And of some have compassion, making a difference,
Jude has just told his readers to build themselves up, to pray, and to keep themselves in the love of God. Now he turns them outward, toward people caught up in error. Two questions follow: who are the "some," and why must we treat them differently?
A note on wording: the ESV reads "have mercy on those who doubt." The older translation these writers use reads "Of some have compassion, making a difference." Their comments follow that older wording.
Compassion like this is not something we produce. One writer traces it to its source.
"And of some have compassion." If we are to fulfil that exhortation, compassion must first flow into our hearts, and where does it come from? It does not spring up from false teaching, or from the flesh, or the world. This tender pity that spends its all to bless those in distress and danger is a divine quality. And if our hearts are to be full of it, we must build ourselves up in the faith, pray in the Spirit, and keep ourselves in the love of God. We must be conscious of the eternal and incorruptible riches that are ours in heaven above.
Treating one person differently from another sounds unfair. One writer meets that objection head on.
"Of some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire." Some might say there is partiality, that this is never right; yet God calls upon us to make a difference. But we must take care that we do not make differences in order to please ourselves, but because we believe God would have us do it. Nothing more calls for an exercised conscience than this. Saints very often have a common routine, a rule for dealing with everybody: but this is not God's way. The saints of God must weigh many circumstances, principles, and states of souls in each case that comes before them. There may be hardly two persons who would have to be dealt with alike.
A single fixed rule would be far easier. Another writer notes that ease is precisely why it is not God's way:
It would be much easier, no doubt, to have a rigid rule applicable in all cases, which would remove all exercise of mind as to how things should be dealt with, but such is not God's way.
Compassion here does not cover everyone involved in the evil. One writer draws the line between those who spread error and those who fall for it.
One more thing to notice: dealing with such people needs discernment. "Of some," says Jude, "have compassion, making a difference." There may be leaders in the evil, corrupters of the truth. We should keep completely apart from them; they are to be rejected altogether. Others are misled — simple souls whom clever speech has deluded and plausible reasoning has entangled. We are to seek these out and recover them.
Christ Himself is the pattern. One writer sets out what each part of Jude's instruction costs the one who obeys it.
Unbounded compassion for the people of God must always go together with uncompromising separation from the evil that holds them. So it was with Christ. Of Him one has rightly said: "In Christ there is a compassion that knows no limit to the sinner combined with infinite separation from his sin." To show compassion we shall need divine love. To make a difference will call for divine wisdom. To pull any "out of the fire" will need divine power. And to "hate the garment spotted by the flesh" will demand divine holiness.
The compassion Jude commands is active. It goes looking, and it keeps looking when people push it away.
"Of some have compassion, making a difference." ... There are poor, feeble Christians who need your help; lame ones, ready to turn out of the way. They have to be sought out, to be cared for. They may sometimes tell you they do not want your care, but we are not to be discouraged. Go after them, seek them. Seek them in the grace of Christ, and the love of Christ.
Reaching in, though, is not the same as climbing in.
It is a fatal mistake to think that we must go into the fire ourselves to pluck people out of it. This would never do... How can I best pull a man out of a swamp? Surely not by going into the swamp, but by standing on firm ground and from there lending him a helping hand.
Commentators differ over the wording itself. One writer explains why he is cautious here:
I find this passage unusually hard to explain, and the reason is this. The original authorities and the best authorities are all in confusion about it. This is very rarely the case in the New Testament, but it is the case here... Now I believe there are three classes, and not two only. That will show how uncertain it is.
- Source. Compassion is a divine quality. It fills the heart that builds up in the faith, prays in the Spirit, and keeps in the love of God.
- Discernment. "Making a difference" rules out one routine for everybody. It calls for an exercised conscience in every case.
- Distinction. Seek out the misled and recover them. Stand apart from those who corrupt the truth.
- Balance. Limitless compassion for the person joins uncompromising separation from the evil. That takes divine love, wisdom, power and holiness at once.
- Position. You cannot pull anyone out of the fire by entering it. Reach from firm ground, and reach again when they refuse.
but others save with fear, snatching [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.