Living His WordMuestra

When it comes to the Christian faith, there have always been scoffers. A scoffer is someone who casts doubt on what you believe, speaks derisively about it, scorns it and jeers at it. At the worst, a scoffer will mock what you believe. Since they themselves do not believe it, they think anyone who does is a fool.

Usually, but not always, scoffing is done behind the back and amongst similar-minded people. Most scoffers seem to have the awareness that what they are doing is something less than flattering to them. In this era of advanced security technologies, YouTube and social media, however, scoffing has come more into the light. The true attitudes of politicians, celebrities, professors and teachers, business people, and the like are not as easily hidden as they used to be. In these “last times,” as a result, Christians more and more are experiencing firsthand some of the attitudes people have towards the faith.

Jude tells us that those who scoff at the Christian faith are “worldly people” who follow “ungodly passions” and are “devoid of the Spirit.” They are focused on the things of this world. Lacking the Spirit, the fact that there is something more than the world around us is lost on them.

Scoffers can, as Jude tells us, cause divisions. By introducing doubt and unbelief, they can shake up the unity of faith amongst believers. As he goes on to say in his letter, however, there are ways to handle this. Believers should build themselves up in the faith, pray in the Spirit, and keep themselves in God’s love (Jude 1:20-21).

Believers should, so Jude seems to be saying, keep doing all the things necessary to maintain our relationship to God. If we do this, then the scoffing of the scoffers will have little impact on us.