Study in the Epistle of Jude # 23: Verse 5

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are going through the book of Jude. We have taken a detour from verse 5, where God was warning the church and telling them to remember that He had saved the nation of Israel out of Egypt but afterward destroyed them. We have been looking at several verses in the New Testament where God warns the New Testament congregations that they are not in a grace relationship towards God as individuals are. Individuals stand by grace; that is, God forgives all their sins, and once they are truly saved, they can never lose their salvation. Churches, however, do not stand in that same type of relationship towards God. A church stands in a works relationship—they are bound to keep the Law of God.

God gave four main laws to the churches and congregations. Perhaps I said earlier that these were the only four laws, but that is not exactly true. We know that God has also given commandments to the church on how their worship was to be structured and how the authorities of the church were to be selected. He laid out the qualifications for selecting deacons and elders, and commanded that men should be the ones doing the teaching, not women. There are commandments such as these that God has given to the New Testament churches. However, once we examine, in Acts 15 and Acts 21, the four laws that the council in Jerusalem established for the Gentiles—the New Testament church—we see that all of these other commandments of God and instructions for how the church was to function and to operate faithfully fall under the guidelines of these four laws.

We have now looked at offering meats to idols. God says that the church was to abstain from things offered to idols, which has to do with wrong doctrine and erroneous teaching. Instead of now moving on to fornication, which is the next item found in Acts 15:20, we are going to look at the other two items—things strangled and blood. Lastly, we will go back and look at the prohibition against fornication.

By the way, I think that we have wandered a bit from our study in Jude. We have taken some twists and turns, and we are, to some extent, losing sight of Jude. I am going to try to wrap up this look at the four laws given to the churches, and then we can return to the book of Jude.

Let us look at the passage in Acts 15 again. Acts15:28-29 says:

For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication…

This is a different order than we found earlier in verse 20. Let us look at blood first, since that is the order here. What does God mean when He tells the church that they are to abstain from blood?

It is true, on a historical level, that these things did have meaning to the early church. There were certain meats that were offered to idols that the church was to abstain from. They were also commanded to abstain from blood; that is, they were not to drink or eat blood in any way.

Blood has important spiritual significance in the Bible because it relates to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. God says in Leviticus 17:14 “for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof.” Blood represents life. It is what keeps man and creatures alive. Therefore, blood is not to be eaten or drunk as some do for what they believe are health reasons. It is true that blood does nourish the body in certain ways, but God says that regardless of any benefits one might receive from it, “abstain from blood.” The people of God would do so; they would not partake of blood.

What is the spiritual meaning of this? We saw that the spiritual meaning of meats had to do with doctrine. What about blood? Why does God say to abstain from blood? Let us turn to Matthew 23 and look at a few verses. Matthew 23:34-35 says:

Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

The Lord Jesus Christ is bringing this condemnation upon the nation of Israel. It is looking spiritually towards all those in the churches and congregations of the world who are unsaved. Historically in Israel, prophets actually were slain. Believers were physically slain during the Church Age also. They were burned at the stake by the church or killed in some other way, so that even in the New Testament Age, actual blood of the child of God was shed. However, for the most part, the focus of the shedding of blood has to do with those who are in authority in the church who develop wrong teachings and false gospels that drive true believers out of the churches and congregations (John 16:2). They are slaying them spiritually in that sense.

That is the overwhelming reason that God is speaking about all the blood from Abel to Zacharias. This is an all-encompassing statement. Abel was the first one slain, and for God’s purposes, He is looking at Zacharias as being the last one slain. The church is guilty of all the blood of the prophets.

That is what we read in Revelation 17 where Babylon is a type and a figure of the church that has come under the judgment of God. Why is Babylon under the judgment of God? Revelation 17:6 says:

And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

This woman is Babylon (Revelation 18). Babylon, typifying the church, has slain the prophets. They are guilty of shedding blood; they have drunk the blood of the saints. This is the terrible picture that God is painting when they killed the prophets and slew the people of God and drove them out of the churches and congregations. They have broken the law that God established in Acts 15 through the early church council that met in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit thought it good to bring no other burden upon the church other than these necessary things, one of which was that the church abstain from blood. They must abstain from their wickedness when it comes to ideas and doctrines and theologies that offend God and persecute the true people of God and bring about affliction to the child of God until the point where they are driven from the church.

We see that Babylon has not refrained itself. Babylon has not ceased to shed blood. They have drunk blood, they are guilty, and they have offended the Law of God that God gave to the church. Therefore, God is going to cause them to fall (Jeremiah 51:49). He will bring about the destruction of Babylon, the New Testament church.

Let us look at the next law that God gave to the church, which was to abstain from things strangled. That is a very odd kind of a law for this council to meet together over. They met together to really ponder and pray and think about what laws the New Testament church, the Gentiles, ought to obey. They knew that they were not to keep the Law of Moses. Men of themselves could not keep the Law. Therefore, they sought wisdom from God. The Holy Spirit guided them into naming these four laws – “to abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.”

Abstain from things strangled—what does that mean? On a natural level, if an animal was strangled, much of the blood would remain in the body. It would not be released from the body as it would if the animal were killed by an arrow or a knife or something like that. The animal was strangled. God says that they are to abstain from blood, and much of the blood would have remained in that meat.

