“…you, beloved, BUILDING YOURSELVES UP on your most holy faith, PRAYING IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, KEEP YOURSELVES in the love of God, LOOKING for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And ON SOME HAVE COMPASSION, making a distinction; but others SAVE WITH FEAR, PULLING THEM OUT OF THE FIRE, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” (Jude 1:20-23) Jude urges us, “…to defend the faith that God has entrusted to His holy people. I say this because some UNGODLY PEOPLE HAVE WORMED THEIR WAY INTO your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us TO LIVE IMMORAL LIVES…for they have DENIED OUR ONLY MASTER AND LORD, JESUS CHRIST.” (Jude 1:3-4)
Jude’s brief letter describes men at their worst and God at His best. Believers are already on the victorious side! Those who mock God’s truth and who follow their own desires all while claiming to be Christians, are the MOST DANGEROUS KIND OF UNBELIEVERS. These persons pose a danger to themselves and to any Christians they might influence. In response, we as Christians need to focus on UNDERSTANDING THE TRUTH OF GOD’S WRITTEN WORD AND SUBMITTING TO HIS WILL.
Jude admonishes us to,
- Build ourselves up: as believers we must always to rest on the foundation laid by the prophets and apostles and use their words alone to build upon it.
- Pray in the holy spirit: God saves us to dynamic service within His sphere of ministry—the worldwide Church. At the direction of the Father, the Holy Spirit dispenses spiritual gifts to empower every believer so that we might effectively pray as the Holy Spirit inspires us…
- Keep ourselves in god’s love: Meditating on the love of our triune God is a perfect remedy for our We rest in, grow in, have confidence in the Father’s steadfast love:
- Have compassion on some: Compassion means to feel love and mercy toward another person. It means to have sympathy and desire to relieve the suffering of others. It means to show kindness and tenderness toward another.
- Save some with fear: We must warn others who are in danger regardless of the reaction we may receive. So the question at hand leads me to the doctrine that the Laodicean church keeps its sheep ignorant of, the terrible price of not following Christ, Hell. The church needs a fresh revelation of why we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, that HELL AWAITS those who regard their salvation lightly and how awful a place to end up for eternity!
- Pulling them out of the fire: Jude urges us to be “pulling them out of the fire ” unbelievers who are perilously close to entering eternal punishment. A key point made in this letter is the danger posed by false teachers. Not only do these men place themselves in danger of eternal punishment (Jude 1:13), they can also disrupt the faith of others (Jude 1:10–12). For those who are not in open rebellion, but are merely confused or suffering from doubt, our response should be THAT OF MERCY. We need to seek their redemption, NOT THEIR CONDEMNATION (Jude 1:22). We need to protect them from of the fire of hell…
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham