Thinking in 3’s - Jude 19 - Don’t Be Destructive

Thinking in 3’s - Jude 19 - Don’t Be Destructive

We like positive and encouraging descriptions, but the Bible is also quite direct and honest with us about the wrongs to avoid. This list of three in Jude 19 is one of those collections: three phrases that help us understand what to avoid, and point us then in the direction that we ought to go.

¹⁹ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. 

Although the word in the text, translated “cause divisions,” is used only here in the Bible, the idea is quite common. You would know that, because the practice of causing divisions is common in our world today, and we know that it is not new. The serpent sowed seeds of division between Adam and Eve, on the one hand, and God, on the other. Cain, clearly, caused a division between himself and his brother, Abel. Murder tends to do that. And you can continue to read through the pages of the Bible and see it again and again, as when one of Jesus’ own disciples, Judas, sells him out and betrays him.

The Bible word that stands in contrast to “cause divisions” is “edification.” It is not a word that we use often, but it means “building up.” It is being constructive rather than destructive. Now admittedly, there is a stage of clearing, of destruction, that often precedes a building project. Perhaps and old edifice needs to be torn down and taken away before something new is built. But the goal is generally known. This is a building project.

But in relationships, and sometimes in churches, we can meet people whose sole purposes is clearly to do damage. Whatever the motives, and there could be many, they want to bring others down. The Bible says it is wrong.

The second element says that they are “worldly people.” And division is one of the things that the world does well. Someone has said that the world eats its own. It will use you up and spit you out. And, if you are worldly, you will treat others that way as well. As we have noted before, to be worldly means that you are not godly. That is, a godly person sees God as central to all of life, while a worldly person sees God as peripheral or absent to most of life, probably because one’s own self has occupied the central spot.

And, thirdly, this person who causes divisions and is worldly-minded is also devoid of the Spirit. Which means, they are not Christians. They may participate with Christians, and they may engage in any number of religious activities, but they are not Christians. Why? Because we know that when a person trusts in Jesus as his/her only hope of salvation, they are saved; they become Christians. And, they immediately receive the Holy Spirit who will communicate and facilitate this new, abiding relationship with Jesus to the new believer. Faith in Jesus and the presence of the Spirit go together, and they cannot be separated. Oh yes, a believer can depart from walking according to the Spirit, and walk instead according to the flesh, but a true believer is never devoid of the Spirit.

And so, having looked at these three negatives, what should we do? Well, the opposite. 

• We should build, not destroy. 
• We should occupy ourselves with God and His Word and will, not seek to live independently and autonomously from Him. 
• We should “pray in the Spirit” as it says in the next verse, which means to pray in the faith of Jesus, seeking the assistance of the Spirit, as has been promised to believers. That is, we should pray and live as those who are not seeking to do their own thing, advancing their own self-centered agendas, but to look for the Spirit’s leading in how we do the things that we do, both the planned and the unplanned.