OUR FATHER WARNS US AGAINST FALLING PREY TO CORRUPTION ENTERING THE CHURCH

Jude chapter 1 verses 4 - 6 says this;

For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

This passage in the book of Jude speaks of some people who covertly enter the churches and bring with them ungodliness, immorality and the denial of the deity and Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Whatever corruption such people bring to the church, Jude warns believers that following such people is a threat to the salvation that they gained through faith in Christ.

The first example offered by Jude was the story of the children of Israel who were delivered from Egypt and yet were destroyed in the wilderness because they did not believe. If believers are persuaded not to believe, they are in danger of suffering the loss of the inheritance that falls to them.

The second example is that of the angels who went beyond their authority and proper habitation and were thus imprisoned in eternal chains for their defiance. Here, Jude warns of the danger of traversing outside the boundaries and authorities granted to believers. If such behaviour invoked the condemnation of angels, certainly people will invite such condemnation on themselves if they are misled into straying outside their allowable jurisdictions.

The lesson that Jude is expositing is that we must guard our hearts against corruption that can be brought into the church by malevolent people to drag us into immorality, tresspassing and ultimately the loss of our faith in Christ.

As Mathew chapter 26 verse 41 says: Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Amen.