Called
Beloved in God the Father
Kept for Jesus Christ
I have found myself coming back time and again to Jude. It is a short letter, just 25 verses, yet it is packed with both faith strengthening encouragement and serious and timely warnings. Contending for the faith, an unpopular idea today, is practically defined by Jude 3, echoing Paul’s words to Timothy in 1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim.4:7.
There are parallels with Peter’s warnings of false prophets, false teachers, and destructive heresies (2 Pet.2) and we are reminded of Jesus’ own instruction to his disciples, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter but will not be able.’ (Lk.13:24)
A pity it is, to be sure, that we live in an age when the church seeks conciliation, co-operation, and common cause with the world rather than being prepared to ‘contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.’ (Jude 3) I do wonder what some have for a foundation.
Paul, in his famous passage about the armour of God, writes:
‘Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.’ (Eph.6:10-13)
Jesus tells the parable of the man who built his house on a rock, ‘and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.’ (Mt.7:24-27)
As Jude warns so he seeks to reassure his readers who prove to be faithful and genuine followers of Jesus, who have built on a rock, who know to stand firm. These are people who, having done all, are called on to stand, and Jude wants to remind them of the trust they can have in Jesus. So he addresses himself,
‘To Those Who are Called…’
No one simply wanders into being a Christian. It is a cardinal error to think of Christianity as a lifestyle choice, a mere custom defined by where you were born, a social behaviour. Christians are ‘called’ by God to be Christians. Paul writes to, ‘those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.’ (Ro.1:6) To Corinth he writes of, ‘those who are called, both Jew and Greek…’ and charges them, ‘consider your calling, brothers.’ (1 Cor.1:24-26) In Hebrews we read of, ‘holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling…’ (Heb.3:1)
This has been the pattern with God’s people. God, through Isaiah declares, ‘I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you,’ and goes on to explain the purpose of the calling, ‘I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light to the nations.’ (Is.42:6)
Christians stand in a noble line of succession with all who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to actively serve his purposes. Fom Abraham, through Moses and the Old Testament people of God, on through the apostles and the church to the end, when the promised inheritance of glory in Christ becomes ours, Christians are a called out people.
‘Beloved in God the Father’
We often hear of God’s love. Scripture tells us, ‘God is love,’ and John gives a wonderful treatment of God’s love in 1 John 4:7-21. God, we know, loves us but Jude here goes further in writing, ‘beloved in God the Father.’ I am reminded of Ephesians 1, that wonderful passage describing how we are blessed by God, ‘who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…’ (Eph.1:3)
I encourage people to read that chapter and carefully count how many times the thought ‘in Christ’ or some expression of it appears. It is an astonishing passage, full of encouragement, Finally, the full purposes of God, the mystery of his will, is revealed as being, ‘to unite all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth.’ (Eph.1:10)
'Kept for Jesus Christ'
In the first of Peter’s letters that we have Peter writes of God’s great mercy that has, ‘caused us to be born again to a living hope…an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.’ (1 Pet.1:3-5) But Peter, like Jude, is a pragmatist and recognises the various trials through which the saints must go before that inheritance is fuily theirs (vv 6-7)
So Jude shasres an urgent concern for the saints as we walk through trials that test our faith. Jude, like Peter, recognises the immanent threat to the church from false teachers, the theme of his letter. In the Bible Speaks Today commentary on Jude, the situation is described like this:
‘In particular, Jude wants us to know that when we see churches flooded with wrong teaching about God, and leaders making money out of peddling quack religion, Christ will keeep a firm hold on his people.’ (BST, Jude, p.169)
Thomas Manton famously put it like this:
‘Jesus Christ is the cabinet in which God’s jewels are kept; so that if we would stand, we must get out of ourselves and get into him, in whom alone there is safety.’ (Quoted in BST on Jude, p.169)
‘Called, Beloved in God the Father and Kept for Jesus Christ’
As we approach the work of faithful witnessing we must be sure of our own security. Before we challenge those false prophets, false teachers, and destructive heresies Peter writes about, Jude goes on to warn about, we must be sure we are able to stand in the battle in the full armour of God.
Whatever the storm that rages around us, we must know ourselves called, beloved in God the Father, kept for Jesus Christ. As though to emphasise further his confidence in God’s promises, Jude goes on to puncuate the end of his letter with the familiar doxology:
‘Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.’
Comments