Protected by the Power of God
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith,
(Jude 20-23 NASB)
praying in the Holy Spirit,
keep yourselves in the love of God,
waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
And have mercy on some,
who are doubting;
save others,
snatching them out of the fire;
and on some have mercy with fear,
hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”
None of us are above sin.
May I say this again, maybe in a fresh new way.
Hate the sinful, polluted, ungodly flesh that surrounds us, that we cannot escape for as long as we reside here on this earth. Now, ‘HATE’ truly is a strong word, one our moms may have admonished us to avoid when we were small, and in fact, we may even have found somethings ‘more unlovely’ than other things. In speaking the word ‘unlovely’ or to say we love something ‘less,’ we can avoid the whole ‘HATE’ word. Nevertheless—
WE ARE CALLED TO ‘HATE’ SIN!
“And have mercy on some,
(Jude 22-23 NASB)
who are doubting;
save others,
snatching them out of the fire;
and on some have mercy with fear,
hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”
- We must hate the sins that contaminate the lives of those we know &
- We must guard our hearts in Christ Jesus from the temptation to sin.
Now, truthfully, we who believe in Jesus sometimes think we’ve got this life-walk all figured out. We may say to ourselves: ‘I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing, and I’ll be good.’ Today, I am compelled by the Word of God to question—Can we ever do this on our own?
Jude, a believer, a bond-servant of Jesus, and Jude, a brother to James, reminds us that we cannot remain as we are, going as we’re going, living as we’re living, thinking as we’re thinking, saying we’ve got this—We’re Good!
Jude reminds us that we’re really NOT—Good!
How do we know?
It’s because we’re born in iniquity (as the psalmist writes) and we grow-up in this same sinful condition, walking around in this same sinful body as we walk toward our elderly selves.
WE NEVER ‘OUTGROW’ SINNING!
BUT PRAISE GOD, WE DO LEARN DAILY HOW TO WALK WITH GOD THROUGH THE MERCY & GRACE AS WE ARE FILLED WITH GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT!
- We remember the grace we received from God.
- We stay in God’s Word every day.
- We share the Gospel.
- We offer hospitality.
- We show others how we depend upon the Lord.
- We show others how we depend, even when we are weak.
- We seek God with our entire being.
- We seek to love beyond small talk, to show real concern for another’s spiritual walk.
- We produce the Fruit of the Spirit that the apostle Paul recorded.
So we LOVE others right where they are, ‘HATING THE SIN’ & not the sinner, remember how we too are sinners through—&—through.
We express the JOY in the LORD we have experienced.
We remain in the PEACE of GOD.
We are PATIENT with all, even our own selves.
We display KINDNESS to all we meet.
We reveal GOD’S GOODNESS to those who we are fortunate to have relationships with as we go.
We are FAITHFUL, walking daily with God, repenting of our own sinful ways.
We display GENTLENESS even when we might be at our wit’s end and frustrated at the devil’s hold on someone’s life.
We CONTROL OURSELVES, remembering how those who are caught by Satan’s lies are reading the Bible they see in what we say & do.
“Let Them See You” by the JJ Weeks Band speaks of how short our lives really are in this lifetime that we live. We need to allow the world to SEE JESUS IN US—IN YOU & IN ME!
Because as we do, they will SEE JESUS—“snatching them out of the fire;”
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
(The 1st Letter of Peter 1: 3-5 NASB)
to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”