Who's in Charge? -- Jude 25

Jude 25


"To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen."
I’d like to say that, as Americans, we have trouble with submission, but the fact is, as human beings, we have trouble with submission. Since the first sin in the Garden of Eden, we have wanted to be wiser, more powerful, and more in control than God. It’s just that simple.

"Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate" (Genesis 3:4-6 NKJ).

"You will be like God."

The Father had already put Adam and Eve into the perfect living conditions. They ruled over all the animals that had been created. They lived in a garden where they could simple pluck and eat. They communed with God everyday. There was no sin, no sadness, no pain, no sorrow, no problems.

But there was one thing. They were presented with the idea that they could be like God and that sounded good. For some reason—like all the rest of us—they didn’t trust God completely. And rebellion felt so good.

Notice that Eve doesn’t evidence any of the characteristics that we would normally associate with rebellion. She isn’t screaming or being abusive. She isn’t acting outrageous or demanding her own way. But one thing she does; she refuses to believe God. This is the heart of rebellion.

Jude tells us this: God alone is wise. But more than that, God alone deserves the glory and majesty. God alone had all dominion and power. God is God. He is Creator, Master, Ruler. He’s the boss! And not only the boss, but He is the only One who really understands what’s going on and has the insight and power to do something about it.

How many times have I jumped the gun, trying to manipulate the people around me or control the circumstances, only to discover that I can’t? In fact, even though I’d like to think I can, what I end up doing is simply making more of a mess. God alone is wise and rather than trying to put my own imprint upon a situation, what I should do is pray, pray, and pray some more. Then, if God tells me to do something, then do that! Otherwise, I already know what to do because I’m always to live out the fruit of the Spirit . . . in every situation. That’s my responsibility. Everything is God’s. To Him is the dominion and the power because He alone is wise.

And Jude emphasizes this with "now and forever." God doesn’t ever stop being God. He has the bases covered, not only for today, but for tomorrow and all the tomorrows including the tomorrows we spend in eternity. Always and ever God is in charge . . . and He has the wisdom to do so.

Aren’t you glad? I am.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

He Is Able to Keep Me from Stumbling - Jude 24

Jude 1:24


"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy"
He who is able to keep me from stumbling.

How?

Notice that it doesn’t say, "Him who will keep you from stumbling." It says, "Him who is able to keep you from stumbling." There is a difference.

The Greek word translated here "keep" is phulasso and has as a connotation the idea of "stressing personal interest in the action" (Vine’s). In other words, I need to want for God to keep me from sin. I need to participate in the process by aligning myself with His will, His desires, His heart. I believe this is strongly related to mercy, or in the Greek charis, which has as a meaning "the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life" (Strong’s G5485). In other words, there is an interactive component about God’s keeping me from stumbling.

I need to want Him to do it. And that’s more than a feeling. It’s an attitude that determines my actions and once that’s in place, He will keep me from stumbling. But I have to want to not stumble.

There is also a longer-view piece to this. This phrase is attached to another phrase:

Him who is able to keep you from stumbling –> present you faultless before His presence

When are we presented? On the last day, after we die or after we are raptured. This is the long view. While our Father is concerned about even the smallest day-to-day issues in our lives, His concern is against the backdrop of eternity. We often concern ourselves with day-to-day issues as they affect our desires (our lusts), but God is concerned on how they will affect where we spend eternity!

I’m a school teacher. Often during the last quarter of school, the students (and, to be honest, the teachers) are so tired of the push in school. Students just want to play and it doesn’t matter where. Soon, during that quarter, discipline can become such a chore because even the best students are simply done! They want to be out in the sunshine with their friends, not cooped up in the classroom learning very uninteresting stuff like how to punctuate dialogue. But as a teacher, it’s important that I not only get them ready for next year, but that I get them ready for life. If I am to do my job with excellence, I need to have a long view of each child’s education, including the fact that time is so limited and there is so much to learn! So during spring days, I have to find better ways to teach, better ways to engage each student, better ways to convince them that they do need to learn this or that.

The Lord is often like that with us. We are so enmeshed in the feelings of the moment we fail to see the much larger picture of eternity. But the Lord sees it! And He does everything necessary to convince us that we need to obey Him in all situations in order to be presented faultless before His presence. That doesn’t mean we earn our salvation, but we must work with Him in the acceptance of our salvation. God will never foist it on us; we must embrace it. His mercy is interactive. It is His "divine influence on my heart" and it is "the reflection of that grace in my life."

He is able to keep us from stumbling, but we must trust Him! We must look to Him, obey Him, cling to Him, love Him above all other things. If we do that, He will present us faultless before His Throne of Grace.

Have I Done My Best?

By Audrey Mieir

Have I done my best for Jesus

After all He’s done for me?

Have I proven my devotion?

Have I served Him faithfully?

When I meet Him up in heaven,

His approval I shall see.

If I have done my best for Jesus,

He will do His best for me.

 

© 1958 Manna Music.

 

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Build Yourselves Up - Jude 17-23

Jude 1:17-23

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.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

The Lord Is Coming: Jude 14-16

Jude 1:14-16


Now Enoch, who lived seven generations after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said,

"Look, the Lord is coming with thousands of his holy ones.
He will bring the people of the world to judgment.
He will convict the ungodly of all the evil things they have done in rebellion and of all the insults that godless sinners have spoken against him."
These people are grumblers and complainers, doing whatever evil they feel like. They are loudmouthed braggarts, and they flatter others to get favors in return. (NLT)

"The Lord is coming."

The Lord comes for everyone; there’s no getting around that. This is His sandbox, He sets the rules, and eventually He comes for everyone.

He comes for those who love Him.
He comes for those who hate Him.
He comes for those who embraced His Word.
He comes for those who denied He exists.

He comes for everyone. And He will meet each of us with justice.

Why wouldn’t we want that? We all want justice. We want to be treated fairly, to have the rules applied evenly, for everyone to have the same opportunities, and to have the laws apply to us in the same way it applies to everyone else. And God does that. When He comes for us, He comes to apply justice. God is always just.

Just as He is always loving, always merciful, always kind, always patience, He is also always just.

The problem with justice is that each of us has our own individual idea of what is just and we would like to apply that, not only to ourselves, but to everyone around us. And it makes sense. It’s difficult to live in a family or a society where there are different rules for different people.

I’ve often heard my students complain that their parents allowed their siblings privileges which they themselves aren’t allowed. Even children want to have the same rules as their brothers and sisters. Some would even like to have the same rules as their friends (who live in different households). But who determines rules? That’s the corker because earthly rules aren’t established by some overlying principle, but rather by the persons in power. Thus those rules have subjective connotations which almost always serve the benefit of those in charge.

God is the only one who is different.

God’s rules for creation emanate, not from a personal desire to have His own way, but rather from His holy character. His rules are always for our good. They are always just. They are always loving. They are always merciful.

So why do we buck against those kinds of rules? Because we are, by nature, rebellious. We want our own way; we want to set the rules. Think about it. How many of us wouldn’t jump at the chance to be "boss for the day?" How many of us couldn’t wait to become parents so we could raise our children differently than we were raised? Why? Because we knew a better way than our parents. We are born rebellious and most of us stay, at least in some ways, rebellious. This is why the Bible talks so much about submission and obedience. We have to bend our own wills to God’s will. That doesn’t come naturally and there’s no easy button. It’s something we learn by practice, doing it every moment of every day. And when we fail, we confess that sin, receive forgiveness, and begin again.

What do the rebellious look like? They are . . .

• grumblers
• complainers
• braggers
• manipulators
• do whatever they feel like

Does that ever describe you? I know that it describes me. That hurts me to say that, but I have to be truthful. What are the opposites of these traits?

• those who are thankful
• those who trust God to work things out
• those who are humble
• those who pray for others
• those who do God’s will

The Lord is coming for me. He is coming for you. Because He is loving, merciful, and kind, He has offered salvation to us through the death of His only Son. If we have accepted that salvation, He will meet us with open arms as His beloved child. If we have rejected that salvation, He will meet us with His justice which demands our death for our rebellion.

The Lord is coming.

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

We Live in a Dangerous Age: Jude 1:8-13

Jude 1:8-13

"Yet these false teachers, who claim authority from their dreams, live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at the power of the glorious ones. But even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse Satan of blasphemy, but simply said, "The Lord rebuke you." (This took place when Michael was arguing with Satan about Moses’ body.) But these people mock and curse the things they do not understand. Like animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and they bring about their own destruction. How terrible it will be for them! For they follow the evil example of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they will do anything for money. And like Korah, they will perish because of their rebellion. When these people join you in fellowship meals celebrating the love of the Lord, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are shameless in the way they care only about themselves. They are like clouds blowing over dry land without giving rain, promising much but producing nothing. They are like trees without fruit at harvest time. They are not only dead but doubly dead, for they have been pulled out by the roots. They are like wild waves of the sea, churning up the dirty foam of their shameful deeds. They are wandering stars, heading for everlasting gloom and darkness."
We live in a dangerous age!

I cannot say that often enough or loud enough: We . . . live . . . in . . . a . . . dangerous . . . age!

