Scripture Read: Jude 3-4 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. 4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Application: This is a word that is not used much today, but the meaning is very appropriate for the atmosphere of this world today. We do not like to hear this, because we want to believe what is best in mankind – but we must face reality. We also need to be careful about going too far the other way and thinking that these days are so much more evil than past days. They may be outwardly, but remember this scripture was written 2000 years ago. Evil has been present since the garden. Consider this word -
Licentiousness - ἀσέλγεια asélgeia - licentious, brutal. Lasciviousness, license, debauchery, sexual excess, absence of restraint, insatiable desire for pleasure; arrogance, insolence referring to words; wantonness, lustfulness, excessive pleasure; debauchery, perversion in general [1]
In his work on Jude Wuest states concerning this word - “Lasciviousness” is aselgeia (ἀσελγεια). The aselgeia (ἀσελγεια) person is he who in the words of Trench “acknowledges no restraints, who dares whatever his caprice and wanton petulance may suggest.” The word “wantonness” best translates it. The meaning of the word partakes of the spirit of anarchy. That is the spirit of Modernism which refuses to acknowledge the authority of God’s Word, and itself sits in judgment upon it. [2]
Man necessarily falls victim to this when cut off from God. It characterizes Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Pt. 2:7) and the pagan world generally (Eph. 4:19), also heresy and apostasy (Jd. 4; 2 Pt. 2:2, 18).[3]
It is so easy to look at the “world” and think how this word applies, but what about us? Could not his be used to describe some of the out of control fleshiness in the Body of Christ today? This is an appropriate word to describe liberty and grace taken over by the flesh instead of controlled by the Spirit – How many believers justify their uncontrolled liberty – even though it is offending and damaging their brothers & sisters. How many in the Body of Christ allow their flesh to rule their desires and treat God as though He is there to supply everything they desire. This is the root of evil to the health, wealth and prosperity movement. Everything is based on the excesses of the flesh – God is not God – He is your personal genie – here to give you whatever you want. How tragic! Yes, the world is full of “wantonness” that should not surprise us we all were controlled by sin before we were regenerated by the Spirit of God. What should take us back – and in my opinion is directly responsible for the impotence of today’s church, is how we in the Body of Christ have been sucked into this way of thinking. We may be children of the King – but now is not the time to live like it! The foundation of the Church was the blood and tears the slaves of Christ gave to help the lost know their Savior. It has never been the love of money, things and fame! Those are the trappings of this world. All that You are Father – all that You desire to be in our lives, yet we replace it with stuff that will never satisfy the heart and will burn. Lord keep our feet far from this path. We also need You to review our liberties and be honest. Thanks God!
* Meditation Questions: What do you feel when you don’t get the things you asked God for? Is it wrong to have things, to be rich or to be famous? What is the balance? What is the danger? If we crave the same things the world craves what do they see that is different? What does that say?
[1] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.
[2] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest's word studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English reader (Jud 4). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
[3] Theological dictionary of the New Testament. 1964- (G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley & G. Friedrich, Ed.) (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
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