Pretzels

653.  "Pretzels"     December 4, 2012
Jude 4-Part 3
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.  (NAS)

LET IT GLOW

I like to eat pretzels. I eat them instead of chips with my sandwich, as a crunchy snack, whenever I want something salty. I don't like the stick ones, but the 3 clover ones. You know, the twisted ones.
In this verse, Jude is warning of ungodly people who twist the grace of God.

Who are the people that have crept into the church unnoticed? They were false teachers, the apostates, who opposed the mainstream teaching of the Christian faith. They didn't harbor doubts in their minds but full-sailed defiance in their hearts. Everywhere these defiant men went, division and dissension followed. Their effect was lethal, striking at the very core of Christian truth.

Jude describes these ungodly persons:

1. They turn the grace of our God into licentiousness.
2. They deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

These people twisted and turned the grace of God into an opportunity to satisfy their own sensual appetities. Turn means to transpose or change the place of. It is used to describe the altering of a concllusion, or the changing of a person's name, mind, or loyaltes. (Swindoll's New Testament Postcard)

They are godless men, who change the grace of God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (NIV)

Like a pretzel is twisted into shape, these false teachers were twisting God's grace. No wonder Jude was writing to warn his readers.

I sure don't want to be guilty of twisting God's Words, nor using it to justify immorality.

LET IT GROW

Here we have a reason to "contend earnestly for the faith."
Apostasy is a falling-away from the faith. In Greek literature it was used of rebels who defect from a cause. It was also used in the phrase "bill of divorce," where the word divorce is a translation of the Greek word apostasia.

Contend means to fight or to struggle intensely.

Am I always aware of false teachings or teachers? I must learn the Word in order to be able to spot them.
Do I fight for the truth? I must know the difference between false and true doctrine and words.

LET IT GO

Stand up for my faith in Jesus and His Word.

Recognize the difference between false and true teachings.

Beware of twisted words.