Jude:14-16: Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy onesto 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.” These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
A blessing of the age of the internet is the ease with which information sources can be explored. We can click away at home and mine a treasure trove of knowledge without having to go the public library. News headlines come at us freely and it is easy not to read around a subject, but instead, take at face value the first thing we see.
In today’s verses from Jude the reference to Enoch is probably to an apocryphal writing but Enoch, apocryphal or not, was joined by other prophets in warning of God’s judgement. The target for criticism is false teachers, those who abuse the message to further their own ends, or who are not especially careful about what God is really saying when they throw out popular messages.
Each time another expose emerges in the media, suggesting that ‘all is not as it might have been’ we express shock and amazement. Really? Are we surprised when others do what human nature inclines all of us to do, namely, take a popular route or join fashionable causes?
If reading scripture or reflecting on life teaches us anything it should be confirming that everything is part of a complex whole; a rich picture of vibrant colours, not black and white.
False teaching is about making it appear that convenient, fashionable personal views are God’s word, or the real truth. False teachers do us a disservice because they shut down enquiring minds whereas genuine seekers after truth promote thinking and welcome breadth of opinion and wide debate. False teachers tend to be hard on those who do not support their thinking whereas seekers after truth know that all of us make mistakes. Jesus called ordinary people to follow him, from a range of occupations and professions. He welcomed desperate people and helped them. He encouraged people to think about what they believed and taught faith, not facts.
A prayer
Lord, help me to be healthily sceptical about all I hear but to believe what I sense to be truth, as your Holy Spirit helps me to sift opinions and find faith; for Jesus’ sake, Amen.