I recently read an article that a young friend of mine posted on Facebook. The article was by a young woman who claims she was a born-again Christian for some years and then, after going to graduate school, rejected her faith. (You can read the article here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/why-i-miss-being-a-born-again-christian).

She also claims that this phenomena is becoming more and more prevalent. And I wouldn’t disagree. I think that the Church has failed many who have come through its doors. In fact, this isn’t a new situation. More than twenty years ago, the Assemblies of God took the time to track their "new converts" and discovered that, after a year, fewer than 2% were actually still attending church.

We were never commanded to make converts! We have created a hit-and-run gospel and it is leaving far more victims in its wake than believers. We listened to false teachers who told us that this was the way of the Lord. It’s not! It never was.

Years ago, Ray Comfort, an evangelist from Australia, began to warn us about our tactics which created persons who were initially "saved" but later became vaccinated against Christianity (his words) due to their lack of discipleship. Being a Christian has never been about "accepting Jesus as your Savior" and has always been about becoming a disciple. The word in Hebrew is "talmid" and the connotation is much more than simply believing. It is literally becoming exactly like, in every way, the teacher you are following, in this case, Christ. It is a process which allows for few distractions and no self-indulgence. This is why the Lord Jesus said:

"If anyone comes to Me land does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26 NKJV)

Jesus was obviously not advocating that we hate our parents. Many other places in the Bible we are commanded to honor and respect our parents. What He meant is that we must have a singular focus in order to be a disciple; demands from the other things in life, regardless how intimate or precious, must be discarded in order to become a Christian in all that being a Christian means.

We have failed to communicate that to the world.

Instead, we have tried to market Christianity, to reduce it to a "Happy Meal," and to convince people that being a Christian can simply be another part of their healthy lifestyle. We have weakened the impact of a Holy God upon the life of a sinful person until Christianity has become slogans to be shouted at a ball game rather than a life-changing event that cannot be denied. We have tied ourselves to information systems (such as television and the Internet) rather than immersing ourselves in the Holy Word, weakening our own knowledge of our Savior until we have no answers for those who would try us out and then leave for something that feels more authentic. We have listened to the false teachers who have told us that this is the way to go, paid them our money, given them our allegiance, and then sat crying in the streets, wondering why society is falling around us.

Society isn’t the problem; we are! And it’s time that we begin to take responsibility where responsibility lies and step up to the plate. It’s time that we began to seek true teachers rather than the ones who tell us what we want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). It’s time we began to take our Christianity seriously, to become the disciples the Lord Jesus longs for us to be, and to be that salt and light in the world. Otherwise, we might as well pack it up and go home. For the Lord and for us, there is no middle ground.

　

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Facing Problems -- Luke 12:6-7

Luke 12:6-7

"What is the price of five sparrows? A couple of pennies? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows." (NLT)

It’s sparrow time in Big Bear. The custodians hate them; I love them. But regardless, they often try to take over the school I work at with their mud nests, tucking them up in the beams of the porch overhangs. This year, I must have seven nests over the ramp to my classroom door. Rather than single nests, it looks like bird apartment buildings! The sparrows flit and fly around, sometimes trying to dive bomb the students or staff as they walk across the asphalt bus lines between the portable classrooms (where I am) and the main building.

One of the things I’m always impressed about the sparrows is how small they are. Two or more would fit into the palm of your hand. And when one of their eggs falls out of the nest onto the ground, they are tiny, like the size of a large jelly bean. Luke tells us that the price of sparrows in his day was five for a few pennies. Very small in size. Very small in value.

"Yet God does not forget a single one of them."

Our God isn’t too big not to be concerned about even the smallest of our problems, the tiniest hurt, the most inconsequential worry.

Right now I have friends with problems. To all of us, our problems seem immense, consuming, even overwhelming. Objectively compared, it may be that some problems are larger than others. But that never matters. A problem is like a splinter. One splinter may be smaller than another, but they all hurt; they all nag at our core and cause us to focus on that which is other than the Lord’s beautiful face.

The Father knows what concerns us and He is already working it out for us. As Christians, we often forget that we live win-win lives. We cannot lose! He has promised "everything work(s) together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them" (Romans 8:28 NLT). Thus, as hard as the situation is we find ourselves in, as much pain as we are experiencing, as complicated as the circumstances are, He is working all of it for our good.

What then should be our response? Our first response should be prayer, prayer, and more prayer. 1n 1 Thessalonians 5:16, Paul admonishes us to pray without stopping. And in v. 17, "in everything, give thanks." So, before, in the midst, and after whatever it is that consumes us, we are to pray. Pray, intercede, give thanks. First and foremost, always, pray.

