Jude, why we need to stop saying "love the sinner hate the sin"
In this blog we’re going to read and study a whole book. The penultimate book in the Bible.
Thankfully Jude is a single chapter with 25 verses.
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for[Jesus Christ:2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
James was Jesus’s brother and it’s widely believed that this is Jude the brother of Jesus writing this letter, estimated to be written 70-80 AD. So 40-50 years after Jesus’s death. Unlike most letters Jude was written to a general Christian audience. We know very little about Jude other than he’s Jesus brother and a passing mention in Corinthians 9:5 where it says that the brothers went on missionary journeys with their wives.
The book of Jude is one that when read through the lens of a 21st century theology and assumptions is often thought to mean one thing. But I, probably unsurprisingly, have another interpretation.
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
OK, let’s keep going and see where he’s going with this. Some people are now rubbing there hands together, finally Moz is preaching on sin and ungodliness. I’ll be able to use this to tell people off I disapprove of.
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
So there we have it the immorality Jude is on about is homosexuality. We all know that’s what Sodom and Gomorrah is about. Well news flash that’s not what Sodom and Gomorrah is about and that’s not what Jude is on about here.
I’m not going to go all the way back over it but there is much immorality in Sodom and Gomorrah but homosexuality is not what is being condemned.
Let’s red Genesis 19:
The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
So yes this is men wanting to have sex with men, but the issue isn’t the sex it’s consent. Also notice how Lot is quite happy to offer his daughter off for assumingly non-consensual sex. There’s a lot going on there but I think it says a lot about society that the main issue many people have with this passage is the homosexual nature of it rather than the non consensual and violent nature of the sex.
However there is a clue about what Jude is referring to here in verse 6; angels. It would seem that for some reason Jude is talking about humans having sex with angels.
Let’s continue.
8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do will destroy them.
To be honest this is getting weird now, what Jue is referring to in verse 9 is events that take part in the assumption of moses a Jewish scripture that didn’t make the cut for inclusion into the Torah or Bible. The story shows how the archangel Michael refuse to say bad things about the devil.
11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.
12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
Enoch is another Jewish scripture that didn’t make the cut and is an interpretation of Genesis 6 that talks about angels getting into trouble for coming to Earth and having sex with humans.
So the question is why is Jude going on about angels and humans having relationships and why does he feel the need to write to the church about it?
Well that is a very good question. My best guess is that he’s using context that will be familiar to his audience and he’s trying to make a link between rebellion against God and sexual immorality. But it’s only with out 21st century western glasses on that we reads that see the mention of Sodom and Gomorrah and make the whole thing about homosexuality I honestly don’t think that’s what is going on here.
So after a trio of warnings about angels, we then have a trio of warnings about rebels who want to corrupt others. Caine who in Genesis 4 murdered his brother and then founded a city that was known for violence. Balaam who in numbers 31 led people astray:
15 “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. 16 “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people.
Korah’s rebellion is in numbers 16, Korah was a Levite priest who led a rebellion against Moses which led to several hundred people literally being sucked into the ground.
31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions.
To me Jude here is warning others about the consequences of rebelling against God through the stories of the angels and old testament stories, he invokes scripture that will be familiar with his audience to well and truly make his point.
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 people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying 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.
Ungodly desires, there are many things that could fit into this. Jesus is God and what was his most important commandment to us, love God and love your neighbour anything that isn’t from a basis of love is an ungodly desire. Jude is warning us about people who want to divide us, follow mere natural instincts, the way of the world that puts ego’s before love. But we as Christians need to keep our selves in God’s love as we wait for eternal life. Remember the early church thought that Christ’s second coming was going to happen any time.
The King James translation of verse 18-19 is interesting.
how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are [i]sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
Note how saying lusts and not desires, sensual persons rather than natural instincts, changes the meaning through what to me is poor translation.
The message translation is good here:
17-19 But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen: “In the last days there will be people who don’t take these things seriously anymore. They’ll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts.” These are the ones who split churches, thinking only of themselves. There’s nothing to them, no sign of the Spirit!
That’s just a condemnation of ego.
The book of Jude so far has used some, admittedly pretty left field, metaphors and scriptures to remind us to live Godly lives of love. The problem is we inherently bring our own bias into Scripture when we read it and I can see how people read Jude and see it as a scathing attack by Jesus’s own brother on sexual immorality. We see ungodly lives and cherry pick some of the references from earlier in the book and use that to back up our own prejudices and desire to judge people.
