EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/07/2025 11:08 PM
My Worship Time Focus: “Hidden Reefs”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jude 12a
Message of the verse: “12 These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves;”
Yesterday I looked at the introduction to Jude 12-13 which has five natural phenomena’s in it, and so today we will look at the first one, “Hidden Reefs.” Now just a reminder that these five natural phenomena’s will not take a lot of time in order to complete each one.
The question may arise as to how are “hidden reefs” describe apostates? Well graphically they depict the unseen danger that they pose. Reefs are undersea coral formations usually located close to the shore. They are potentially harmful to ships because they can rip open the bottoms of their hulls, causing the vessel to sink. Now back when Jude was writing all of the ships were made of wood, and so that is why this potential problem exists, but today the ships made of steel would not have the same problem. Now like hidden reefs, as we compare them to the apostates, they have embedded themselves under the surface in the love feats of the early church, from where they tore into unsuspecting people with their lies and wickedness. Now originally, the love feast was intended to be a regular church gathering for the purpose of mutual instruction (cf. Acts 17:11), encouragement as seen in Heb. 10:24-25, confrontation as seen in Heb. 3:13, and care as seen in Rom. 12:10; 13:8; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 4:2, 25; 5:21; Col. 3:9; 1 Thess. 4:9; 1 Peter 4:9-10. The feast was similar to a contemporary potluck dinner held on the Lord’s Day. Believers would gather to worship, hear the teaching of the Word of God, celebrate the Lord’s Table, and then share their common love in a meal (cf. Acts 2:42).
John MacArthur concludes this section by writing: “However, the love feast eventually became so corrupted and abused, due to the defiling influence of false teachers (cf. 1 Cor. 11:17-22), that it passed from the scene. Lacking a functioning conscience of sense of conviction, and being adept hypocrites, the apostates were able to feast with believers without fear. As Paul wrote to Timothy, such heretics were ‘liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron’ (1 Tim. 4:2). The fact that their actions do terrible damage to others is of no concern to them. While the love feast was designed for believers to care for one another, the false teachers were guilty of caring only for themselves. The word rendered caring is from poimaino ‘to shepherd,’ indicating that the apostates shepherded no one but themselves. Their only interest was self-interest and self-gratification—at the expense of anyone else.”
8/7/2025 11:29 PM
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