That could be the earthly application, the physical aspect of this law, but there must also be a spiritual meaning. We know that is how God has written the Bible. What is the spiritual meaning of abstaining from things strangled, and why would this be a commandment of God to the church? Do we see any churches today going around strangling animals? Maybe there is a bizarre sect of some church that still gets involved in animal sacrifice and perhaps comes close to this, but for the most part this is a law that the church seemingly, outwardly would have absolutely no problem obeying on the natural level. Simply abstain from things strangled.

However, spiritually, there is another dimension to this. There is a spiritual teaching that God wants the church to know. In Mark 5, we see there that there was a terrible occurrence that took place. There was a man who was possessed with devils, and Christ cast them out. The devils besought Him that they might enter into some swine. Then we read in verse 13:

And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

These two thousand swine are choked. We are interested in that kind of language because it is related to things “strangled.” When something is strangled, it is choked. The strangled animal is choked to death—the air is cut off from it. We have to wonder, “Is this related somehow to what God is telling us? Can we learn anything from this?”

Let us keep this in mind as we turn to Matthew 18. Here we have a parable that Christ is giving regarding forgiveness. In verses 23-30, we read:

Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

We see here that this servant owed his master a tremendous debt, a great debt. Very humbly, very brokenly it seems, he comes before his master and worships him saying, “Lord, have patience with me. I will pay thee all.” The lord is such a kind and generous and good master that he is moved with compassion. He looses him and forgives him the whole debt. Everything that he had owed, that debt so great that perhaps it would have taken him many years (if at all) to pay, was forgiven in a moment by the goodness of his master.

Then that same servant, probably not too long after, saw one of his fellowservants who owed him a hundred pence. This hundred pence is nothing in comparison to the great debt that the servant was forgiven of. Yet, how does he respond to this man? He “laid hands on him and took him by the throat.” Now how would you strangle someone? If you were going to strangle an animal, how would that happen? You must take the animal by the throat, and you must strangle it and choke it so that the life will slowly go out of it until it is dead.

This is what God is saying to the New Testament church. They are to “abstain from things strangled.” That is, they are not to develop or devise out of their own imagination a gospel that has no forgiveness. They are not to add to the Word of God or subtract from it. They are not to try to add a little bit of work, such as accepting Christ or being baptized or whatever it might be, to the Gospel of grace, for in that there will be no forgiveness. They are not to pervert the Gospel of grace to the point where, as they would preach it and declare it to their congregations, they would be in effect strangling them. There is no forgiveness in the gospel that they are bringing. Therefore, they are choking the hearers of that word under the judgment of God, just as those swine were choked in the sea.

God’s command to the church is to “abstain from meats offered to idols”—from doctrines that are erroneous. God’s command is to “abstain from blood”—from developing doctrines and gospels that slay the true people of God. God’s command is to “abstain from things strangled”—from bringing a gospel that will choke people and offer no grace or forgiveness or mercy of God.

We cannot help but notice; we cannot help but cry, “How terrible it is in our day!” Church after church, congregation after congregation, is being fed gospels that offer no forgiveness. They might sound good, they might be exciting or dramatic, they might be entertaining, they might be social or political, they might be anything under the sun—except the true Gospel of the Bible. Therefore, it is only terrible for the churches. The true Gospel says that none of these other gospels will bring salvation. None of them can offer forgiveness. The churches are as this man who thinks that he has been forgiven this great debt. They think that they are saved individuals. However, as their fellow servants come to them, they are choking them by the word they are bringing. What happened to this man will eventually happen to all those who are bringing these gospels in the churches.

In Matthew 18:34-35, we go on to read:

And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

God is indicating that there is a teaching here for individuals. We cannot say that we are forgiven and then have no forgiveness towards others. Also though, we are looking at things strangled and the gospels in the churches that are offering no forgiveness.

So far, we have seen that three of the laws are pointing to how the church is bringing the Gospel. That is basically how we could sum it up. These laws are pointing to how the churches and congregations are declaring the Word of God. God is very concerned with how they would minister His Word to the hearers of the world.

In Revelation 2:14 where God is speaking to the church at Pergamos, we read:

But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

Fornication, that fourth law, is again saying the same thing as the other three. It is speaking of fornication against the Law of God. “Fornication” is going astray and looking for other kinds of gospels and doctrines other than the truth of the Word of God. That is why it says that Balaam taught. The focus of these laws is on what the church is teaching and what they are to abstain from. They are to teach the truth, what the Bible says, what God has spoken, and they are not to add anything to it or subtract anything from it. They are to teach what God has given in His Word. If they do otherwise, they are offering things to idols and committing spiritual fornication.

God is speaking to the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2:20. We read there:

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

These are the laws God has given the church. God, in Revelation 2, is speaking to the churches. He is pointing out that the church has broken the law that was laid down in Acts 15. What is the penalty? What is the judgment? Verse 21 says:

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

This space to repent would be the entire New Testament age. For over nineteen hundred years, God was longsuffering and gave space to the church to repent, but she did not. We see today that she is in worse shape than ever. Her offenses against these commandments are enormous and numerous. What is the penalty? Verse 22 says:

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

The commandment of God to the church was to keep these laws. He is in effect saying, “You stand in a works relationship to Me.” It is God’s prerogative, God’s good pleasure, to overlook the offenses of the church for a period of time in which He gives them space to repent. This is just as He did with national Israel; He overlooked their transgressions for hundreds of years. However, it is also God’s prerogative and God’s good pleasure to choose a particular time, a set time, wherein He will come to visit to see if these things are so, to see if they are offending His law and breaking His commandments. Once He does so, then the Great Tribulation is underway.

Lord willing, we are going to find our way back to the Epistle of Jude in our next study, and once again pick up in there.