CAMOUFLAGED COMMANDOS OF FALSE FAITH, BEWARE

"These men 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.
They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever."-Jude 1:12-13

I picked up this little verse from my younger brother's blog that's http://mightycheesecake.blogspot.com and I thought it was such a beautiful verse- so literary and so image-evoking that I had to say something about, perhaps do a mini pract crit on it.

(WARNING: PRACT CRIT AHEAD)

Can you conceptualise a blemish at a love feast? What is a love feast anyways? (http://www.piney.com/AgapeBrit1911.html) In summary, love feast is also known as an agape love feast, a sacrificial feast that ends with a eucharistic celebration- connoting notions of holy sacrifice and communal worship marked by purity and Christ-centredness. The linguistic effect of such a blemish at such a love feast negates the pleasing and lyric movements of this metaphor with taintedness, tarnish and imperfection.

These figurative blemishes, or persons of this blemish are presented as desensitised to conscience and have little regard for sanctity or reverence, being "without the slightest qualm" of their sinfulness; expressing the ease and neutrality with which these false believers are camouflaged amidst the body of Christ, conveniently joining the holy union of believers. Jude further describes them as "shepherds who feed only themselves" a powerful image with contrasts with John's description of the selfless shepherd that represents Jesus' agape love for His flock. Juxtaposed against this figure of magnimity and humility are these false believers who are self-centred and inward looking. These superimpose the self over and above the natural place of the community of Christ, much like a shepherd who fails to tend to the needs of his flock. Instead, he cares only for his own nourishment and fill.

Consequently, these false believers are presented with a sense of temporality and flux, without permanence or groundedness. They are easily moved and swayed by the world around them, loosely tied and poorly rooted. The biblical image conjures tenets of fruitlessness and pointlessness, "clouds without rain" which serve no function and are merely empty and thus, temporal. THeir place in physical dimension too, are loose and uncontrolled, being blown by the winds as and when it wills. The sense of wastage and barrenness associated with the fruitless autumn trees further connate the spiritual emptiness of their faith, producing only in form but not in substance. If this were not enough, Jude takes care to doubly emphasize this point with the reference to being 'twice dead'- not only do these trees not bear spiritual fruit, but after a while are uprooted too, since their groundings are nothing but weak.

These images are reinforced linguistically by the alliterative 'wild waves' which strengthen the sense of unfocused wastage of kinetic energy, undirected and left to spew abroad freely when the waves 'foam (up) their shame'. The foamy image is apt indeed as the physical characteristics of foam being visible in form but lacking in substance or weight correctly represents this kind of false, self-centred faith- a mere mimicking of true relationship in Christ.

Jude takes care to parallel Paul's famous metaphor of believers as "stars" in Philipians 2, extending the Christian image to encapsulate the fallen believer. The latter is a "wandering star" a directionless celestial with no purpose or aim. The metaphorical value of the light-emitting "star" is wasted when the light is cast aimlessly without adding to visibility, or being a point of reference for travellers- the two functions of a believer (to reflect God's glory, and be a point of reference in the impermanent world) Instead, the end is promised for these wasted Christians- a promise of the "blackest darkness" reserved for their futile faith. If one considers the potential of this image, it makes such brilliant sense. The wasted promise of a star's briliant potential simply serves to be even more embittering for the star when it is reminded of its squandering. Every prodigal child is depressed not merely by their current state of decay, but by what was relinquished in its place- a thought that evokes even more pathos and sorrow. Similarly, the wandering star's promise of a blackest darkness would only be mere darkness if it did not give off light. Instead, it's BLACKEST darkness is guaranteed in the face of the wastedness and regret implied by Jude.

p.s. i do apologise- this isn't a proper e8, just rambling. the thoughts are loosely and poorly grouped, save being united by tenuous threads.

(CONTINUE READING HERE FOR DEVOTIONAL ASPECT AS OPPOSED TO E8 ANALYSIS)

Are we these "wandering stars" that Jude describes? Their characteristics are fairly clear, as outlined by the brilliant poet-writer: such false believers are fruitless, unrooted, self-centred and desensitized to conscience. By fruitless, one invokes the theology of the Fruit of the Spirit- 9 Godly qualities that the believer produces consequent of the presence of the Holy Ghost. (Galations 5;22-23) In being unrooted, we describe the pagan who neglects the duty of the child of God to attend to scripture, the roots of our faith both in simply reading, meditating and daily application. Self-centredness is a fairly clear indicator of a poor faith, as Philipians 2:3-4 urges the believer to look to the interests of others in sacrifical agape love, an apt thought that is presented in conjunction with the communal image of the love feast.
Finally, the desentisation of the conscience to disregard any of the above and carry on in a state of being without god. I personally believe that this is the worst state any believer can be in. To have a heart of apathy is to not care- to devalue the spiritual things of God and His instructions and fall prey to Satan's greatest weapon- the spirit of being too busy and too occupied to care.


Do take care my dear brothers to not be apathetic to this message of distinguishing false and true faith. Sometimes we move between the two without even realising it. If you're not interested in linguistic analysis, do read the second last and last paragraphs again anyways.