Thursday, March 18, 2010

But you...

 "But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,  keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.  And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh."- Jude 20-23  
     These two sentences come after 5 or so paragraphs of Jude warning us to watch out for false teachers invading the church and teaching false doctrine.  He warns us of hedonism (v 4), mysticism (v 8), and humanism (v 10, 11).  These things creeping into our church?  This can be a scary and disconcerting thought!  Wolves in sheep's clothing.  It could make us fearful. It could make us, after reading the first 19 verses, think that this book of the Bible doesn't apply to them.  Until we read 'but you...'  We are given a call.  A call that protects us, encourages us, and tells us what to do to prepare for battle!
    "But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith... We must be continually striving in holiness.  We must be in the Word- reading it, meditating on it, and memorizing it.  As Todd Murray said once, no one 'drifts' into holiness.  We can drift into laziness or worldliness, but no one drifts into holiness.  We must be working at it.  
     We have to know our Bible.  We are blessed to have at least one copy of the Bible in our home, access to the web, and commentaries from wise pastors about the Bible.  We should KNOW that book.  We should know the books of the Bible and the ideas of each book of the Bible.  We should know about salvation and how it works and about being a new creation.

No comments: