A strong spiritual condition

"A strong spiritual condition" – Jude 17-23 Judas now ends with the apostles (abandons religion, abandoned, traitor, rejects the Christian faith) and passes the role of believers in the midst of these mercenary pastors (exchange of money or a favor, he serves in war to a foreign power, for the salary he is given). At the beginning of the Epistle they are warned of the danger that lay ahead of them. He encourages (drives, encourages) them to stay in a "strong spiritual condition." Finally, he counsels them to use discernment (judgment, reason, distinguishing something from something else) in ministry to those who have been (taught, persuaded, lured to the false, won their will or their affection) by apostates.

I. The apostles had warned of false teachers.

A. (Jude 18-19) It was that at the end of time scoffers would arise who would follow their evil desires.

1. The desires of each one want to be pleased.

2. Jude describes such scoffers as having three salient traits: sensual = they think and act like natural men; carnal = cause divisions = bringing disciples after them and perhaps dividing people into various classes, according to their progress in apostasy. They do not have the Spirit = they were never born from above and therefore they are totally incapable of understanding the things of God.

3. (Jude 20-21) We are to stay close to the Lord and live in uninterrupted fellowship with Him.

4. Jude takes four steps (a) built on your most holy faith, that is, the Christian faith. We build ourselves upon it, studying and obeying the Bible. It leads you on the path of righteousness (Bible) and warns us against dangers along the way (H. Pickering). There are those who try to discredit doctrine, but it is creed (confession of faith in a statement of beliefs = I believe) that produces character and not character that produces creed. (b) praying in the Holy Spirit. Pray led by the Spirit in conformity with the will of God revealed in the Bible or privately revealed by the Spirit in a subjective way (individual, personal, interior) to the believer. It is the opposite of prayers recited mechanically or uttered without any real spiritual involvement. (c) As a believer they are also to keep themselves in God's love. Here the "love of God may be compared to the brightness of the sun." The sun is always shining. When something comes between us and the sun, we are no longer under its beneficial rays. (d) Take care! So it is with God's love always shining upon us. But if sin comes between us and the Lord, then we are no longer enjoying the practice of His love. We can keep ourselves in His love. (Jude 21) We can keep ourselves in His love first of all for lives of holiness and godliness. And if sin gets in the way then we must confess and forsake that sin immediately. The secret lies in not letting anything come between us and God.

5. Jesus will return to take us to holy heaven: waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life and if you stay, you condemn yourself for life, "I give nothing", look to the Lord.

6. (Jude 22) To convince those who doubt if they have lost faith, enthusiasm for the first love.

7. (2 John 10-11) "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house...": neither greet him.

8. One becomes a sharer in his evil deeds.

9. To those who have been deceived by false teachers, "convince them and tell them the whole truth and bring out the lies of the phonies."

10. (Jude 23) Then there are those who are on the edge of the precipice, ready to leap into the flames of apostasy (they have forsaken what they supposedly loved).

11. These we must save by energetic (strong, firm) and resolute warning and instruction, abhorring even the clothes defiled by their flesh.

12. (Leviticus 13:47-52) The leper's clothes were unclean and were to be burned.

13. Currently when dealing with people who have fallen into lustful sins, we must remember the material objectives, beware of everything because they are dangerous.

14. Take nothing from one who lives in a lustful world.

15. Let us guard our lives from what may bring temptation to it.

16. An unknown author put it this way: "The clothes that belong to a man have in them the association and infection of sin, the contagion of evil. All that is associated with a life of sin should be cast out and renounced, if we are to be saved from the defilement and contagion of this soul-destroying disease."

17. J.B. Mayor warns us: "Although it is the duty of the Christian to pity the sinner and pray for him, he must contemplate with abhorrence everything that carries the fib (skill, evil habit, trace) of sin. Amen.