Stealth.

One of my childhood memories is that of my Dad being in the kitchen around 10pm every night listening to the news on the radio. On the surface that is exactly what he was doing. However, the family know now that those were the times he was operating with stealth. Underneath the noise of the radio he was operating with extreme care and quietness to make himself a nice supper usually of cheese and crackers. It was cunning, underhand and one of my early recollections of stealth.

Stealth has been used all our life and we often don’t even recognise it is happening.

In 1969 the film ‘The Italian Job’ made 176 million US dollars. However it is one of the best examples of stealth marketing for a company who sold Mini Coopers. The British Motor Corporation refused to donate any of its cars to the film-makers who actually used 16 of their Mini Cooper cars. Within 3 weeks of the film being shown the BMC boasted of 20% increase in their sales of the car.

Stealth is used in war. The US arguably have the best stealth bomber planes in the world. They are created so as to get into enemy territory unnoticed deflecting or absorbing radar signals.

Stealth is used by the enemy of our soul, the great deceiver.

In writing all this I do so as we read the next verse of Jude. He has told us that he has changed the reason for writing this letter because he needed to tell Christians to contend for the faith given to them. Here is why:-

“For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” (Jude v 4)

Stealth.

That’s what made Jude change his mind to write how he does.

Certain people have slipped into the church unnoticed. He doesn’t say who they are but he does reveal how they did it. They came in talking about the grace of God. How wonderful this amazing grace is!

With grace there is no shame. So does that give you licence to sin or does it bring healing to those who have sinned? For some it could be both.

How it leads to the denial of the Lordship of Jesus we are not told by Jude, he just says it does. Whether that is by belief or behaviour or again perhaps it was both.

In 2023 stealth attacks on the church have come in greater measure and the message Jude carries and writes could not be more important! In some places the Church is no longer recognisable to how it was birthed and for some stealth has been the reason.