Keep Yourselves in the Love of God by Building Up in the Holy Faith and Praying in the Spirit (Jude 1:20-23)

“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” (Jude 1:20-23)

These things we shall do in these last days when the Lord Jesus Christ will soon be coming again, says Jude, a brother of James and apostle. The mark of the last days is the appearance of many false teachers, deceiving and scattering many away from the truth in Christ. Jesus says, “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:24) The shocking and shattering truth is that those false and disguised prophets and teachers are not from outside the church but from inside. Paul warned the saints in Ephesus during his farewell address, saying “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:29-30)

It’s not at all a surprising thing when happens. Jesus told a parable that the enemy stealthily came and sowed weeds among the wheat in the field where a man sowed (Matthew 13:25). The parable tells that there are the weeds growing in the midst of the wheat until the harvest time. The weeds sowed by the devil raise their voices and ideas prompted by mere natural instinct, not inspired by the Spirit and divide the people in the church (Jude 1:19). In these last days launched since the first century, what are we commanded to do?

Jude admonishes the saints in the latter days by building ourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit to keep ourselves in the love of God as we wait for the mercy of Christ Jesus the Lord to bring to eternal life. How can we build ourselves up in the holy faith? It’s through reading and studying the scriptures which lead us to stand on the unshakable truth of God. And add to it praying in the Spirit. Understand what is prayer really according the scriptures and exercise the gift of prayer according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the troubles and distresses. Then, we are able to keep ourselves in the love of God who shall bring us eternal life through the sudden appearance of Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is no need to devise a program in an effort to contend for the faith in Christ. That’s how the world functions and operates. But the church follows the order of the Head Jesus Christ who knows and understands everything and shall fulfill faithfully the promise of God. The church is called to obey the commandment of God, not the prince of the world. The commandment of God is to love one another. So, Jude further admonishes the saints, saying “Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25)

Eternal Weight of Glory (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

This is what we ought to believe that we are being renewed day by day inwardly although we are wasting away outwardly. That’s not fantasy or illusion, but true reality. Outer man is visible but inner man is invisible. The inner man is human spirit. The sufferings and hardships we are experiencing are not evil, nor unfortunate but working together to achieve for us an eternal weight of glory which far outweighs them all. So we do not lose heart but fix our eyes on what is unseen since what is wasting away is temporary but what is being renewed is eternal.

Since the fall of race in Adam, we believed what we ought not to believe, being deceived by the devil and sold to sin until Christ delivered us out of the bondage of sin and death. All man lives by faith either in the wrong or in the right. We are made so. Complaining and murmuring are the habitually entrenched response toward sufferings and difficulties. But now in Christ we ought to stop complaining and murmuring for we know the invisible qualities of life hidden in our troubles and bumps in our midst. They are all light and momentary and passing. We do not see yet what our glory will be, but believe that they contribute to achieve for us an eternal weight of glory, immeasurable and incomparable riches of glory in Christ. That’s the anchor of our faith.

So, we even rejoice in our sufferings (Romans 5:3). What we see is not all, but what we do not see is reality. We believe that there is a God who knows what He is doing according to the words of promise. Christ is the pattern of real man. The secret of His life on earth was to fix His eyes on the unseen Father in heaven. “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” (John 5:19-20a) The Father and the Son was in the perfect communion all throughout His earthly life. Likewise, we who have been made alive by the cleansing blood of Christ are in the perfect communion with Christ Jesus the Lord.

Nothing But Jars of Clay (2 Corinthians 4:7-11)

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-11)

Why is it that we Christians are called the jars of clay? Is it not true that we are called blameless and holy in the sight of God? Why it is not used a glowingly glorious figure instead of an unadorned clay pot? It is true that we have an incomparably glorious ministry of the new covenant. It’s because the life of Jesus Christ might be manifested in our mortal body. What is the life of Jesus? It is the very life in which all things are made and exist. It is the eternal life that defeated the power of death, disarming the sting of death. It is the life that works when everything else fails and falls into nothing but hopelessness and despair.

The marvelous life of resurrection has occurred in the cold and darkened tomb where nothing could possibly ever happen naturally. That treasure is hidden in our mortal body. Paul says, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” No battery or pressure in the world can crush this life. No perplexity or bewilderment can make us despair for we always carry this life. No persecution or terror can alienate us from the love of God and no striking down can destroy us for the life of Jesus indwells within our earthen vessels.

 Some seven centuries before Christ was born into the world, Prophet Isaiah prophesied of His appearance, saying “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Isaiah 53:2-3)

That’s authentic Christianity. We are nothing but the jars of clay. That’s what we are. We are made for revealing His life in our fragile earthen body. The moment we think that we have something to boast of our body, we are puffed up in following the way of the world, not of Christ. What a glorious hope it is! What an incomparable riches of Christ’s life it is! We’re always carrying that life in our body, the hallmark of the death of Jesus Christ the Lord. 

