Jude: challenge and praise

Website design By BotEap.comJude, vs. 20-21. Personal holiness is commanded.

Website design By BotEap.comYes, Church, there is evil in the world, and even right there in your congregation! You can’t ignore it, you have to deal with it, but first, take care of your own spiritual walk. Do not get distracted. And it will have to be in the love and power of God to do what must be done. Praying in the Holy Spirit seems to be the means to build oneself up in faith, according to verse 20.

Website design By BotEap.comPaul prayed with the spirit and with the understanding. There is praying from a list, and praying from the depths of your soul with “groans unspeakable.” There is natural prayer and there is supernatural prayer. Some things you know, some things you have no idea. Absent-minded prayer, surrendering everything to the Holy Spirit to pray through you, is what Judas is looking for here. This is no small matter what you are discovering. God’s praying people, and that is supposed to be all of us, should take it seriously. Ordinary intercession just won’t do. Get in touch with God who lives in you, find out what He is thinking and pray accordingly.

Website design By BotEap.comBut that is not the end of the remedy for false teachers. Make sure his own life lives up to the high standard that Jude sets forth in these few verses of his letter. Make sure that you are not giving yourself, that you are not a carnal person, that you are bearing the fruit of the Spirit, specifically here the love of God. Make sure that you are not scoffers in your hearts, that you really believe in the fundamentals of the faith, in particular the mercy that God has shown and will show to the repentant.

Website design By BotEap.comArm yourself with these attitudes before approaching a false prophet. Your anger and meanness will produce nothing. Flesh will not be able to fight meat. Are you ready to show mercy if one of these men repents? Or will he be content to win a verbal victory over them and garner praise for yourself as a great “defender of the faith”? Will you fall into the trap of the Ephesian church that was sound in doctrine but had left its foundation of love? His last instructions, below, called for this type of preparation.

Website design By BotEap.comvv. 22-23. Dealing with the wicked in the church.

Website design By BotEap.comWe are faced with a question when we consider these two verses. Has Jude changed the subject? He was talking all this time about evil men in the church, men whose fate is certain, and not very positive.

Website design By BotEap.comSuddenly, he’s talking about compassion and saving some. While we want to be open to the possibility that even the worst of false men will repent, it seems more likely to me that he is talking about the potential followers of these men. And there are two categories in your mind.

Website design By BotEap.com1. You have to treat some with delicacy, with care, even with mercy. These are well-intentioned people, people who really want to serve God with all their hearts. They listen intently to see if there is more to what God has for them. Unfortunately, their ears are not trained to listen for subtleties in teaching. Soul and spirit are still united in his thought. What appears spiritual to you is carnal to the trained believer, but you have not grown to the point where you can see this. The masters are cunning and blunt, making their followers feel that they must certainly advance with them lest they be left behind by the lukewarm. sad, sad Make a distinction with these. They are not in the same category as the following.

Website design By BotEap.com2. The others may have to be forcibly “removed” from their stupidity. They have stuck with the enemy teachers for so long that it looks like they are going to leave the church and cause others to do the same. They are being fed with promises of power and glory in the church. They are told that God has been waiting for them to take a stand, and that when they do, the people will support them. Perhaps even financial promises are being made. save them! With fear, they add some translations. Fear for his soul. Fear for yours if you don’t help them obediently. The fear of God should motivate you to do something fast. They are flirting with the fires of hell! get them out! Using the same image of a fire, it suggests that we despise the flames of hell so much that we don’t want any of our people to have even a smell of smoke on their clothes. Drag them away from the fire! They don’t know what they’re doing. The smoke has entered their eyes. They are about to be disappointed. Do something!

Website design By BotEap.comvv. 24-25. A final compliment.

Website design By BotEap.comJude’s ending is magnificent. Yes, we must be negative from time to time, but let’s go back to the main topic: God, the only wise God, who is our Savior.

Website design By BotEap.comNote that he mentions a God who is powerful to keep us from falling, who is falling into the trap that the false teachers of the letter are setting. Not only will we not fall, but we will press on and be made perfect! Notice also the joy attributed to Jesus, the One who is doing all this leadership. He will one day present us to the Father with a big smile on his Blessed Face, and will lead us to Eternal Beatitude.

Website design By BotEap.comForgotten are the clouds without water, the blackness of darkness. Evil is here absorbed by the joy of knowing and loving Jesus, and the love He has for us.

Website design By BotEap.comIt seems that the Spirit takes over the lyrics with a double portion when Judas rises to ecstatic praise in the last verse. No comment is needed. Let’s join him:

Website design By BotEap.comTo God our Savior, the only wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen!