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THE CHARACTER OF APOSTASY (VIII)
FRIDAY, APRIL 17
Jude 12
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
 
“… spots in your feasts
of charity …”
THE CHARACTER OF APOSTASY (VIII)
 
Following his depiction of the apostates in the echo of Old Testament characters, Jude turns to a series of metaphorical descriptions, in verses 12 and 13. There are five such descriptions in total: spots, clouds, trees, waves, and wandering stars.
 
Spots. The word “spots” here refers not so much to a stain or blemish, but a hidden danger. The picture is that of a rock hidden under the waves, posing a danger to passing ships. The presence of these men who have crept into the church, Jude says, constitutes a hidden but very real danger to the spiritual life of the church.
 
The danger is emphasized by reference to the church’s “feasts of charity” (Jude 12). There was apparently a practice in the early church to have a communal meal before partaking of the Lord’s Supper; and it was called a feast “of charity,” probably because the practice was for the rich to bring more food to share with the poor. The Apostle Paul deals with the abuse of this practice by the Corinthian church, where the Corinthians were grouped in their cliques and fed themselves without thought for the poor, and to excess, such that Paul said “one is hungry, and another is drunken” (1 Cor 11:20-21). They were despising the solemn sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
 
In light of this, we can readily understand Jude’s deliberate mention of these “spots” in the context of the church’s “feasts of charity.” In the first place, these were times when the unity and mutual love of the church was meant particularly to be displayed ‒ yet here are the apostates, Jude says, feasting “with you,” yet not truly of you: a hidden danger threatening the security of the church. In the second place, this was a solemn occasion, a divine ordinance ‒ yet here again are the apostates, Jude says, “feeding themselves without fear.” But they should be afraid: “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Cor 11:29). Those who participate in the spiritual life of the church, falsely claiming to have spiritual life themselves, are in danger of profaning the sacred ordinances of God.
 
THOUGHT: Am I truly a member of the body of Christ?
PRAYER: O God, give me discernment against spiritual danger.

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