A PASTORAL LETTER
Dearest family,
I suppose one shouldn’t write a pastoral letter about Jude that is longer than his letter! On Sunday we concluded the mini-series ‘Hey Jude’, focusing on the other bookend of the letter, verses 17-25. Jude characterized the waters of deception by the images of submerged rocks and wild waves, but they are also waters of the dilution, deviation from, distortion and desertion of truth. But Jude has also emphasized, from beginning to end, that despite the assaults on their security, they have been kept for Jesus Christ. The idea of “keeping” plays throughout the letter. But with all this divisive and deceptive, selective and subversive teaching, how do we keep our heads above these waters of deception, and stay socially and supernaturally connected to the fellowship of our community of faith?
Jude outlines four obedient actions (they are all imperative participles) for collective and community actions that will maintain unity and personal stability in the face of false teachers and teachings that bring division to the church. This requires a response of all, not some, of those in the fighting unit who are equally contending for the faith. Jude leaves us in no doubt about what God does, but there is no disconnect between his sovereignty and our willing surrender to and acceptance of His will; between his divine rule and our human responsibility; between his ability and our effort; between his keeping of us and our keeping of ourselves. The key imperative is to “keep ourselves in the love of God”. Let’s just note these four verbs briefly (download message for more)
• BUILD: You are familiar with this building metaphor in the NT, used first by Jesus who said He would build his church in the face of the gates of hell. The word ‘edify’ means the same thing, to build, coming from the building of an edifice – thus edification. In 1 Cor. 3:10, Paul similarly exhorts everyone to “be careful how he builds”. I’ll leave you to do the study on all the things that we are told that serve to build us up: like our confession of who Christ truly is (Mt. 16:18); like our doing what makes for peace (Rom. 14:19); like our manifesting the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 14:12); like our congregational participation in worship with hymns, or a word, or revelation, or tongues and interpretation (1 Cor. 14:26); like our encouragement of each other (1 Thess. 5:11); like doing our part “the body builds itself up in love as each part does its work.” (Eph. 4:16) A few verses earlier (v12) Paul makes it clear that it takes all the ministries through all of us to effect “the building up of the body of Christ.” Jude’s mention of “your holy faith” is the building material if you like. The emphasis is on “your” and on personal assurance as opposed to the false teachers who masquerade as mediators of special spiritual insights and thereby create dependency on their leadership and teaching, and an erosion of assurance, since assurance is now based on adherence to the false teaching’s rules and requirements. “Holy” reminds us about divine origins of the gospel in the face of these Judas-come-lately’s who claim a new revelation, a new application, a new interpretation for a new generation, that includes the sacralizing of unholy behaviors and practices, in the name of freedom and love and relevance. Relevance is irrelevant if it involves a Jeffersonian-style cut-and-paste job on scripture. Our “faith” is about the content of the gospel and about the commitment to it. It is about both revelation and relationship; about both truth and trust. But the fundamental means of building up is clear, given what is being principally assaulted. Paul describes it exactly: “the word of his grace that can build you up.” (Acts 20:32) It was only a commitment to scripture that would make Timothy “thoroughly equipped” (2 Tim. 3:16), built for good works. The context for this? The same as Jude’s: “evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (v13) It was the word that was preached, the word that was truth, that Peter told his readers would be how they would grow up in their salvation and “built into a spiritual house.” (1 Pet. 2:2,5) It is life in the word that John says builds someone up to be complete. (1 Jn. 2:5) To those to whom he said “the word of God is in you” he consequently said “you have overcome the evil one.” (1 Jn. 2:14) Could there be a connection? That’s why, in the context that Jude is describing that more than covers our present spiritual culture, it takes more than a little sentence of charismatic fortune-cookie advice for personal devotion, it takes more than a thought for the day. We need to take personal responsibility for our life in God’s Word. Do we really want to be, or are we, those of whom Heb. 5:12 addresses: “Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.” Are you building yourselves up in your most holy faith by your relationship with God’s Word? If not you have reason to feel insecure.
