But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's Love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear - hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
God, let these words be Yours for Your purposes and Will.
This passage is titled "A Call to Persevere." Jude wrote this letter to all Christians that this letter could reach. That includes us today. He was addressing the topic of godless men that infiltrate the Church and lead other Christians away. Jude starts this passage with the topic by quoting the early apostles. They wrote that men who follow their own ungodly desires would appear. They would show up and divide Christian and would follow their own natural instincts because they are without the Holy Spirit. There are different denominations of Christianity that have their own sets of rules and guidelines today, some even with their own edited versions of the Bible that they keep adding to. There also entire religions with very similar basis. People over time have been split up among these different faiths. Some of these have and still cause fighting and warring by their members. Speaking of the truth in Jude's words. These people have caused rifts and fights among us all. So often because of what they want. But there is only One true God and One true faith. Moving to that, Jude wrote next about it.
The arguments over this and that in Christianity alone, let alone other religions, can be so overbearing and draining. But the thing is that it's not gonna go away. It's only going to get worse. There will be as many lies and false teachings as there are men who follow their own desires; a number that is always growing. So Jude tells us to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. Not to mean our faith is like a bunch of coats, "I'll wear my most holy one today." No. He means that our faith itself is holy and set apart. It is not normal or of this world. It is something that feels like it doesn't fit in this world, because it doesn't fit. Which is why it can be hard to build it up. But by staying in God's Word, we can strengthen it. Because we can run what we hear from teachers and writers by what we read in the Bible. We just need to read properly and study it honestly in order to listen to exactly what God is trying to say, not ignoring something because it isn't what we want to hear. We need to take in all of it and put it into practice. By doing this our holy faith is built up. And when the faith is built up, it is stronger than anything. The faith of a mustard seed has the power to move mountains into the sea. The false teachers in this world will try anything to conform you to their teachings, for the Evil One's work is subtle, but if our faith is built up then we can see right through it. Galatians 1:9 says that all people who preach a gospel other than the one we have heard based in the Love of God and His Son Jesus Christ's sacrifice will be eternally condemned. So as long as we also keep ourselves in God's Love until our time here on earth ends, then we can fully test and approve of God's Will. To Love, we must give up ourselves and take up our crosses and follow Jesus. If we do these two things at all times, our God will build up our faith and wisdom and keep us from following the wrong paths. But this Love will also lead to these false teachers and believers, but in another way: In Loving them.
Jude addresses how we should then act towards these people and those who follow their ways. He splits it into 3 kinds of people. The first is the doubter. Jude calls us to have mercy on the doubter and not show contempt for them because of their doubt. I have gone through my own bouts of doubt even during the time of this blog's operation. We have doubts sometimes because we don't know whether or not we belong. We end up feeling unsure about something, and the Evil One takes hold of that and makes it worse and worse. We end up with a desire to belong, and in these times, we often look in the wrong places feeling more and more empty as we go along. Jude calls us to have mercy on these people who struggle to find out where they belong. To have mercy, is to not judge them or treat them poorly, to not rebuke them or brush them off because they ask the weird questions, or to ignore them because they aren't like us. It's just the opposite. To have mercy, to bring them in and Love them and show them the Love of the Father and show them that we all have a place of belonging with God our Father. It's to show them that we are all meant to live for something more, for God.
The next person is the one who can be snatched up from the fire. These are the people that are already right on the edge of Christianity but also of death. These are the people we have true opportunity to share the Gospel with and Love on and welcome in. They can be saved with just a gentle Word of God. They are the Opportunity, we just need to take it.
The last type of person is the one who has no interest in looking very much and just want to do what they want to do. We are called to show them mercy as well. Because anyone who follows their instincts is trying to find the place they fit in and the thing that fits the hole inside them. We need to Love them no matter what, but we also need to mix that mercy with fear. Fear of becoming like them and losing the forgiveness of God. It's easy to deny that we as Christians are not easily influenced by the world, but it is just the opposite. When our faith is built up it is strong, but when there is a chink and it gets weaker, it can fall apart. And when our faith falls apart we can fall into a sinful binge that if not broken quickly can lead us away from God completely. As 1 John 3:19,20 states, our proof of Salvation is the conviction of our hearts by the Holy Spirit. But speaking from experience, once this "binge" starts, that conviction grows less and less convicting. Eventually there is a crossroad of choosing God or the world. You know it when you hit it because it is a gut wrenching and painful transition. When we hit it we can either turn to our sin for comfort or back to God begging for forgiveness. I am so thankful that when I hit this, God called me one more time and brought me back to Him. It hurt so much to go through it. I am deathly afraid of falling back there again and feeling like that and hurting God like that. We need to hate anything belonging to the sinful person's life, but not the person.
When I was in that point I went to what could have been my last Bible study at my youth pastor's house. I admitted I was angry at God and myself, but my friends didn't throw me out or rebuke me. They prayed over me one by one. It was that night that I hit the crossroad and chose God. I, therefore, cannot stress how important mercy and Love for people in these times really are. Sometimes just living the Loving Christian life around others and doing what the Holy Spirit calls us to do, can be what snatches people from the brink and saves them. To live as a Loving Christian, is truly taking the Opportunity. So build up faith and take it every chance you get, God might just use you to save someone.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
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