Jude is warning us not to rebel against God. God is love. Jude is warning us not to rebel against love. He’s warning us to reject any false teacher who says otherwise.
You might be familiar with the phrase love the sinner, hate the sin. So let’s see where Jesus said this phrase, let’s read. Oh no, sorry Jesus never said that. It’s a nice phrase that Christians often bring out when they want to appear loving and accepting but actually want to judge and point out where someone has in their opinion gone wrong. Can I suggest it’s a phrase we file in the same draw as “God is in control”, “God is testing me” and “God loves America above all other countries”. The draw that can be kept shut.
In fact let me correct it for you, Jesus quite clearly says Judge not and you shall not be judged. So I think a better version of this phrase is. Love. Yeah that’s it. Not even love the sinner, why is their sin anything to do with you? If anyone says this to you ask them which of their sins they’d like you to hate. The only person’s sin we should be concerned about is our own, otherwise we end up judging others to boost our own ego’s.
The reason I’m talking about this phrase is although Jesus never said it, some people think Jude his brother did.
Next verse.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
Be merciful to those who doubt. The King James version translates verse 22 as
And on some have compassion, making a distinction
The word doubt there is diakrinó, διακρίνω,
Definition: To distinguish, to discern, to judge, to doubt
Meaning: I separate, distinguish, discern one thing from another; I doubt, hesitate, waver.
Jude is saying be merciful, be kind to those who are unsure, on those who are hesitating. I think we can assume about their faith about whether to follow these false teachers.
Save others by snatching them from the fire, we immediately think here as saving people from Hell by stopping them doing the bad stuff. Well we know that deeds good or bad are not linked so salvation. So again I don’t see this interpretation. Yes Jude is saying help people to stop making mistakes that are going to harm them. But don’t make that about salvation.
To other show mercy mixed with fear. The Greek for here is phobos, φόβος which is where we get phobia from.
Definition: Fear, terror, reverence, respect
Meaning: (a) fear, terror, alarm, (b) the object or cause of fear, (c) reverence, respect.
We again jump to interpret this as make them scared of going to Hell because they’ve been bad. Well Grace, works do not save us. That’s not what’s going on here. Show them Mercy mixed with respect, that’s a different meaning isn’t it.
hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
I went to look up the Greek word translated here as corrupted but it’s not there. The best literal translation I can find is hating the flesh stained clothing.
Let’s look at this verse in some different translation.
Good news:
22 Show mercy toward those who have doubts; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; and to others show mercy mixed with fear, but hate their very clothes, stained by their sinful lusts.
The Message:
22-23 Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.
ERV:
Rescue those who are living in danger of hell’s fire. There are others you should treat with mercy, but be very careful that their filthy lives don’t rub off on you.
They’ve just decided to add the word hell in there that’s not in the Greek it just say pyros, fire.
If you’re interested here is the Greek for that last bit:
μισοῦντες καὶ τὸν ἀπὸ τῆς σαρκὸς ἐσπιλωμένον χιτῶνα.
Miscountes kai ton apo tes sarkos espilommenon chitona
Hating even the by the flesh stained clothing
Flesh is the word here, there is no sinful lusts mentioned, no corrupted flesh, I think this a really poorly translated verse. We also need to remember to take this verse in the context of the whole bible. Sin is bad, that’s clear, but Jesus’s whole focus was on love, grace and compassion. Let’s build our theology around Jesus not around this one verse at the end of Jude.
Should we avoid things that are going to stop us living out our heavenly identity of course we should. But don’t put your own prejudices into this and make this about judging others to boost your ego.
Shall we read the last two verses?
24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Amen. See here Jude knows Jesus is able to present us before God without fault. Jude gets what his brother did on the cross. So let’s not read into those verses on fire about being good to avoid hell. Let’s live out our identities as God’s children because it’s good. Because that’s how we were intended to live.
The start of Jude said this.
For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
Jude is saying the same as I have many times, don’t mistake knowing you are forgiven and not getting into making moral judgements with behave how you like there are no consequences. Jude points out with his examples the natural consequences of rebelling against God’s message of love.
But please don’t use this book to amplify your own prejudices and world views, to me that’s actually what the letter is warning against.
Jude is book that on the surface is a good stick to bash people with. But it’s a great example of how for every piece of scripture we should evaluate it against:
1. The context
2. The translation
3. The lens of Jesus and the context of the wider bible
When we look at this book through the lens of Jesus, not the lens of conservative evangelicalism it means something very different.
It means beware of people who want to distort the scripture and religion for their own ungodly, unloving ways.