Secondly, we should then make every effort to live the fruit of the Holy Spirit: "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."

What I’m learning about the fruit of the Spirit is that there is no self-protection listed here. Living the fruit of the Spirit is risky. It puts us out there, in harm’s way, allowing others to possibly take advantage of us, to hurt us. But what happens–and this is the amazing spiritual truth–that when we put God in control and live the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, He becomes our protector, working out the situation in His power and wisdom for our good! And to be honest, I’d far rather have the Lord protecting me than me trying to protect myself. I’m not very good at it, but He is my shield, my banner: Jehovah-Nissi. And what is also amazing is that, as I live out the fruit of the Spirit, many situations defuse. Because when you get two people trying to protect and defend themselves, all that happens is chaos and hurt. But when you reach out in love, in patience, in kindness, in gentleness, the problems that existed begin to diminish.

Father, help me today to live your fruit in my life and to trust you to take care of the problems that face me, whatever their size or intensity. Your solutions are always far better than mine!

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com

Self-Control versus Self-Indulgence (Jude 1:3-4)

Jude 1:3-4

"Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."
The description of the Christian life is filled with opposites; we are supposed to be this and not supposed to be that. We are supposed to do this and not supposed to do that. As a teacher who deals with student behavior, it can be difficult only to focus on one side of the equation. Sometimes we need to know what we should do and know what we shouldn’t do.

Back in the 60's, a new idea came into the Church, particularly the American Church. It was the idea that God loves us regardless of our appearance or our lifestyle. That, in itself, is true. But it is not entirely true. As my pastor often says, "God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you just the way you are." In other words, we come to God honestly ("This is who I am"), but we don’t stay as that person. Our relationship with the Lord should move us from where we are to becoming more and more like Christ. We should not only be discontent with our sin, we should be ashamed to the extent that we work, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to change! We should want to not sin. And that "want" should come, not from our emotions, but from the knowledge that we have been saved by a sinless God Who desires that we choose righteousness over sin.

In these two verses, Jude describes a situation where ungodly people have come into the Church, posing as Christians, but are trying to convince the believers that it is okay to continue to embrace sin. The word "licentiousness" is interesting. It has a number of connotations.

Licentious, in English, means lacking legal or moral restraints, marked by disregard for strict rules of correctness. In other words, believing that the rules don’t apply to us; we can choose to sin and not worry about it. After all, Christ died for our sins, so it doesn’t really matter what we do. The apostle Paul addressed this very issue in Romans 6:

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (v. 1-2, NRSV)

Shall we continue in sin . . . for whatever reason . . . once we are saved? Paul (and the Holy Spirit) say emphatically, "No!" It doesn’t matter that this sin, these habits, these behavior patterns, are who we are. We weren’t saved to continue to be "who we are." We were saved to become like Christ! We were saved to choose the fruit of the Spirit, not the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5).

The problem is that, even after we saved, the Lord continues to give us–and to honor–our free will. We can choose at any moment who we want to be, what we want to do. If we choose sin, while God may create circumstances to try to compel us back to Him, He will not forcibly make us love Him or obey Him. He will, instead, allow us to reap the consequences of our choices. And that include even the possibility to rejecting the salvation once so freely embraced.

Strong’s defines aselgeia (G766) (translated here as "licentiousness") as "unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence." And while this is about sexual lust, it is not only about sexual lust. It is much more about rebellion, about refusing to change our behavior so that we don’t have to obey anyone else. It is about refusing to submit to the will of God as outlined in the Word and as taught by His godly teachers and preachers.

Beloved, we have embraced those teachers and teachings that have allowed us to remain in our own self-indulgence. We want salvation in that we don’t want to go to hell, but we also want to be able to continue to live with our creature comforts. We are willing to sacrifice in some areas as long as we can indulge in others, while the point was to discipline and sacrifice in all areas so that we could indulge in communion with the Holy Spirit and that alone! But we aren’t content with God; we also want _____ (and how we fill in that blank differs with all of us, but the fact that blank exists at all is the problem).

Jude tells us to "contend for the faith." This connotes an active struggle. In other words, this isn’t something natural. We won’t easily embrace the things of God. We need to spend time preparing (studying the Word and praying), encouraging each other as we see both failures and successes, and practicing over and over what it means to live the Christian life. We need to memorize scriptures (such as Galatians 5) so that we can easily describe what our lives should look like and we need to constantly be confessing our sin when we fail to allow God to direct our footsteps (and our mouths)!

A Church infiltrated is a Church that will soon fall. A Church contending for the faith is a Church that will stand. Where do you want to belong?

　

© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.

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