Saved People Afterward Destroyed – Jude 1:5

The letter of Paul to the Galatians is an expression of Paul’s shock and dismay that people he had led to Christ were so “quickly” led astray into a false gospel (Galatians 1:6).  We, too, may feel this same astonishment when people we thought were believers embrace teaching that is so antithetical to the gospel.  Jude wants us to remember that this has been a lesson taught us from Israel’s own history.

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. (Jude 1:5, ESV)

There is some textual conflict in this passage.  Some manuscripts read, “Now I want to remind you, though you know all this, that the Lord once saved a people…”  Others read, “Now I want to remind you, though you know all this, that God once saved a people…”  Others, “Now I want to remind you, though you once knew all this, that Jesus saved a people…” (this is what the ESV above accepts).  Others, “Now I want to remind you, thought you once knew all this, that the Lord saved a people…”  One, “Now I want to remind you, though you once knew all this, that God saved a people…”  One, “Now I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that God, Christ, saved a people…”  Others, “Now I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord saved a people…”  And still others, “Now I want to remind you, though you know all this, that Jesus once saved a people…”  As you can see, just about every option has been given.  The most reliable manuscripts have the option that the ESV has chosen, making Jesus the one who saved the people of Israel from Egypt, and putting “once” with the verb “knew” instead of with “saved.”  It makes more sense, however, that Jude uses “Jesus” as the one who saved Israel and that “once” goes with the verb “saved.”  It should read, “Jesus once saved a people,” and then “afterward [literally, second], he destroyed those who did not believe.”  [See, The Ending of Mark’s Gospel, for more explanation about how to view variations in our New Testament texts]

Jude’s point is that many Israelites were given a kind of salvation (deliverance from Egypt), but because “they did not share the faith of those who obeyed” (Hebrews 4:2), they were not eternally saved.  Their unbelief became evident when it came time to conquer Canaan and they refused to trust God to give them victory.  So God destroyed that generation in the Wilderness wanderings of forty years.  And this can happen in the church.  Those who are “believers” in name may be exposed as unbelievers when they embrace false teaching.  They were not really saved, did not share the faith of those who obeyed.  True believers persevere in faith as evidenced by obedience.

False teaching cannot enter the church unless those who should know the truth get fuzzy about it.  We must rehearse the truth and evaluate all claims against it to sharpen our view on the gospel.  It is too easy to get out of focus.  Our own sinful natures want to assert themselves and hear something that appeals to our desire for autonomy (self-rule).  We can be easily tempted by false teaching.

The warning is that just because we have attached ourselves to the believing community, it doesn’t make us believers.  Many Israelites looked like believers until it came to the moment to conquer Canaan.  Then it became apparent they weren’t.  There will be situations that try the church and require that faith be in evidence, and this is when it will become apparent that some people never really believed.  These may be situations of persecution, suffering (sometimes of even the mildest form, more inconvenience than suffering), or the appeal of false teaching.  Unbelievers will find it much too easy to reject the truth.

It is satisfying to see that Jude affirms the deity of Jesus in this verse.  Whereas the Old Testament affirms that Yahweh, the one true God, is the one who caused, over forty years, the deaths of the entire generation of those who refused to go into Canaan, Jude affirms that this was Jesus doing this.  He is Yahweh, the only true God.  This is part of the true teaching of the apostles that Christians must embrace and protect.  In the historic development of the church in the United States, many Protestant churches departed from the faith in the 1800’s over the issue of Jesus’ deity, and there were later departures in the 1900’s over this issue as well.