notice with this passage of Scripture is that it's context is, in many ways, bad leadership. The audience the letter writer is speaking to is being educated by the past in the hopes that they can see the difference between a leader who is concerned about his own selfish advancement and the apostles that got the whole church moving.

Vs. 17 - But dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.

They, and we, have a foundation in our Christian walk that dates back to the early days of the Church. The Bible holds particular weight in our day because as more and more leaders are led astray by their own evil ambition, we have to find examples of steadfast, character-driven, Christ-driven leadership in order to clearly identify God's will for leaders in the church.

vs. 18 - They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires."

Not only to we look at their examples in order to judge our present leadership, but we also can very clearly see that they have gone ahead of us. They saw these false leaders coming and warned us about them. Even more reason to rely on the Scripture as a guide for present day leadership.

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

This is where we start to get into what I want to talk about today. Jude begins in this verse to talk about the "men who divide." These are either leaders in the church of that day, or people who are simply leading others astray. Jude links these men to statements of the apostles. In vs. 17 he quotes them as saying these men are scoffers who follow their own ungodly desires. But the primary statement that he makes is that these men "do not have the Spirit." It's interesting to me that this is his major distinction between what these "bad" men are like and what the church was expected to be. In this verse he describes these men without the Spirit, in vs. 20 he gives advice to his audience to be the opposite.

vs. 20 - But you dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.

This is such an interesting statement. Jude says that, in contrast to these men we have discussed who don't have the Spirit, your protection against their fate is to "pray in the Holy Spirit." That is powerful!

The question I have is, what is the requirement for good self leadership? What is the requirement here for leading others?

If you wish to lead people in the right direction, the advice Jude gives is to "pray in the Holy Spirit." This is a mandate for leaders and Christians everywhere and to me is one of the primary functions of the Holy Spirit. If we are walking hand in hand and step for step with the Holy Spirit, baptized in his power and communicating in our prayer language every day, we will surely not stray from the path that he has laid out for us. And even more, we will not lead others astray in the process.

I believe that in this letter on church leadership, Jude has revealed a secret to worthwhile leadership and that is a dependence on the power and teaching of the Holy Spirit. This is step one.

vs. 21-23 - Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear-hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Steps 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are in these three verses that follow and all of them, in my opinion require the full presence of the Holy Spirit in order to complete.

Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for Jesus Christ's return
Be merciful to those who doubt
Snatch others from the fire and save them
Show mercy, mixed with fear - hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

All of these require a dependence on the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit enhances our conviction and shows us the way to Christ and the way to stay in Christ. The Holy Spirit also gives us the mind and heart of Christ, teaching us how to show mercy and love. The Holy Spirit gives us power and boldness in reaching and saving those who are lost. The Holy Spirit corrects our view on sin and the urgency with which all people should run from it.

It all begins with the fundamental distinction between a good leader and a bad leader. A good leader, in its truest definition, is one who has the mind of Christ. And those who have the Spirit, have the mind of Christ. Spirit baptism is the foundational element to kingdom leadership.

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