Jude 1-24 Where To Draw The Line?

Jude spoke of people who were actually against God but who maybe didn’t even realize it.  They were particularly wanting to not call anything a sin that was sexual.  My commentary said that “their thought life is polluted.  Living in a world of filthy fantasies, they eventually find fulfillment of their dreams in sexual immorality.”

In verse 18, Jude said, “In the last times there will be people who laugh about God, following their own evil desires which are against God.”

What kept nagging at me here seemed to be whether there actually is a line between thoughts and actions or whether the Bible forbids us from even having the thoughts.  God often reminds me that it’s the thought that counts, and verse 8 sure sounds like thoughts, rolled around and allowed, will eventually lead to actions.  Then as I listened to Christian radio this morning, I heard the words of a song that said we’re all guilty of the same things --we think the thoughts but we do not carry them through.

It seemed to be the word desires in these verses where such a line might be drawn.  Our physical bodies, infected with the sin virus, are the starting places for desires as chemicals are manufactured and released into our bloodstream based on what we sense around us and what we think.  That seems to be where desire is stoked into thoughts.  And most likely that is where it also should be cut off – before it can cause that chemical bath to wash all over us, taking us out of control.

Jude ends, “God is strong and can help you not to fall.  He can bring you before His glory without any wrong in you, and can give you great joy.”  Physically, great joy seems to be what we seek, but we’re seeking it from the wrong sources when we sin.  Desires are natural to our bodies.  But unlike the unthinking animals Jude mentions in verse 10, God has given us His Holy Spirit to help us disconnect from the physical and thus avoid the sin.

Father, it’s so easy for our thought lives to become polluted when we don’t filter what we take in.  We can also feel entitled to the thoughts, claiming that we are strong enough to avoid them ever leading to actions, but Your Word says otherwise.  Help me to listen to You and not to my body.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford