Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...
The epistle by Jude is a short one in the Bible but it is jam-packed with things to learn! Jude deals with "contending for the faith"; lack of sanctification (misuse of God's grace); and touches on the seriousness of rejecting authority; rebelliousness & slandering; and blessedly, encouragement to his "dear friends" to "keep on" for Jesus.
It seems even in those early days of Christianity Satan was actively maligning the truth. Jude therefore tells his readers to "contend for the faith" (vs 3). That faith that was "entrusted to the saints". We must be alert and vigilant in this too.
Jude addresses not so much of the false teachings that we have been learning much about from the other epistles by Paul, Peter and John, but more about the immorality. Those who want to follow their own evil desires instead of God's good, perfect and holy will. These people think God is only a forgiving God. They forget, or they don't want to know, that He is also a Holy and Righteous God. They take God for granted. They take His grace for granted, in fact, they "change the grace of our God into a license for immorality"!
"Never mind, God will forgive me," says their attitude.
Never forget, my sons, that "Jesus is our only Sovereign and Lord"; we must serve Him alone and submit our will and desires to His.
If we love Him we will obey and submit to Him. This helps us to "contend for the faith"; helps us to strive for and aim for that holiness our heavenly Father, God, wants for us His children.
This is called "sanctification"; growing and maturing in our Christian living and in relationship with God. We will behave more and more according to God's way and become more Christ-like in character and conduct.
Key in Romans 6:1-2 is "Shall we go on sinning so grace may increase? By no means!" We've covered a lot of Scriptures for many mornings of musings that show all of this too.
Look at the many verses following...go on look them up and read them for yourself...
James 1:13-18; 22-27; 2:20-24
1 Peter 1:7, 13-23; 1 Peter 2:13-17
2 Peter 1:3-9; 3:1 17-18
1 John 2:6, 15-17, 28
1 John 3:7-10; 5:18-20
Take special note of 1 John 3:9:
"No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God."
And also 1 John 5:18:
"We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who is born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him."
These verses show the responsibility we have to stop sinning; to stop putting the Lord our God to the test; to stop distorting and misusing God's grace.
In the gospel written by John and in the three epistles of John, he has a recurring theme: Jesus is God's son; Jesus is the Son of God. Jude touches briefly on it in verse 4. The 'grace changers' and the people of immorality, want to deny that Jesus is "our only Sovereign and Lord". When they do this they feel they can live any way they please and numb their consciences and so deceive themselves right into their immoral lifestyles.
Then it is subtly spread as they "secretly slip in among the believers" (vs 4). We have to remind ourselves that Satan is only out "to steal, kill and destroy" (John 10:10) and that sometimes he comes as a "roaring lion seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8) and at other times "masquerading as that angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). He will try any and every devious method and trick he has up his sleeve to turn the believer in Jesus away from a pure and holy way of living.
Society is often used to lull Christians into complacency and imbibing their standards, stating blithely, "Everyone does it." We have to beware. God's standard needs to be our standard if we wish to follow Him no matter the cost to us personally. Is He your God, your Sovereign?
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| Measure up to God's Standard |
Then look at verses 20-21: "therefore keep yourselves in God's love". Let us use God's grace the way it was meant to be used.
When a person denies Jesus Christ as their one and only Sovereign and Lord and dulls their self with societies anti-God standards, then the next step into rebelliousness and rejecting authority is "easy". It readily enables that "slander of celestial beings" (vs 8, 9) and "speaking abusively against" them and the things they have little to no understanding of (vs 10).
When we hear such talk, or we ourselves engage in it, we had better examine ourselves as to the whys and wherefores, humbling ourselves and falling down on our knees in repentance and confession to God (1 John 1:9). By God's grace, He will forgive and purify us but we need to be sincere.
Look at the punishment for even angels "who did not keep their positions of authority"--"kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains awaiting judgment".
You'd think angels "had it made" but even some of them wanted to be boss, to be God; eg, Satan, to name a major one. God dealt with them though as above. This is serious business with God.
Additionally, the slandering of those in power, even those who misuse their positions of authority, we should not reject nor slander.
Archangel Michael didn't even dare to do so and he had/has a high position. But the devil was higher still and so Michael said, "The Lord rebuke you!" (vs 8, 9)
Again, my sons, be very wary of criticizing your elders; parents; church leadership; teachers; principal; those in government positions. Instead pray for us ( your parents) and those in authority above you. (See Romans 13: 1-6 and 1 Timothy 2:2) Why pray for them? So that "we many live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."
I will have a lot more to say about this subject of submission to authority but that will be another blog another day.
Many of those people who have "slipped secretly" among us (believers in Jesus Christ) are those who are not listening to the Holy Spirit. That is, they are "following their own natural instincts" to do Satan's bidding consciously or unconsciously.
However, for those of us who do acknowledge Jesus Christ and His being our ONLY Sovereign and Lord as well as our Savior, let us "build ourselves up in our most holy faith" and "keep ourselves in God's love as we wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring us eternal life."
This is our 'job'; this will keep us busy and wholesomely occupied til he comes.
Thankfully we don't have to "go it" alone. We have the help from Him "who is able to keep us from falling and present us to His glorious presence without fault and with great joy. Who is He? The only God our Savior, Jesus Christ and Lord..."to Him we give "glory, majesty, power" and think of this, "authority". For how long? "For all ages, now and forevermore!"
Praise be to His holy name!
~ERC 2016~
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