Sudden Breaking into Time (Luke 1:11-12)

“Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.” (Luke 1:11-12)

This is the most significant event in history because in this way God broke the long four hundred years of silence since Prophet Malachi prophesied. Who could imagine that God broke into time and space all of sudden in such an unexpected way, even Zechariah himself? How up-to-date is the word of God! We are so used to paying attention to only things visible and tangible in this world that we ignorantly and unwittingly miss the true reality, the invisible kingdom of heaven. The long silence of no word of God doesn’t mean at all that the heaven got lost those years. No, it has been all the time in the midst invisibly. That’s the reality and truth. It was the due time that God simply unveiled the curtain of heaven to visibly manifest His program in history.

Jesus says so that no one knows the times and seasons, even the Son Himself (Matthew 24:36). In this most unexpected way and time, God breaks into time and space for everyone to see in public just like He did to Abraham, Moses, King David, the Prophets, even the disciples and Paul. Throughout the centuries, God made Himself known to the multitude of people through the gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord. It is not that God does something randomly while most of time taking a long sleep. No, God does not sleep. He is Spirit, working all the time and running the whole things in the universe according to His will and glory.

Just as God sent the angel Gabriel, breaking into time in the first century, so one of these days our Lord Jesus Christ will appear with the great trumpet call. “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” (Matthew 24:30-31)

Unmasked Ministry (2 Corinthians 4:1-6)

“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:1-6)

Why do we not lose heart? It’s because we have the ministry of a new covenant through God’s mercy and grace, not by works. Our hearts are not dull like the people who read the law with veil. Rather, we take off the veil and we are given the mind of Christ which leads us liberty. The word of truth sets us free from wearing on the masks of pretense and hypocrisy. So, we come nearer to God just as we are, poor, humbled, wounded, hurt, crushed, perplexed, pierced, and boxed. Amazingly and marvelously all the burdens and loads are lifted up by the power of cleaning and washing blood of Christ. We have now what it takes in Jesus Christ for everything is coming from God and nothing from us. That’s the confidence and boldness we have as the new covenant stewards. That answers the most intriguing question, saying “Why is not our ministry effective and working?”

Although we are challenged and buffeted over the times, we can’t walk off the job for what we are called and commissioned. On the contrary, we renounce the secret and shameful (disgraceful) ways, deception and distortion of the word of God. What are the ways of the secret and disgrace? They are the ones which eventually fall into shame and degradation because the startup of those things is not right at all in the sight of God. They shall collapse soon or later because they are fatally faulty from the beginning. We renounce such worldly tactics at all because we have been called into the whole and pure truth and nothing but the truth. Whatever people respond and react to our bold standing, we plainly set forth the truth of God to their conscience.

What is truth? Pontius Pilate asked exactly the same question Jesus when he presided the trail of Jesus Christ some twenty centuries ago. Many a people don’t have the answer for that. Truth is the manifestation of all the hidden things, visible and invisible. It is the reality of what is behind all things. Jesus Christ is the truth for in Him and before Him nothing can be hidden. The opposite of truth is lie, delusion, or illusion. We have been called to be the servants of the truth, not the lie. Our calling is perfect and complete in the sight of God, so there is no lopsidedness at all in our ministry sealed by the Spirit. Jesus affirms that the truth will set us free (John 8:32).

Those who reject the truth are blinded by the prince of darkness, the devil. Their minds are made dull and confused by the mastermind of murderer and liar. The whole world is under the influence and power of this vicious and malevolent evil being. Satan, the fallen angel blinds the hearts and minds of the people not to believe that Christ is the Son of God who became in the likeness of human. The delusion is so powerful and prevailing that people fall into the lie that they can live without God. So, Paul admonishes the saints to be put on the full armor of God, Christ Jesus because we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12-13).

What we preach is not ourselves but Christ and Him crucified. We are not called to sell the cheap gospel for profit like the peddlers do (2 Corinthians 2:17). Neither are we called to control and manipulate the people to earn the status and self-esteem. We are the servants of Jesus Christ, who are ready to obey His commandments, to the right, to the left, or to straight ahead. God spoke in the beginning, “Let there be light” and there was light. Likewise, as we the servants of Christ speak the truth plainly, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shall shine in the hearts of people if they respond to the light. They shall see Jesus, the mind blowing Person of glory who is all in all and through all. The face of Christ shines eternally in our hearts. That’s what we are in Christ.