Jude 1:17:22 –17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
The first two days we went over the first two paragraphs and today we will wrap up the third.
The third paragraph is about caring and loving others. Verse 22 tells us to be merciful to those who
doubt. To doubt that Jesus is Lord has bad enough consequences already. I believe as long as those who listen continue to do so, we need to plant or water seeds that may already be there.
Verse 23 I believe is telling us to take by the hand those who need it. There are certain people that need to be snatched away from things that keep them from the Lord. There is no forcing involved in what we are talking about but more persistence in their guidance. As we know you can’t force anyone to love the
Lord or do what God wants if they don’t have it in their heart.
Mercy mixed with fear. I believe it is important to lovingly deliver the message of what happens to those that are not saved. It’s not popular but if the Bible is constantly warning us, then we need to be motivated by it and share it along with the love message to others.
Last we need to hate sin. We need to stay far away from it. One thing that kind of pops in my head reading the last of verse 23 is; I hate cigarette smoke. However, if you have been around those who smoke a lot and in close proximity your clothes will wreak of smoke. We need to hate even
the stuff that is linked to sin.
So in a recap Jude warns us in paragraph one of those who can lure believers away. In paragraph
two we need to pray in the Spirit and stay strong until His return. In paragraph three we need to care about others, love them even though they may doubt, try to reach them the best we can, and don’t follow them into sin.
Continue to stay focused and strong because He is coming soon. Sooner today than yesterday. The signs continue to keep moving forward concerning the second coming, which I believe brings the rapture that much closer.