January 23, 2024: Jude 20-21 - Let Us Keep Ourselves in the Love of God

“But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” -  Jude 20-21

Jude, having previously described the men who had crept in unawares to the churches and had corrupted and defiled them, “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Jude 4), now switches his conversation to encourage those who had not done those things and who remained steadfast in their faith in the Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. It is these men whom he addresses as “beloved.” He immediately sets the tone that we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ by remaining in the love of God. This is a clear contrast between the “they” and the “we,” and we see this all throughout the Bible. The “they” do not have the Holy Spirit in them, and have no solid foundation on which to build their faith, for they reject the saving power of Jesus Christ. We, who are in Christ, have built our foundation of faith on the One who is the cornerstone of our faith: Jesus.

The apostle Luke wrote of this firm foundation when his fellow apostles Peter and John were witnessing to the Jewish people in Jerusalem of the saving power of Jesus Christ. Peter and John had gone into the Jewish temple and saw a man who had been lame from birth, meaning he could not walk. The man was carried every day to the gate of the temple, which was called Beautiful, so that he could ask alms (beg) from those who went into the temple. The man saw Peter and John and asked alms of them. Peter replied by saying, “Look on us” (Acts 3:4) and the man did, expecting to receive something from them. The Bible tells us what happened next:

“Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have I give thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God: and they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.” (Acts 3:9-10)

All of the people who had seen this miracle ran to Peter and John and the man who had been healed and was holding onto them. Peter then proclaimed to them:

“Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly [intently] on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him [comes through Jesus] hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I wot [know] that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution [restoration] of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children [sons] of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds [families] of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” (Acts 3:12-26)

After hearing Peter speak these words, the Bible tells us what happened next:

“…the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, being grieved [greatly disturbed] that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold [custody] unto the next day: for it was now eventide [evening]. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.” (Acts 4:1-4)

The Jewish religious leaders felt threatened by what had happened and did not want to hear the truth of God, having rejected Jesus, the cornerstone of our firm foundation of our faith, and they surrounded Peter and John. The Jewish high priest and the elders of Israel then asked Peter and John, “By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?” (Acts 4:7). The Bible tells us what happened next:

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent [helpless] man, by what means he is made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at naught of [rejected by] you builders, which is become the head of the corner [chief cornerstone]. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:8-12)

To build up ourselves on our most holy faith, we must first put our faith and trust in Jesus, believing that it is He who can save us, just as the lame man believed that Jesus could heal him and make him walk. To put our faith and trust in anyone or anything else to save us from our sins is not salvation by Jesus but deception by Satan. Secondly, we must remain in Jesus, we must continue in our faith in Him. After we are saved by Him, we should grow in Him and not become stagnate in our faith. This is a process called sanctification. People should begin to see a change in us if we have truly been born again.

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6-7)

Notice Paul did not write in the Scripture above that once we are saved, we can continue living the sinful life that we once were, doing whatever sinful activities we want during the week because on Sunday, we would go to church and get “sanctified.” No, sanctification comes by obeying God’s commandments to us to the best of our ability. As Jesus told His disciples, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (Jesus Christ; John 14:15).

I can tell you from my own experience that I fought against what Jesus said for many years, going at it my own way, and I was absolutely miserable. I wasn’t keeping myself in the love of God; rather, I was keeping myself in the love of the way I wanted to live my life and not how HE wanted me to live. I didn’t want to hear His commandments, much less obey them. After many years of doing it my way, I finally came to the point where I felt like I could not go on anymore and finally surrendered my will to Him. After that, my life has been totally transformed for the better, and not just my own life but also the lives of those around me. While it took a while to see changes in my own life and in those around me, changes did happen. In my stubbornness, when sometimes I still fought against doing nice things for people who hurt me, even telling God I didn’t want to do what He was asking me to do, the still small voice would impress upon me, “Do it for Me.” God knew that when I learned to be obedient to Him and to trust in Him and not in myself, then changes would happen in both myself and in the people I knew. I had to let go of self-love, which is what the world pushes us to have, which originates from Satan, the ultimate lover of self, and instead to love God first, putting Him above everyone and everything else. I was learning to keep myself in the love of God.

As I was learning to keep myself in the love of God, I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed. I had realized I didn’t need to pray to God just at a certain time of the day, such as before I went to bed at night, but I could pray at any time. I think it has only been recently, however, that there has been a difference in how I pray, and I believe that is by praying in the power of the Holy Spirit. When I would go through something stressful, I would have already decided whatever the “fix” was, and I would pray for God to make that happen. Looking back, I realize that this was me still trying to be a control freak, putting myself above God and telling Him how to fix it and asking Him to make it all happen, according to how I had decided it should be. After having gone through many years of stressful situations, particularly with my family, I finally had a wake-up call: I am not God, I do not know everything, and I truly am in control of nothing. My futile attempts at trying to fix things were only my selfish attempts to make life “normal” and to have “peace” in my life and in my family’s life. It was only when I finally came to this realization that I decided that when I pray about a situation, that I would just trust in God, to obey Him in all things, and not tell Him how I think things need to happen to “fix” a situation. He knows what I can’t know. He knows the end from the beginning. He may be allowing or even causing a certain situation to happen to me to help me grow in my faith, to let those roots of faith in Jesus grow deep and strong so that when turmoil hits and the strong winds of the storms of life blow, my faith won’t be toppled by the enemy Satan. God may be allowing a family member or friend to go through an extremely difficult time in their lives so that they can get to the point in their lives, like I did and as did many other believers, where they can see that they are broken and they reach out to the only One who can save them: Jesus. This, my dear friends, is true love. We can try and protect people and ourselves from all harm but if the end result is that we never see that we need Jesus, that we are all sinners in need of Him, and that only He can save us from our sins, that is not true love but is a selfish love that we want for ourselves and/or our family to make our earthly lives easier, no matter the cost to our eternal lives.

Before Jesus was crucified, He told His apostles that He would pray that God the Father would send to them the Comforter, who is also called the Helper, who is the Holy Spirit:

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (Jesus Christ; John 14:16-17)

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I had said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let your heart not be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (Jesus Christ; John 14:26-27)

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient [advantageous] that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove [convict] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince [ruler; Satan] of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself [on his own authority]; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” (Jesus Christ; John 16:7-16)

At the moment we are saved by turning to Jesus Christ to save us from our sins, the Holy Spirit enters us and dwells within us. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the ability to understand God’s word when we read it. Notice that I said “when we read it” and not “if we read it.” If we are not reading God’s word regularly, we are not keeping ourselves in the love of God. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth, and that includes showing us what we should pray for. The apostle Paul wrote about prayer and how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God:

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities [weaknesses]: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for the good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:26-28)

As we wade through these stormy waters and perilous times that the apostles told us would come in the latter times, a time when apostasy in the churches seems to be at an all-time high, with many wolves in sheep’s clothing deceiving many, and many people who once called themselves Christians but who were not truly saved and had a false conversion, we must remember in whom our hope rests. Does our hope rest in a man to save us? Are we looking for a man or woman to turn this ship around, to turn America around so it can be “great” again? Are we looking for a man or woman to “build back better?” Or, are we reading God’s word and know that all the things that are happening were prophesied long ago and that things are not going to get better and will never get back to “normal?” We are seeing all the signs that Jesus told His disciples would indicate the coming of the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble, followed by His second coming. For those of us who are saved by Jesus Christ, our hope should not be in saving our country but in the soon coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In Jesus we found mercy when we were yet sinners. He saves all who choose to believe in and trust in Him for redemption of our sins. He took on all our sins when He never sinned, no, not even once, so that all who turn to Him may be washed clean through His precious blood.

“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed [poured out] on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:3-7)

The apostle Paul, who once voraciously persecuted those in the early church but was transformed by the light of Jesus Christ and was called by God to share the good news of salvation to the Gentiles (non-Jews), wrote of God’s mercy toward him. His life serves as an example to all that there is no one who is beyond God’s ability to save through His mercy and love that was given to us through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ:

“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. This charge [command] I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away [rejected] concerning faith have made shipwreck [suffered].” (1 Timothy 1:12-19)

May we remember that He has given us the promise that when He calls up His church to Himself, both those who have already died and those who are still alive at that time, all we who have believed in Jesus will receive our new, resurrected bodies and we will be with Him for eternity:

“For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21)

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump [trumpet]: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:50-58)

In these difficult days that are growing darker by the minute, let us remember and heed those words of Paul, particularly that last sentence, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain the Lord.” May we trust in the Lord God, keep ourselves in Him and in His love, and look for His mercy and our blessed hope, our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world [age]; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar [his own special] people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” (Titus 2:11-15) ✝️