Reflections with Andy - Jude 1: 5-16 – Make Me a Captive, Lord

We look at what it means to be captive to God, as well as some interesting Jewish history and legend

In this Monday reflection on Jude 5–16, the letter’s central concern becomes clear: these false teachers are not being led by the Spirit but by their own unchecked desires — almost certainly the Gnostics encountered in Second and Third John, who believed the body was irrelevant and therefore lived however they pleased. Jude’s devastating poetic description of them — waterless clouds, twice-dead trees, wild waves, wandering stars — paints the picture of lives completely unmoored. The deeper question Jude raises is one of captivity: we are all captive to something, and the only choice is whether we’ll be captive to God and his Spirit or to our own desires. One leads to life; the other to destruction. Make me a captive, Lord — that’s the prayer. The reflection also pauses on a fascinating detail: both the story of Michael disputing with Satan over Moses’s body and the prophecy of Enoch come not from Scripture but from Jewish legend and extra-biblical texts. Jude quotes them not to canonize them, but because his audience knew them and they illustrated his point — a reminder that the Bible was written by real people in real cultural contexts, and knowing that context only helps us understand it better.

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Good morning! Great to be with you on this Monday. Busy week ahead for me, but a good one — hope the same is true for you. Today we’re picking up in Jude with the largest section of the letter, verses 5 through 16:

“Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, that the Lord, who once for all saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day. Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of slander against him, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’ But these people slander what they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct. Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah’s rebellion. These are blemishes on your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.

It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘See, the Lord is coming with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’ These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage.”

There is a lot happening in this passage — a lot to unpack. Let me hit two things: what Jude is actually warning against, and something interesting about the Bible itself that this passage raises.

First, the warning. Jude lines up a series of Old Testament examples — Israel in the wilderness, the fallen angels, Sodom and Gomorrah — to illustrate what happens when people abandon faithfulness to God and follow their own desires instead. And the description of these intruders he’s warning the church about is vivid: grumblers, malcontents, driven by their own lusts, bombastic in speech, flattering people for personal gain. They are not being led by the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. They are being led by instinct — by raw desire, like, as Jude puts it, irrational animals.

More than likely, these are the Gnostics we talked about in Second and Third John — people who believed the body and its desires were of no spiritual consequence, so they indulged them freely. They’re living for themselves. And friends, living purely for what you want is a dangerous road. We do not exist to glorify our own desires. We were made to be captive to something greater than ourselves.

And that leads to the heart of what Jude is getting at. Verse 12 is just stunning poetry: waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever. These are people completely at the mercy of their own impulses, with nothing to anchor them. It’s a beautiful and devastating portrait of a life lived only for itself.

Here’s how I’d frame it: we are all captive to something. We’re going to be captive to God and his Spirit, or we’re going to be captive to our own desires. There’s no neutral ground. One of those captivities leads to life. The other leads to destruction. It really is that simple. And there’s an old hymn — Make Me a Captive, Lord — that captures exactly the right response. Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. That’s the prayer of Jude. That’s the prayer for all of us. What are we captive to — God, or ourselves?

Now — the interesting Bible moment. Verse 9: when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare bring a condemnation of slander but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’ You remember that story, right? Michael and the devil arguing over Moses’s body?

Here’s the thing — that story is not in Scripture. It’s not in the Bible anywhere. It’s a Jewish legend. Jude is a deeply Jewish letter, steeped in Jewish history and tradition, and the story of Michael disputing with Satan over the body of Moses was a known legend in that world. Similarly, the prophecy of Enoch quoted a few verses later comes from a Jewish text called 1 Enoch, which is not part of the biblical canon.

So why is it in the Bible? Because Jude is using a story his audience would have known and recognized to make a theological point — that even the archangel Michael, who certainly had more standing than any of us, didn’t presume to slander even the devil himself. He said the Lord rebuke you and left it there. So who are we to slander one another? Jude isn’t vouching for the legend as Scripture — he’s using it as a culturally familiar illustration, the same way a preacher today might reference a story everyone knows to make a point. And because it served a true and legitimate theological purpose, it wound up in the letter that became Scripture.

I just think it’s worth knowing that context. The Bible is a living document written by real people in real cultural moments, and sometimes understanding that context helps us understand it better.

So — make me a captive, Lord. May we be captive to God and his Spirit, living the way he would have us live, and not to our own desires. Tomorrow we finish Jude. Have a great day!