Alarms and Dreamers
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
– Jude 1:8, KJV
A couple of weeks back we were in Jude, looking at Cain, Balaam, and Korah. This week I felt a strong urge to return to Jude. It is such a short letter, but one rich with nuggets of truth. Reading through it leaves me unsettled regarding contemporary society and much of the contemporary western church. Brothers and sisters, the western church is on fire, and many are oblivious to what is happening.
Look at how Jude opens the letter.
The Alarm
Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
– Jude 1:3, ESV
Rather than start with something light and pleasant, Jude plunges headlong into urging the believers to contend earnestly for the faith. I want you to grasp the intensity of this call from Jude. He wants the believers to ἐπαγωνίζεσθαι (epagōnizesthai). If you look closely at the center of that word, you’ll see “agony.” Jude is calling on the believers to agonize over the deteriorating condition of the church, to contend for what is good and pure and right.
I chose the King James Version for the opening quote based specifically on the poetic license the translators took with that verse. There is a choice inaccuracy inserted into the rendering of enupniazomai, “filthy dreamers.” The word “filthy” is simply not there in the original text but … it is oh, so accurate a description for what’s happening in the western church today.
To have complete clarity, we must note that Jude is sounding an alarm not to the world, but to “those who are called,” those who are “beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.” The urgency of Jude is seen in the difference between what Jude wanted to say and what he said.
Jude wanted to write about their/our common salvation. The extent to which he desired to do so is seen in his qualifying phrase, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation…” Guys, I really, reeeally wanted to talk about something lovely, but …
Instead of penning a beautiful message, Jude “found it necessary” to sternly admonished them to “contend for the faith.” Rather than a reminiscence of their shared salvation, Jude is calling people to battle, to [1] epi (epee) — meaning on or upon, and [2] agonei — meaning a contest, struggle, or fight. It is the picture of standing astride someone or something and battling on that thing or person’s behalf.
I am intentionally belaboring this point because I want you to capture the intensity of Jude’s appeal to the believers. And while they are still reeling from that abrupt opening statement, Jude tells them his reason for writing so strong a call.
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
– Jude 1:3, ESV
People had surreptitiously wormed their way into the body of believers. These are men and women with an agenda. They are altering the message of God’s grace, perverting it into a license for sin, and specifically sins regarding sensuality. In doing so, they deny the Master and Lord, Jesus Christ!
Do not miss the strength of what Jude is doing and saying here. The King James translators picked up on it and that’s why they characterized the infiltrators as filthy dreamers.
The Dreamers
Throughout scripture we see significe attributed to dreams.¹ Scripture provides numerous examples of God communicating with humanity through visions and dreams. In the biblical context, God routinely used dreams to reveal his will or to give insight into future events.
Outside Judaism, the Greco-Roman culture also assigned significant value to dreams, viewing them as both good and bad omens coming to them from various deities.
The Stain
These dreamers seemed to find their dream/vision material from a different and ungodly source. Their dreams drove them to defile, pollute, or stain their flesh. The term used carries a strong moral connotation. It is the act of making a thing (in this case their own bodies) impure or unclean, morally, spiritually, and at times even physically.
Putting the stain in context, just prior to making his statement against the dreamers, Jude compares their behavior to the licentious conduct of the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying, “In like manner…”
…just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
– Jude 1:10, ESV
The Authority
The dreamers also defile authority, and not authority in the sense of a governor or a king. In the New Testament, this is a term used to denote celestial authorities, angelic beings, or spiritual authority. They give “no standing” to such authority.
The Blasphemy
Finally, they blaspheme those who have “glory.”
But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.
– Jude 1:10, ESV
Our Takeaway
What does any of this have to do with us?
In my mind, it has everything to do with us today, because we are seeing the offending behavior Jude addresses being carried out in western churches with regularity. Jude’s entire message is aimed at those who are resisting, dismantling, revising, mocking the work of Jesus in the kingdom today.
These are not innocent or sadly misinformed people who just happened to find themselves with a church body. No, these are enemies of truth who deliberately seek out positions of power and influence as they actively wreak havoc on the mission and ministry of the kingdom of God.
Jude is not alone in his verbal assault on these people. The apostle Peter also calls them out these presumptuous and self-willed attackers.
…especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!
– 2 Peter 10b-14, ESV
Strong and direct language, appropriate for our day.
How, then, are we to address them today? Do we confront them directly?
No. Attempting meaningful dialog with these deceivers is futile and frustrating. It is the casting of pearls before swine.
No, the apostle Paul shows us a better way.
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
– 2 Timothy 4:1–2, ESV
We preach and teach the Word of God because that is exactly what the filthy dreamers are not preaching and teaching. Those who are seeking truth will hear the difference. Those who are looking for a feel-good soul rub from the dreamer-pastor will close their minds to truth.
Paul continues:
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
– 2 Timothy 4:3–4, ESV
Contend for the faith, brothers and sisters. Contend earnestly for the faith.
Blessings upon you, my friends.
Victoriously in Christ!
– damon
DamonJGray.org
X — @DamonJGray
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1. Genesis 20:3, Genesis 40:1–23, Genesis 41:8–36, Genesis 42:9, Numbers 12:6, Deuteronomy 13:1–3, 1 Samuel 28:15, Job 33:13–18, Ecclesiastes 5:1–7, Isaiah 29:7–8, Jeremiah 23:32, Daniel 1:17, Daniel 7:1–28, Joel 2:28, Zechariah 10:2, Matthew 1:18–25, Matthew 2:13, Matthew 2:19–20, Acts 2:17