• PRAY: How relevant is this given our 40 Days of Asking with Fasting. The text says “pray in the Spirit.” Contending against the enemies of belief and godliness requires “watch and pray.” I like the way someone put it: watching SIGHTS the enemy and praying FIGHTS the enemy. After all his teaching about the spiritual armor for the fight in Eph. 6, Paul’s final word on weaponry is in 6:18 “Pray at all times in the Spirit.” The unbelievable power of deception (think what some people actually believe!) is demonically supernatural and it takes weapons of warfare that are not carnal, not natural. It was as “natural” that Jude described the apostates because they “do not have the Spirit.” Did not Paul (2 Cor. 10:4) say that these supernatural weapons have “divine power to demolish”? Naturalism, our own nature, will oppose praying in the Spirit. Our prayer must be inspired, concordant with, helped, guided by the Holy Spirit, consonant with the Spirit’s will, and everything else that scripture tells us to expect when we pray in the Spirit, especially building us up. What more do you need to be motivated to participate in corporate praying in the Spirit? Are you praying in the Holy Spirit? If not, you have reason to feel insecure.
• KEEP: I have taught extensively on this in other series, more recently the Psalms series, so you can avail yourself of that material, but suffice it to say that Jude is very clear about why we need to be kept and that God is our keeper. But as we have already seen, our assurance of God’s keeping power doesn’t encourage us to be presumptuous, lackadaisical, or negligent. Jude would most likely have heard Jesus put it best. After telling his disciples that he loved them, Jesus went on to say “Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands you will remain in my love.” (Jn. 15:9) In other words, I am keeping you in my love but if you want that to be your continuous experience then you need to do some keeping too, like keeping my commands. You need to keep yourselves in that which I have brought you into. Don’t take yourselves out by uncoupling your life with me through the disconnect of disobedience. Love received will always be love reciprocated, but we know that we can take ourselves out of that intimacy and that in the words of Revelation, love can grow cold. Take care of the keeping: keeping short accounts with the Lord and not letting the detritus of unconfessed sin, incomplete obedience, irreconciled relationships, unforgiven actions block the arteries of your heart; keeping a guard over the door of your lips (Ps. 143:3); keeping watch over yourself, examining your own heart. (Self-seeing, not self-seeking.) Are you keeping yourself in the intimacies of the love of God? If not, you have reason to feel insecure. The prodigal son is a picture of one who did not keep himself in the Father’s love, but precisely because of the nature of that covenant life, there was life for him after sleeping with the enemy.
• WAIT: This is the same word Jesus uses in Lk. 12:36 and interestingly enough it related to an act of keeping: “Keep your lamps burning like men waiting for their master.” This is not about a passive waiting because Jesus says the servants were dressed and ready for service. Jude is saying that as well as experiencing a present security, we can be assured of a future security. It is not a desperate “get me out of here”! As much as Jude’s emphasis before this has been on the need for God’s mercy to be toward us, that it may be expressed to others through us in merciless times, he again focuses on the great assurance that this mercy will be fully experienced in our eternal acceptance by the Father, a mercy that delivers us from the first judgment, a judgment that is pronounced on apostates (v6) Again, I have done a lot of teaching on this matter of waiting, and of future hope, especially in the “Here’s Hoping” series about 3-4 years ago. Given all the challenges to holiness, and the intrusions of all kinds of defilement, it is good to note, in John’s words, that “everyone that has this hope purifies himself…” (1 Jn. 3:3) So the waiting for the future actually provides what we need in the present. Are you waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life and does that hope influence how you live in the present? If not, you have reason to feel insecure.
With all four of these active responses to truth, the believer is celebrating God’s provision for their spiritual security in insecure times. If these responses narrate the holy actions of our lives, personally and corporately, we will have heartland security, and in humility, we will be utterly convinced of the mercy of God to us.
Pastorally yours
Stuart
P.S. In response to your response to my inquiry on Sunday, next time I speak I will do a compact session on “asking and the Holy Spirit”. What is the relationship of the Holy Spirit to our prayers? Till then…