In the times of the New Testament writings, many passages included a reference to water. Jesus walked on the water. He showed His power over nature when He spoke and calmed the stormy sea. One of His appearances after the Resurrection was by the Sea of Tiberias. The four early disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, were all fishermen. The list could go on.
It shouldn’t surprise us then that there are many nautical terms in the Bible. A sampling of a few of the terms include boat, skiff, anchor, ship, rudder, etc. Thus it should also come as no surprise that there are endless lessons surrounding these nautical terms. Sometimes these lessons are lost in the translation process. Let us visit one such passage found in the book of Jude.
Jude is the half-brother of the LORD. His one-chapter book appears just before the book of Revelation. It is noteworthy that he identifies himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ without making mention of his earthly blood relationship to the Savior. It is apparent much has changed since the early days of life and his unbelief expressed in John 7:5.
In Jude verse 12 we read, “These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.”
The reference is made to spots in your love feasts. He was referring to the ungodly men who had crept into the midst of the faithful Christians (v4). We should also mention the verb “are” is in the present tense. The present tense means it is on-going and implies those ungodly men were there in their midst even as Jude wrote the letter.
Let us observe the nautical term. The word translated spots, was a nautical term referring to hidden reefs lying just under the water’s surface. Just think of the danger these hidden reefs presented to a boat. Lying just under the surface, they would be undetected to the eye. Perhaps you have been on a lake and encountered a log lying submerged just under the surface of the water. Where the hidden reefs are concerned, many ships have met their demise in such a situation.
Being such a danger and being so easily hidden, one can make the connection with those ungodly men of verse 4. They posed a great danger creeping into the assemblies unnoticed. The text says they turn the grace of our GOD into lewdness and deny the LORD Jesus. Like the reefs, while unseen, they would cause much damage.
These influences are with us today. We are to be ever vigilant of these dangerous influences that are very hard to detect. At first they go unnoticed. Satan doesn’t enter our lives or our congregations dressed in red with a pitch fork. No, he slips in the side door, often unnoticed. He and his workers are like the hidden reefs. They are deadly and often unseen until it is too late.
May we be grounded in the word so that we are able to detect such evil influences.