Jude 12-13 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
Do you know people whose lives are seemingly not adding value to the world or the lives of the people around them? I certainly know a few. I even know a few people who are actively, perhaps unknowingly, working at cross purposes to the betterment of humanity. There are even some world leaders who seem bent on human destruction.
But what would it be like if someone claiming to be a leader of spiritual development was really working to serve their own purposes? What if their goal was simply to get rich, acquire houses and private jets, and worldly gold and possessions. What would you think about them?
What about political figures who use their positions to enrich themselves, even for a cause like ‘global warming,’ or as they now phrase it because we stopped warming, ‘climate change.” What do we believe their fate should be as they travel to their global summits in private jets, and chauffeured limousines? This is not a new phenomenon. People have been self-serving for thousands of years.
Our text is part of Jude’s warning to a group of early Christians. There were some people who claimed to follow Jesus, but their lives and their motives were completely off track. And Jude has some harsh things to say about them.
But I love this series of statements about these “ungodly people.” Each is a word picture of futile, unproductive and empty lives. These people are purposely leading people astray from their newfound faith in hopes of personal gain.
Each of these individual word pictures is a brushstroke that contributes to a larger overall picture of emptiness. A shepherd’s job is to care for the sheep, not just care for themselves. They fail if they don’t take care of the sheep.
Clouds in a desert climate that don’t bring rain are worthless. Momentary shade can be found under a tree or temporary shelter. So if the cloud doesn’t bring rain, it might as well not be there. It serves no purpose.
Trees in the Fall my be beautiful as the leaves change color, but if they aren’t bringing fruit for us to eat, they provide no substantive nourishment for people. And if they have been uprooted, they never have the potential to bring any fruit.
Sea storms make a lot of noise and the waters whip into a frenzy soaking all aboard a small sailing vessel, but if they winds are that strong, they are too strong to be used to navigate to your destination. They serve no purpose for humanity. Their power can’t be harnessed for good.
Wandering stars, what the ancient world called the visible planets and the occasional comet, didn’t help people navigate or keep time as the shift of the stars on the horizon did over the course of a year. They didn’t help with the planting of their crops, their courses seemingly running on their own schedule, rather than on the Earth’s schedule.
I think we all want to have productive lives, lives that made a positive difference in the world. But for these ungodly people, who were not anchored in Jesus, their lives simply moved about without direction, purpose or result. They used up resources, but produced no benefit to anyone but themselves.
As you look back at your life, what has been left in your wake? Have people’s lives been truly enriched? Did you make a positive difference in the world?
The Arnold Journey 