Jude 1:17:22 –17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
Jude is not a large book, but he drives home towards the end of his one chapter things for us in the last days.
Today I am going to concentrate on the first paragraph.
Jude states remember what the apostles told you. We read that similar comment in 2 Peter regarding
scoffers.
2 Peter 3:3-4 – 3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
Paul also in 2 Timothy speaks about the other portion in the last days that Jude appears to be referring to.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 – 1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
I don’t know about you but I see both of these things happening. Scoffers and lovers of themselves is very common in this country and very prevalent in the so called church.
We need to heed to these warnings and make sure we don’t fall into this trap ourselves. Paul also warns to have nothing to do with them. I take that as pray for them, continually lovingly warn them, but don’t get sucked in. Tomorrow we will continue with these passages.