But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions." It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (RSV)
Scoffers. Some versions use "mockers."
I think of mockers as someone who makes fun of something, like a stand-up comic. That’s not what’s meant here. A scoffer or a mocker is someone who has an open dislike or disrespect, often mixed with indignation. "How could you possibly believe that?" "Why can’t you be open-minded and accepting of others?"
Sound familiar?
"There will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions." Don’t be misled into believing this is only about one group of people. Those who have a disrespect, a dislike, of God’s narrow view of righteousness, who mix with that an indignation that their rights have been violated by God’s standards, also set up divisions; they are devoid of the Spirit.
Just this week I watched part of a video posted online by a Southern Baptist pastor. This pastor has asked his church to embrace the LBGTQ community and their lifestyle. (You can watch the video here if you wish: http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/06/03/3444241/southern-baptist-pastor-changes-view-on-homosexuality-accepts-gay-son/). While I personally feel that the American Church has moved far beyond the constraints of the gospel in their approach to sin outside of the Church, the fact is that this pastor is only one of many who are setting up divisions. And while this pastor makes a passionate case for his decisions, as believers we need to ask ourselves: Who deserves our loyalty?
If our loyalty is to those around us, then this pastor is right in reaching out his hand to embrace every soul he meets. However, if our loyalty is to God, then we must maintain that God’s love—evidenced by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross—is enough to overcome every sin, every selfish desire, every lust of the flesh.
So what are the steps to holding ourselves pure and holy, loyal to our Heavenly Father? Jude outlines:
• Building yourselves up on your most holy faith
• Pray in the Spirit
• Keep yourselves in the love of God
• Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life
• Convince some of those who doubt
• Save some
• On some, have mercy with fear
Building yourselves up on your most holy faith.
A recent article came to my attention about Biblical illiteracy (http://www.thepropheticyears.com/comments/Most%20who%20call%20themselves%20evangelical%20Christians%20are%20biblically%20illiterate.htm). Illiteracy is the inability to read or write, but Biblical illiteracy is the state of not knowing what the Bible says. When I was growing up, you could walk into most Protestant churches, particularly evangelical and Pentecostal churches, and the vast majority of folks would have their Bibles, not only on their laps, but open, reading along with the pastor. Pastors were taught to say the scripture references three times and wait until everyone had their Bible open. Then, I think, as more and more English versions were published, people stopped taking their Bibles to church because it was too hard to follow along if you had a different version than your pastor. After awhile, folks stopped reading their Bibles altogether, just relying on the little bit of Bible teaching they got in the hour on Sunday morning. Churches stopped having Sunday School and Children’s Church became more about entertainment than teaching. Midweek services went to cell groups which became more about discussion than study.
We have stopped building ourselves up.
It’s not enough to simply "get saved." We have to continually work at being the disciples of Christ. The Greek definition of "building up" is: "To finish the structure of which the foundation has already been laid, to give constant increase in Christian knowledge and in a life conformed thereto." (Strong’s G2026) Jude said to "build yourselves up on your most holy faith." Our faith is holy. It sets us apart to God. It also sets us apart from the world. But in order to have that faith, we must work to build upon our initial salvation experience. And that means study. Hard work and study. We have to turn off our TV’s, turn off our devices, and sink ourselves fully into the Word through study and prayer. We need to turn away from the reality shows and turn back to the books written by godly men and women (not just the best sellers on the Christian book list). We need to be discerning about the teachers we embrace, to look at their lives first to make sure they can be trusted, rather than simply to read something because it’s popular.
We need to build up our faith.
Pray in the Spirit
This is more than just praying in tongues and more than just praying. In fact, rather than just blurting out what we think we want to say to God, perhaps what we should start doing is asking Him what we should pray for.
A number of years ago I did a study on The Lord’s Prayer. I found it interesting that when the Lord Jesus taught us to pray, His prayer was much more about worshiping God and aligning us to His will than about my telling God what He should do for me. The fact is, God is much more able to take care of me than I am able to take care of myself. My job is the live out the fruit of the Spirit through His power and trust Him to do everything else.
When we pray in the Spirit, we pray God’s will back to Him. The purpose of our prayers becomes about His changing our lives, rather than His becoming our purchasing agent. The apostle James writes: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." (James 4:3 RSV). The KJV says "pray amiss" (or wrongly). We pray and don’t receive, so we become discouraged and stop praying. We begin to doubt the Lord has the power to do anything and we turn away, refusing to question that maybe the problem isn’t God. Maybe it’s us! We need to learn to actively and daily pray in the Spirit, praying the way He wants (and has commanded) us to pray. Then our prayers will be successful.
Keep yourselves in the love of God
Keep yourselves. Guard yourselves. Prevent from escaping.
There is, within us, a free will which can decide at any moment to cling to our Savior or to walk away. His love, while extended to the world through salvation, is reserved for His children, those He has adopted as His own. Any who choose to accept His offered gift are adopted and granted the privilege to call Him Father. All others will be judged on the last day.
We can stay . . . or we can go. Jude admonishes us to keep ourselves in that love. After study, after prayer, we still have a choice.
Wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life
We don’t wait well. We are a society that wants it now and bemoans that we might have to wait a few seconds to have our lusts gratified.
Christianity, on the other hand, is always and completely about waiting. Waiting on God. Waiting for heaven. Waiting for answers to prayer. Waiting, waiting, waiting.
God has the long view. He understands that everything we choose and do in this life affects eternity. We, on the other hand, like to ignore consequences, living in the lust of the moment. Think about it! When you go into a restaurant, what’s one of the first questions you ask yourself: "What do I want to eat? What sounds good? What looks good? What do I feel like eating?" All questions based on the lust of the flesh, rather than what’s actually good for us. The Father, however, always thinks about consequences because there are only two: eternal life or eternal hell. And because He loves us so much, He wants us always to have eternal life. He works constantly toward that end. That’s why He sent Jesus to die. That’s why He sent the Holy Spirit to live within us and teach us. That’s why He gave us His Word. And if we are going to be successful about living as He wants us to live, we are going to have to learn how to wait on Him.
Convince SOME, save SOME, and on SOME, have mercy with fear
Ministering to others is always going to be about approach and then about success and failure. Not everyone we minister to is going to accept the gospel. Not everyone is going to respond to us.
That makes sense. Not everyone responds to God . . . and if they won’t listen to Him, why would they possibly listen to us? But our efforts should always be outward, reaching, teaching, ministering. SOME will be convinced. SOME will be saved. SOME will respond to mercy.
Why mercy with fear? Because when we extend mercy to sinners, we have to be so careful that our mercy doesn’t become tolerance or acceptance. Sin is sin and our efforts should always be to gently compel people back into the Father’s arms. In doing so, we must be so careful that we love the sinner, but refuse to approve of the sin. We are all sinners. We all sin. In approaching someone else’s sin, we must be careful that our motives aren’t selfish. And we must always watch that we ourselves don’t sin in the process.
The onslaught of culture change has swiftly come on America, but not so swiftly as some would presume. The change in culture from "Christian" to post-Christian came many years ago before many were born and it came from within the Church itself. We were always strong against the onslaught from the outside, but we were defeated from within. Jude isn’t talking about non-Christians in this passage; he’s talking about those from within the Church itself. We, as a Church, have allowed this because we became lazy, complacent, and preoccupied with things that don’t count. We have traded family worship for sports, private prayer for TV, Bible study for the Internet. We all do what’s important to us. Perhaps it’s time we looked at our lives again to decide whether or not our focus is on what’s important in this moment or what’s important for all eternity.
© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.
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