6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
Okay, so what does this verse have to do with abusive pastors and false teachers? It’s a tricky one, and I don’t think it’s wise to get too dogmatic about the interpretation of this verse. There’s a lot here that isn’t here, basically. The first question is who are these angels that “did not keep their own domain” and are now kept in eternal bondage? There are at least three views:
1. Basically, don’t ask. Some commentators argue that we aren’t supposed to know anything more than is found in the text itself, and to go further is error. That’s not a very satisfying, or intellectually responsible approach, it seems to me.
2. These are fallen angels who joined with Lucifer (the Devil) in his initial revolt against God. This view has some problems, too. It requires that such angels (actually demons), generally, are presently kept in bondage, and yet there are plenty of demons at work in the world today, seemingly unbound.
3. These are the “Sons of God” of Genesis 6:1ff, who left the abode of heaven and procreated with the “daughters of men,” producing a race of giants on the earth, who were destroyed in the Flood. This was the view of the early church and of the Jewish scholars Jude’s day. However, the identity of those “sons of God” of Genesis 6 is a tricky thing to arrive at, and is the subject of several views, all within the possibility of reason, but none conclusive above the others.
Application: What we do know with certainty is that these angels defected from a privileged position, in heaven with God, and a privileged purpose, singing His praises, to go somewhere else, away from God’s presence. In the same way, when pastors or teachers in the church step away from God’s purpose and will for their lives, pursuing their own private desires instead, and inflicting subsequent injury to the Bride of Christ, in the eyes of God they join company with an entirely different band of “angels”, and have now no future but a destiny of judgment.
downtownpastor