Dear Church Family,
Not only do good things come in small packages (like the book of Jude and 3 John), sometimes you need to wait until the end to get the best part. Counselor Jay Adams writes, “Perhaps, apart from verse 3, the most important section now begins.” As we get to verse 20 Jude packs “three exhortations (that) are foundational to fighting for the faith” into a few words that merit our attention. They stand in stark contrast to the way of life of a scoffer as seen on Tuesday. Putting each of the three into daily practice will help grow us toward spiritual maturity and keep us from falling for the schemes of false teachers.
Jude encourages his ‘dear friends’ to build themselves “up in your most holy faith.’ John MacArthur writes that no Christian want to remain a spiritual child “perpetually stuck in infancy.” In the way we must grow by knowing the truth of God’s Word more. We must yearn for truth by our own time in the Bible and seeking faithful preaching and teaching. We then must meditate on those Biblical truths so they become a pattern of how we think. Jude then says to “pray in the Holy Spirit.” We will see in Romans 8 that the Spirit helps us in our prayers – giving us words to say and the power to say them. The third item calls us to keep ourselves in God’s love and to rest in His mercy that brings eternal life. We must love God and His ways rather than the world and its emptiness. God has loved us perfectly in Christ and there is no sane reason to seek love anywhere else. It will be way less than perfect.
Jude goes on with an implied motive that since we have received God’s mercy, we have the joy and duty to extend that mercy to those who doubt. In our polarized world God might just use us to “snatch others from the fire and save them.”
Tim Challies sums up a problem common to us, “The great daily challenge is, on the face of it, so very simple: to think like a Christian, to speak like a Christian, to act like a Christian. It is to think in ways that reflect a renewed mind, a mind that sees the world as it truly is and a mind that is determined to think God’s thoughts after him. It is to speak in ways that reflect a renewed heart, to understand that life and death are in the power of the tongue and that my words can be fresh water or brackish, a blessing or a curse. It is to act in ways that reflect renewed desires, to act in ways that faithfully deploy my gifts, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm for the good of others and the glory of God.”
May we following Jude’s wise instructions as we face the ‘daily challenge’ to live to the glory of God.
With great hope in His grace,
Pastor Gillikin