“Yet in the same manner these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh,…” Jude 8
Welcome back as we continue our study of the false teachers in Jude:
3. Our opening scripture means they indulged in what we would call pornography. “Dreaming” means metaphorically “to be beguiled with sensual images and carried away to an impious course of conduct” (Thayer). As a result they were defiling their physical bodies with acts of immorality.
The term “in the same manner” refers to verse 6 – 7 where Jude compares them to the fallen angels who left heaven and committed fornication with the wicked women of the earth (Genesis 6) and to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah who committed “gross immorality” (NASB) or “fornication” (KJV). God has the fallen angels in prison for their sin TODAY awaiting the final judgment and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah are still “undergoing the punishment of eternal fire” TODAY. Both are held up as an “example” which means “something held up to view as a warning” (Wuest). Jude holds both of these exhibits up to the brethren as a warning that God will not be mocked, He will not be “outwitted or evaded”. They are still a warning to us today.
These false teachers, while claiming to be God’s spokesman, were participating in fornication and adultery. Not only them, but, as we will see, the Lord’s bond servants they deceived. Thank you for your precious time.
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;…” (I Thess 4:3-5)
Carl
Psalm 119: 38 