Commentaries:
In verse 4, Jude gives a few general points about false teachers. The literal translation of the first part is, "For certain men have wormed their way in." They slithered in like snakes without others being aware, on the sly. God, however, marked them out as enemies a long time ago; He knows they are there. This agrees with Jesus' Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:1). There, God allowed the adversary to sow the tares among the wheat, but He left them in the field for a reason. Paul says in I Corinthians 11:19 that they are left to show "who are approved" and who is not. Over time, God's enemies are shown in stark contrast to His true children.
Jude calls these false teachers "ungodly" or impious. The word "ungodly" crops up six times in the book of Jude, making it a significant word in the epistle. It means "irreverent" or "impious." People who are ungodly are not afraid to contravene God's way because they do not have the fear of God. They simply do what they feel like doing. They have nothing in common with God. Nevertheless, we should be careful not to think of them as "extreme" because, as II Corinthians 11:13-15 says, Satan transforms his ministers into angels of light. They look good on the outside, but on the inside they are ungodly. Their externals may be deceiving, but their fruits give them away.
The apostle also mentions that they are blatantly immoral, turning God's grace into licentiousness. They believe that the more they sin, the more they allow God to shower them with His grace and mercy, twisting what grace is. They think they are glorifying God by giving Him the opportunity to forgive them more. How ridiculous! How perverse!
Lastly, they deny Christ. This does not mean they say that Christ never existed or that He is not the Savior. However, everything they say and do, everything they believe, contradicts God's way. If one denies a statement, he is contradicting the person who says it. Jude is using "deny" in this sense. The false teachers contradict Jesus Christ in everything. Once again, they can appear to be following the rules, but their innermost drives and motivations are a denial of the true way of God.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Jude
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Licentiousness or lewdness is not a sin of weakness but one of willful disobedience. Licentious people do things that are really wild. Some look upon God's grace and kindness as an excuse to sin, saying, in effect, that His kindness does away with law, so we are free to do as we please. Essentially, they suppose that, somehow or another, the government of God is done away.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Grace Upon Grace
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The mystery of lawlessness was already working (II Thessalonians 2:7). The false church appropriated the true church's central figure—its savior, Jesus Christ—but rejected the law of God and turned His grace into license (Jude 4; see Titus 1:16). By rejecting the law of God and inserting pagan beliefs, they really also rejected the central figure, Christ, as well, which is very interesting to consider. A dichotomy is produced. They accept the name of Christ, the central figure, the great hero, then turn right around and reject His law. It is double-mindedness, and yet people fall for it.
John W. Ritenbaugh
A Place of Safety? (Part 4)
Of all people, we who have left the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) in the past decade should be most aware of the antinomian spirit working in the church of God. The doctrinal changes that began to be instituted mere months after the death of Herbert W. Armstrong had as their goal the removal of God's law, particularly the Sabbath, from the church's beliefs. WCG's subsequent heavy emphasis on "grace" and "love," along with its renunciation of "legalism" exposed its antinomian position. Because of these changes, it has joined evangelical Protestant "Christianity" to the point that it now worships on Sunday, encourages celebration of Christmas and Easter, and permits the use of crucifixes and images of "Jesus" by its ministry and membership and in its publications.
The "Christian" churches of this world are predominantly antinomian to some extent. Both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism belong to what can be termed Hellenistic Christianity, that is, a form of Christianity heavily influenced by Greek philosophies, particularly Gnosticism. Catholicism is the more moderate of the two, having retained obedience to the Church and its traditions as well as requiring certain works for salvation. However, its belief of the afterlife, with its levels of heaven, limbo, purgatory, and beatific vision—not to mention its belief in an immortal soul—brand it as Gnostic.
Protestantism is more antinomian, having rejected Catholicism's works during the Reformation. Martin Luther's doctrine of salvation by grace "through faith alone" removes God's law from the equation altogether. Pure Protestant theology is so antinomian that it claims that lawkeeping in any form—which it terms "legalism"—is detrimental to the soul's growth in spirituality. This form of Christianity also champions the doctrine of eternal security, the idea that, once one accepts Jesus, he can never lose his salvation, no matter what sins he commits ("once saved, always saved"). This doctrine knocks out law and judgment for sin in one blow.
Of course, the world itself is antinomian because it is under the sway of Satan the Devil, who despises God's law (Ephesians 2:2; I John 5:19; Romans 8:7). He even tried his antinomian tricks on Jesus, who countered with quotations from the law (Matthew 4:1-10)! Certainly, our adversary will tempt us similarly, trying to get us to put God's law aside so we can fulfill our desires.
Jesus, however, in his prayer in John 17, asks God to help us in this, and He also gives us the antidote to antinomianism:
I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep [guard, protect] them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. (verses 15-17)
Knowing God's truth and practicing it to become holy will protect us from the rampant antinomianism of this world, this age that is soon to end. Still to come are the Beast and his False Prophet, who will exemplify this anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-law spirit. To endure to the end, to survive the mystery of lawlessness that will mark the end time, we must hold fast to God's Word and seek His righteousness. "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the [New Jerusalem]" (Revelation 22:14).
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Nicolaitanism Today
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