All adults who are mentally healthy submit themselves one way or another to something higher than themselves, be it God or truth or love or some other ideal....They believe in what is true rather than what they would like to be true.
In summary, to a greater or lesser degree, all mentally healthy individuals submit themselves to the demands of their own conscience.
While they seem to lack any motivation to be good, they intensely desire to appear good.
Their "goodness" is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. That is why they are the "people of the lie". The wickedness of the evil is not committed directly, but indirectly as a part of this cover-up process.
Those who are evil are masters of disguise; they are not apt to wittingly disclose their true colors--either to others or to themselves.
Because they are such experts at disguise, it is seldom possible to pinpoint the maliciousness of the evil.
The disguise is usually impenetrable ....Naturally, since it is designed to hide its opposite, the pretense chosen by the evil is most commonly the pretense of love. If evil people cannot be defined by the illegality of their deeds or the magnitude of their sins, then how are we to define them?
While usually subtle, their destructiveness is remarkably consistent. This is because those who have "crossed over the line" are characterized by their absolute refusal to tolerate the sense of their own sinfulness.
The evil hate the light--the light of goodness that shows them up, the light of scrutiny that exposes them, the light of truth that penetrates their deception. Rather than blissfully lacking a sense of morality, like the sociopath, they are continually engaged in sweeping the evidence of their evil under the rug of their own consciousness.
The poor in spirit do not commit evil. Evil is not committed by people who feel uncertain about their righteousness, who question their own motives, who worry about betraying themselves. The evil in this world is committed by the spiritual fat cats, by the Pharisees of our own day, the self-righteous who think they are without sin because they are unwilling to suffer the discomfort of significant self-examination.
Unpleasant though it may be, the sense of personal sin is precisely that which keeps our sin from getting out of hand. It is quite painful at times, but it is a very great blessing because it is our one and only effective safeguard against our own proclivity for evil.
III. The Appeal Again:47 Jude urges his readers again to contend for the faith by strengthening themselves against the influence of the false teachers and by reaching out to those who are being influenced by their contaminating instruction 20-23
A. Strengthen Yourselves:48 Jude urges his readers to strengthen themselves against the false teachers by building themselves up, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping their love for God, and orienting their lives toward Jesus’ return for them 19-21
1. Jude urges his dear readers to build themselves up (in community as a temple)49 in their most holy faith50 19a
2. Jude urges his readers to pray in the Holy Spirit51 19b
3. Jude urges his readers to keep themselves in their love for God52 20a
4. Jude urges his readers to anxiously wait53 for the future experience (mercy)54 of eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ 20:b
B. Help Others: Jude urges his readers to help those in the Body by saving those who will respond to their rebuke from the judgment which would otherwise come upon them, and mercifully reaching to those who reject their rebuke, all the wile hating their sin 22-23
1. Jude urges his readers to have mercy on some who are doubting 22
2. Jude urges his readers to save church members among them as though you were snatching them out of the fire of destruction55 23a
3. Jude urges his readers to have mercy56 on those who dispute their rebuke with fear of God’s judgment for them all the while hating the contamination which comes through their contact57 23b
Jude warns his readers that the false teachers are like "stars" which go astray from their ordained courses and thus mislead men, who look to them for guidance, away from God's design resulting in judgment.
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