Gnostic Traits
(You may have noticed that these devotions are arriving later in the day. That's because I am struggling to write them! These are technical passages which are heavy in meaning and urgent in application --- but they don't lend themselves to "easy inspirational" writing!They force us to wrestle with old heresies that now beset the church afresh in these post-modern covid times...
So, bear with me please! As my mentor in ministry, Glen Craig, said, some messages are milk (easy to swallow and digest) others are beefsteak - they need some work in the chewing and digesting...)
In today's section Jude offers us three traits visible in those who opt for a "gnostic" faith i.e. a self-centred and self-referencing religious framework:
- They are soft on physical self-discipline. They don't rein in their appetites - be it material, sexual or around food and drink.
- They reject authority. They become a law unto themselves. They don't want to answer to anyone or anything. They're the kind of people who say "MY God would never..." And there's the rub: He isn't our God, we don't possess Him, we don't get to decree what He can and can't do and we don't get to pick and choose which commandments we will keep and break.
- They slander celestial beings. This sounds strange at first and the example of the archangel and Satan fighting over Moses' body raises more questions than answers! But, while we can speculate on all sorts of facets of the story, the bottom-line is simple: God created the angels and the spiritual realms, even the ones that became evil. We should be humble enough to realise that we don't have authority over them, but God does. (Read the very informative encounter of the seven sons of Sceva in Acts 19:14-16)
There are plenty of sad examples in our modern day church of those who claim to be believers but have:
- Let their appetites drive them.
- Flouted authority and become a law to themselves
- Arrogantly made pronouncements and prophecies beyond their authority (for example the USA pastor who claimed he was going to exorcise the Corona Virus while another confidently prophecsied that it was going to "disappear" by May.)
These are "heavy" thoughts, but at a time when a healthy church is needed, it is vital to make sure we don't fall into these pitfalls...
| In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10 Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals--these are the very things that destroy them. (Jude1:8-10) |
