As we have been studying through the book of Jude, our teacher Jude has exhorted us to be aware of false teachers and doctrine that is meant to draw us away from a relationship with Jesus Christ. Over and over he has given us insight into the behaviors and actions of itinerant false prophets, and his emphasis should make us all be more alert for their appearance. In the last verse we studied, verse twenty, we noticed a change in Jude's direction as he turned from sharing about the false teachers to encouraging his readers in their walk with God. Today he continues that encouragement in verse twenty one. He wrote:
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
There is no greater thing than the love of God. God loves us so much that He gave His most precious son Jesus to die for our sins that we might have fellowship with Him. Jude takes up this theme of love and encourages us to keep ourselves in God's love. God enjoys blessing those He loves, and when we are diverted by the attractions of the world, we can remove ourselves from those blessings. The examples of those Jude has already mentioned and their traits can keep us from what God wants to do in our lives. If we have attitudes and actions like those of the false teachers Jude has mentioned, we divert ourselves from His blessings. For example if we are unbelievers, greedy or living in a sinful way, we thwart the blessings of God, and thereby hurt our fellowship with Him. It is important that we keep ourselves in a constant state of being in God's love.
Secondly, Jude exhorts us to be in a state of “looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” In past writings we have learned that judgment is getting what we deserve, mercy is not getting what we deserve, and grace is not only not receiving what we deserve but acquiring unmerited favor even though we deserve judgment. Jude says, “looking for the mercy”. The idea behind the word “looking” is “to receive to one's self, to admit, to give access to one's self; to expect”. So many people who have fellowship with God live in constant condemnation. Some put themselves down, ridicule themselves, or beat themselves up for not keeping certain rules or patterns of living, however the compassionate mercy of God is available at all times. We should be looking for it, and notice, we do not just receive it and forget it. No, we are to look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ “unto eternal life.” In other words there is a constant supply of mercy available from God, and we should be looking for that supply.
There are two verses in the book of Lamentations in the Bible in chapter three that give us an idea about the mercy and faithfulness of God to provide it. In verses twenty-one and twenty-two it reads:
[It is of] the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness.
God's love never fails and is available to us every day. God's mercies are new every morning. God is a faithful God who not only desires that we keep ourselves in His love, but that we are in expectation of His mercy flowing from above when we fail. Keeping and Looking are our motivating terms for the day, and may we all continue to grow in our fellowship and relationship with the Lord because of them.
Next time we begin receiving instructions as to how we may win others to a faith and trust in Jesus Christ, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until tomorrow...there is more...
Look for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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