The Letter of Jude – Lesson 3 – Jude 14-25 – New International Version
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
1 – First Impression
We are part of a plan, God will judge everyone, it’s a good thing, and the references to prophesy that allows for us to be prepared.
2 – Who are the Holy Ones and who is Him? (verse 14)
The debate is whether these are just the angels or whether these are the Christians who have been raised from the dead when Christ returns. There may be other options, but my first guess is it is God and the angles that attend Him coming into the court room to judge everyone for their deeds as opposed to Jesus coming on the clouds with the saints.
3 – Grumblers and faultfinders, boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. How are we any different?
No. Sad, isn’t it?
4 – What does “building yourselves up in your most holy faith” mean to you?
In summary, we see this as continuing the journey to be more Christ like. The way is hard and the path is narrow, but the results are other worldly.
5 – Praying in the Holy Spirit? How is this different from any prayer?
Mainly, we saw this as relying on the Holy Spirit to guide us to those things that had eternal value and not relying on ourselves to pick a personally beneficial path.
6 – Keep yourselves in God’s love. How would you recommend doing this to someone who is struggling?
I heard a discussion about an older lady who was really sick, and the doctors could find no underlying condition to fix. They tried to make the symptoms go away, but she spent her few lucid hours a day drinking and smoking. She is struggling with little reason to live. I did not project my aid going to someone in such dire straits. I was thinking someone like me who was struggling with not cussing or eating too much or “easy” stuff. I cannot remember my thoughts from Friday, but today I know that joy only comes from resting in the salvation of Christ and the only benefits come from doing His will. I am not qualified to help this woman myself. But having a hope that we are still alive only for the chance to either accept Christ as our savior or to help Him in some small way is all I can offer.
7 – Be merciful to those who doubt. How do you show mercy?
We did not get this far last week, but in order to wrap my mind around the lessons, I continue. Mercy is not giving someone what they deserve. When someone doubts, this means allowing them to doubt and not hammering them with the demand to make a decision now. Somewhere this week, I discussed the doubt of the apostles at the last supper. They had lived with Christ for years, but He had not yet died for their sins, not yet defeated death, nor rose from the dead, nor sent the Holy Spirit. One famously wanted to touch His wounds. Our thoughts are not God’s, so we need to be patient with others and love them.
8 – Save others by snatching them from the fire. Is this not a cool ideal?
It is. In Sunday school today someone wondered why we are not all on fire to do just this. It is a terrible question with no good answer.
9 – To others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. How far do you understand this to mean we are to “hate”?
I do not think we are called to hate like this. Our only hate can be of sin. The people we are to love. Making sure we are not hating the sinner, means we have to be very careful about hating at all. Our culture pushes the boundaries on tv, film, and the like. Some push back from Christians in the past has resulting in some aid in figuring out what is filth. So our efforts are not about hating something so much as trying to identify it and root it out of our lives.
10 – How humbling to have God for a brother? What else can this knowledge have benefitted us?
Jude had Christ for his brother. He probably did not have the daily “be taught by God” life that the disciples did, but upon realization of who Jesus was, Jude and James must have felt a renewed sense of obligation to share their own stories in some form or fashion knowing how special their lives had been. Knowing Christ was perfect, we can know they looked back on their lives with their older brother and could remember His life of no sin, ever. To me that is humbling even to think about. My question makes even less sense after reading my answer, but I feel it shows that we each have a story to share and can be confident it is enough to be told to serve God and give Him glory.