20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
(ESV)
STOP! Think a little 🤔 What is God saying to you?
- What is the writer saying?
- How do I apply this to my life?
It is our responsibility to keep ourselves from the harm of false teachers. We can do this by building ourselves up in our most holy faith by reading and studying God’s word. Unlike the false teachers who do not have the Holy Spirit (Jud 19) we must pray in the Holy Spirit with prayer oriented to God’s will. And we must live in the love and mercy of Jesus that is available to us until we reach eternal life.
Having looked after ourselves and kept ourselves from harm, we must work to help and restore those believers who have fallen. Having received mercy, we must offer mercy to others. We must rescue them from the fire of sin being careful not to fall into sin ourselves (Gal 6:1-2; Jas 5:19-20). We must hate the garment stained by sin and yet love the person wearing it.
God is the one who is able to keep you from stumbling (into the traps of false teaching) but it is not automatic. If we want to reach heaven and stand before Jesus as blameless, then we need to live in dependence on Him. Listen to God and He will protect you.
Jude ends with wonderful worship for God, the only true God who has saved us through Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy of praise and honour. He alone is sovereign over everything. He alone has the power to rule over His creation now and forevermore!
Who are you depending on to live a successful life?
I love this analogy-we must hate the garment stained by sin and yet love the person wearing it. This is how God treats us and this is how we should be treating others.
Verse 23 stood out to me when it said ” save others by snatching them out of the fire” because sometimes we let others make spiritually detrimental decisions and do nothing about it. Instead we should encourage them in their faith and help them without acting better than them either.
I just love how much mercy God has, like the only reason we are able to go to heaven is because God is so merciful