Author : William Stewart
Jude 1:12 speaking of wicked men who had crept in among God’s people reads,
These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves…
What is a “love feast”? Commentators differ on what the love feast is. Some affirm that in the early church, the richer members would provide an occasional meal to share with poor saints (GBN, ACC). Others say this refers to the Lord’s supper (BNT) or an abuse of it (JFB, RWP). Still others believe it is simply the pure lifestyle and assembly of the Christians (FBN, WBN). Some, perhaps wisely, have chosen not to comment (JWN, PNT).
There is no agreement among commentators, nor is there consensus among writers of antiquity. Ignatius mentions the love feast, but his reference to it could simply be another name for the Lord’s supper (letter to the Smyrnaeans, ch. 8). When Clement of Alexandria speaks of a love feast, he speaks of feeding the “poor, maimed, lame, blind” (Luke 14:12-14), NOT a sumptuous feast (Instructor, I, Ch. 1). In Tertullian’s Apology (Ch. 39), the agape is referred to as a supper to benefit the needy.
I’ve heard some use love feasts to defend church hosted potlucks and fellowship meals. I’ve even been told that it is sinful if we do not host such potluck meals. As there is no firm Bible instruction, and in the absence of agreement among Christians in the first few centuries (who were much closer to Jude’s day than us), to claim that we must host a “love feast” else we are sinning is not only presumptuous but divisive.
Every translation I’ve seen refers to a “love feast” in Jude 12. If we look at the Greek text, we’ll see this is not a translation, but speculation. It reads:
Literally rendered:
these are in the love of you spots feast fearlessly themselves shepherding
How someone could get a potluck or social meal out of that is beyond me. Jude describes how wicked these ungodly men are – they are a corrupting influence in the midst of God’s people. The word feast here could be rendered carousing, to fare well, or to revel together. These wicked men are not eating more than is right at a social event; they are flaunting their evil and compel others to join their dark ways. They reject godly leadership, happy to govern themselves and all who would accept their path of lewdness and lust.
So, what is the “love” or “love feast” which Jude wrote about?
Potlucks?
Only someone with an agenda would conclude that Jude 12 authorizes the church to engage in social activities. A literal rendering of the text identifies the wicked as those who are feasting or carousing, not the faithful children of God.
Feast for the poor?
It’s entirely possible the rich provided occasional meals for the poor in the early church. Such is no violation of any Bible text, in fact, we’re told to remember the poor (Galatians 2:10). Is that what Jude 12 is about? Unlikely.
The Lord’s supper?
Is the love Jude speaks of the Lord’s supper? It is a feast shared by the Christians, and the presence of these wicked men would certainly be spots among them.
Christian purity?
Paul warns of a wicked man in Corinth,
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? (1 Corinthians 5:6)
Jude’s warning could be the very same, as these wicked men were with the faithful of God.
Which is it? The commentators cannot tell us with any certainty. The non-inspired writers of antiquity could not tell us with any certainty. But what we can be certain of, Jude was not talking about church hosted social meals. Such is nowhere in the context – yea, nowhere in the Scripture at all.
GBN – Geneva Bible Notes
ACC – Adam Clarke’s Commentary
BNT – Barnes’ New Testament
JFB – Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
RWP – Robertson’s Word Pictures
FBN – Family Bible Notes
WBN – William Burkitt’s Notes
JWN – John Wesley’s Notes
PNT – People’s New Testament
