20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.—The words of the Apostle Jude from Jude 1:20-25
We ended the last blog post wondering what do to if we discover that the kind of people Jude describes have wormed their way into the leadership of our churches and have set about pushing true believers out of leadership roles and out of the church. These evil people who bring corruption to the church—that is the rupture of the core—diminish the effectiveness of the ministry of the church. They profoundly damage the people of that church, especially the young people. In fact, they do such damage to the young people of the church that the effect of their corruption lasts for at least two or three generations.
Faced with such an overwhelming challenge to the cause of Christ, the Apostle Jude hastens to end his short letter with clear instructions to the true believers who want to turn this damage around and heal the wounds inflicted on the church. Specifically, Jude suggests the following:
- “Build yourselves up in the most holy faith.” Take the steps necessary to increase your own faith. Spend time in God’s Word. Implant the Truth deep within your hearts and minds. Build a point of reference against which you can measure every action to make certain it aligns with God’s revealed instructions.
- “Pray in the Holy Spirit.” Such prayer is not a weak, pleading, selfish prayer. This is warfare praying. This is pounding on the gates of heaven. This is significant time spent—both alone and with other believers—beseeching God to act decisively to protect the church, restore wounded believers, and uproot those with evil intent.
- “Keep yourself in God’s love.” In some ways, this is one of the hardest instructions of all. In the midst of a soul-wrenching battle against the forces of evil, maintain a protective barrier around yourself with God’s unfailing, undying love. This goes against every fiber of our natural beings. When we’re attacked, diminished, disrespected, and forced out, our natural inclination is to rise up in great anger and utterly destroy those who have wounded us. But this is not God’s way. And Jude reminds us that we must face our attackers wrapped in a protective cocoon of God’s love.
- “Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Wow! But we don’t want to wait. We want action, now! We want to overthrow our enemies. We want to haul them out into the streets and stone them. We want to beat them with the clubs of righteousness until they scream for mercy, sob in asking for forgiveness, wail in repentance, leap to make restitution, and humbly beg for restoration. (I can’t even write these words without laughing at our foolishness!)
No! Instead, we must wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. He, and he alone, will be the One to bring justice. So, you who have jumped to your feet and drawn your swords, put your swords back in their scabbards and sit down. Now is not a time for action. It is a time to wait for the mercies of the Lord to overtake those who have ruptured the core; those who have perpetrated evil in our midst.
And, it may not happen in our lifetime here on earth. Some matters may never become settled this side of heaven. Some evil will not be overcome until Christ returns. We may step from this life into eternal life without ever seeing the resolution of the horrible deeds that have been done to us.
- “Be merciful to those who doubt.” Keep proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ with love and with honesty. Make every effort to build up those who doubt or are weak. Stand in the gap for those who are not strong enough to stand for themselves. At every turn, give glory to God by sharing with others the power that comes from the Holy Spirit.
- “Snatch others from the fire and save them.” Remain watchful for those who have strayed too far from the fold. Go after them in God’s love and gently restore those who have strayed away.
- “Show mercy, but don’t become corrupted by their sin.” Stand firm on the Truth of God’s Word. Extend mercy to those who do not deserve mercy. But guard yourself so that you will not become stained by the evil that has driven them to sin.
- “Receive a closing benediction”—a blessing on your life—and rest in the security of knowing that you belong to God through Christ.
This brings our examination of the Book of Jude to an end. I sincerely hope that the lessons of this short, but amazing, book will remain with you throughout the days, weeks, and months ahead.
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God, for loving us. Thank You for sending Jesus to be our Savior. Thank You for sending us Your Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
As we have examined this powerful epistle, we feel enormous gratitude for the message You sent to the church through the pen of the Apostle Jude. Having explored these words of warning and examined our own churches to see whether Jude’s warning applies to our situations today, we want to move forward protected by what we have learned.
Thank You, Precious Father, that we can count on You to guard us and guide us. And, thank You for hearing our prayer in and through the precious Name of Your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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