Likewise also these
dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.
Jude 8
Dear Heavenly
Father, I ask you to remove discouragement from my life and help me to focus on
you. Even though life doesn't seem to
go as I thought or my work for You doesn't go as planned. Please help me to know that I'm
obedient. Keep me from focusing on
myself. Let tonight's Word speak to me,
so I can grow closer to you. In Jesus'
name I pray, Amen.
Jude has gone into
great detail about historical apostasy, the abandonment and renunciation of
God. Jude is now going to compare the
past with the present. If you remember
from the overview, the book was written to instruct believers against False
Teachers and dangerous tenets such as live in sin and still have the hope of
eternal life. These false teachers were
believed to be the Gnostics. They were a
Christian heresy that combined the world's religions and started in the first
century. To bring deeper understanding
to today's text, let's examine some key words and their companion or similar
verses.
"Likewise"
in the Greek is homoios which means
which means equally, same way, similarity, in a like manner. As the Israelites, fallen angels, and Sodom
and Gomorrah, these false teachers will act and sin in the very same way.
"Dreamers"
in the Greek is epupniazomai which means
I dream (see visions) in my sleep, wrong kind of day dream, hoping (desiring)
against God's kingdom and then expects personal aspirations to be granted,
completely out of touch with God's kingdom, to be beguiled with sensual images
and carried away to an impious course of conduct. These are people who claim authority by
dreams that they've had. They rely
solely on the strength of their dreams.
Matthew 6:33 states where actual authority is sourced, "But seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you."
"Defile"
in the Greek is miaino which means
stain, pollute, corrupt, moral spiritual stain, sin tainted by polluting
effects, contaminate, smear. The basis
of the word is to dye, stain with cover.
"Flesh" in the Greek is sarx
which means human nature, body, carnal, human origin or empowerment, man's
animal nature consumed with sin cravings, bodily countenance. These men possessed with dreams cover their
human nature with the permanent stain of morally corrupt sin.
"Reject"
in the Greek is atheteo which means
annul, make of no effect, set aside, ignore, slight, break faith with, nullify,
make void, refuse to respect, cast off, bring to nothing. "Authority" in the Greek is kuriotes which means lordship, dominance,
dignity, divine or angelic lordship, dominion, celestial hierarchy, power over
a jurisdiction, used of angels. These
deceivers break faith with God refusing to respect His lordship over all
creation.
"Speak
Evil" in the Greek is blasphemeo
which means use abusive or scurrilous (scandalous claims to damage someone's
reputation) language about God, refusing to acknowledge good, revile,
calumniate (make false and defamatory statements about), vilify, slanderous,
contemptuous speech that intentionally comes short of reverence due God, mock, scoff,
heap abuse. It is composed of two words:
blax which means sluggish or slow and pheme which means reputation or fame. "Dignitaries" in the Greek is doxa which means honor, renown, glory,
splendor, unspoken manifestation of God, what evokes good opinion, brightness, shechinah (glory of the Lord), preeminence,
excellence, most exalted state, angels of preeminent dignity. Doxa
is from the root word dokeo which means
personal perspective, judgment call, showing what they do or don't esteem, have
an opinion. These evil men use words to
try to vilify the Lord. They are
intentional in what they say and how they say it. Their purpose is to defame, mock, and damage
God's reputation.
Using the past
(Israelites, fallen angels, Sodom and Gomorrah) as their guide, these con
artists bathe themselves in sexual immorality, ignore God, and speak falsely
about God. This is a reflection of the
world without God. However, how can the
world believe God will let everyone into heaven (the good place) when they
treat Him this way? The world believes
that just because they exist that they are "entitled" to anything and
everything they want and want to do.
This "entitlement" causes people to impose unrealistic
demands, to feel sorry for themselves when it doesn't work out, to believe they
deserve happiness, to take more than they give, to look out only for
themselves, to genuinely believe that they are better than everyone else, and
to crave attention anyway that they can get it.
They focus on themselves instead of others. We don't have the "right" to
anything unless we have Christ.
Nevertheless in the
same way, these dreamers [who are dreaming that God will not punish them] also
defile the body, and reject [legitimate] authority, and revile and mock angelic
majesties.
Amplified Bible
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