Jude tells us that the patriarchs of the antediluvian era “kept not their first estate, and left their own habitation…” but what does this mean? Aside from the evil of leading one into error, one of the most grievous problems with wrong doctrine is that it is so difficult to erase falsehood from the minds of folks who believed it, even after one agrees the false doctrine isn’t true. The picture it paints in one’s mind is very difficult to expunge. The word Jude uses for kept is tereo (G5083), and it has to do with observing, protecting and guarding. The same word is used of keeping the Commandments (Matthew 19:17), of keeping the sayings of Jesus (John 8:51), of guarding a prisoner (Acts 24:23), and of keeping oneself in the state in which he presently is (James 1:27) etc.[1] The latter has to do with what Jude intended for us to understand.
The Lord made mankind in his image (Genesis 1:27), and men were made responsible to guard that directive and remain in the image of God. This was our first estate that Jude mentions in Jude 1:6. The antediluvian patriarchs had the responsibility to lead their clans to respect that obligation and remain in the state in which they were created by God. Yet, only Enoch, the seventh from Adam (Jude 1:14), has the testimony that he walked with God (Genesis 5:22). The others corrupted themselves so much that it repented God that he made man on the earth (Genesis 6:6-7).
So, what might imaging God look like (Genesis 1:27)? It might be easier to see what an image of God does not look like, and then ask: “what does it look like to image God. Jude pointed to Genesis 6 and the judgment of the Flood to warn the false teachers and those listening to them that that judgment was the kind of judgment that was coming upon the children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2; 5:1-6; Colossians 3:1-10). A literal understanding of Genesis 6:1-3 would seem to indicate that God was unhappy that the population of mankind was multiplying, but that isn’t true. After all, the Lord commanded man to increase and fill the earth (Genesis 1:27-28). As I claimed in my previous study, the wives of Genesis 6:2 weren’t women but were towns which arose as mankind’s population increased. The wife in such a context and in the New Covenant would be similar to the wife, which is the Church, submitting to the authority of Christ (Ephesians 5:32). Wives would be multiple local bodies of believers submitting to the authority of their church leader or pastor (Ephesians 5:22). This Scripture has been terribly abused, when used of the marriage relationship, but Paul does conclude he is speaking of Christ and the Church, not literal husbands and wives (Ephesians 5:32).
By now, one might be able to see how the context in Genesis 6 relates to the context of Jude’s letter. Violence filled the earth before the Flood (Genesis 6:1-5). The identity of the giants (nephilim – H5303) has been greatly distorted by false teachers in the early history of the Church, and the picture they have painted, unfortunately, exists to this day. What the word really means is there were bullies and tyrants in the earth. What does a bully or a tyrant do? He wants things his way, and **only** his way. He takes away another’s freedom to become what he was created to be. A bully molds his victim into a person **he** wants the person to be (viz. Matthew 23:15). This is what was being done in the churches that Jude and the other original disciples of Christ wrote to (cp. 3John 1:9-10).
That is what an image of God does **not** look like. An image of God is one who is free, and he or she allows others to be, free as well. God blesses men, whether or not they are righteous (Matthew 5:45), and we should do the same. Let the law deal with those who go too far, but we need to permit others to be free to choose who they wish to become. We don’t have to look like one another, but we should look like Christ in our spirits. Loving one another would have us guard or keep our first estate, which is to be an image of God (Genesis 1:27). Loving God would have us cease our rebellion against him. God judges violence. I don’t see him intervening in the affairs of men for any other reason. If men are at peace with one another, probably they are living out enough of the image of God to keep the Lord from judging their otherwise evil behavior. But, bullying folks takes away their freedom, and for freedom’s sake, Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1; John 8:36).
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[1] See Thayer’s Greek Lexicon.
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