Before I get started on that, I forgot to put the 100 Days of Holiness link up for Day 13, so there it is :)
Here's today's link, Day 14, for 100 Days of Holiness!
Annnd just because it's an awesome song that we learned tonight @ youth group, here's a video of Paul Baloche's Hosanna It's amazing. I love the line that goes "Cause when we see you, we find strength to face the day" because it's amazing and oh so very true. Enjoy!
Alrighty. Today is really a reflection of yesterday's post. It's basically developing statements about what each paragraph in Jude is about. And then creating a statement about what the whole book is about. I'm just going to put all of Jude up here. (Don't worry. It's only 25 verses. You will not die because you're reading this.)
I'll just post everything, break it into its proper chunks, then put my statement in bold at the bottom. Like I usually do. :)
Jude
1Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:
2Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
This is Jude's basic greeting. He's stating who he is and who he's writing to. He adds a blessing type thing, but he doesn't mess around. He's not one for lengthy greetings.
The sin and doom of Godless men
3Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.(I'm realizing as I'm thinking about this, this is really what I normally do. But I'm kind of taking bigger chunks and I'm going to try to make my statements more generalized)
Jude wanted to write about one thing, but was lead by the spirit to write another because of people who had "sipped in[to]" the church. So that's his reason for even writing this book. It's to address the issue of the people who are in the church for a free pass to sin.
5Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
This paragraph is basically a reminder. They knew what had happened, they just forgot. So Jude took the liberty of reminding them. (Would you say that's a fair assumption?)
8In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. 9But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.
This kinda tells what not to do... and what to do at the same time. Don't do the things that the "dreamers" do. Be like Michael the archangel. He's cool. Don't be like these people who are like animals. They just go with their instincts. They don't think first. Please think before you do things. It's a good habit to have!
11Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.
I used an online commentary for some help on this one because I honestly had no idea what was going on =P
Apparently, what Jude is doing is identifying the sins of the people of the present day with the sins of the people in the Old Testament. Major people in the Old Testament. This is the commentary I'm using (kind of) to help me. (I own none of this... just using it for my own learning purposes :)
12These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.
oooh. Traits. This paragraph tells us what these people were like. Good analogies. Much better than I could ever come up with =P
14Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 16
This one is about how they kinda knew that the "bad people" were coming. There are some more traits in this paragraph too.
A call to persevere
17But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." 19These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. 20But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.This is a call to be true to God. There are people that will try to tear us away from God. But we need to build each other up and to rest in God's love and to wait on his mercy. Sound good? Yeah. It does.
22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
Follow Matthew 28:18-20: the great commission. Make disciples, teach them, baptize them, teach them to obey all my commandments.
Doxology
24To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.This is just simple praise to God. That's what I think. What do you think?
I think that my general statement for Jude would be that we need to be aware of those around us and what they are doing and saying. We need to be aware of how those people affect us. There will be people who will try to tear us away from God but we need to resist them.
That would be my take on Jude.
Sorry if there are typos. Or if my quality of writing is really poor. It's late and I am exhausted. I needed to get this done though. Sleep, here I come.
Hope you all had a fantastic Sunday!
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