Keeping and Ever Kept

INTRODUCTION:

We’ve been studying the book of Jude over two months now. It’s a little letter with a big punch.

Jude’s letter is meticulous in exposing what he sees as a threat to a Christian congregation.

Jude’s audience was a group of formerly Jewish people, newly converted and struggling in the faith.

They had come to believe Jesus was the Messiah, crucified for sins, raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. They also believed that he would come again in glory and establish God’s kingdom.

They came to believe through the preaching of the apostles. But the rise of Roman persecution was making it hard to continue.

That persecution gave rise to another movement led by the Zealots. Some say Jewish Zealots were the threat Jude has in mind.

They were ungodly, rebellious and denied that Jesus was Messiah. They pushed a political agenda of violence against Rome.

They pressured other Jews, including Jewish Christians, to join their revolution.

Jude’s letter exposes their false claims and evil motivations. He warns immature believers about their influence and challenges true believers to contend for the faith once delivered.

They were twisting Scripture and contradicting the true Gospel. Jude says, “quit entertaining that and go back to what you first received.”

Seventy percent of Jude’s letter exposes the opposition. The remaining thirty percent shows them how to fight.

The first application was to remember their source of truth.

Loving & Living

Having grounded them in the truth, he now tells them to live it out.

The truth you live out is the truth you love most.

As Jesus said, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be…” (Mat 6:21)

“If you love me you’ll obey my commandments.” (John 14:15)

Jude 19–21 CSB

19 These people create divisions and are worldly, not having the Spirit. 20 But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.

Those People VS Those Loved

Three times in Jude’s letter he uses this phrase, “But you, dear friends.” (Jude 1:3, 17, 20)

I prefer the translation “beloved” because it highlights the key contrast Jude wants to paint.

You can’t help but notice the contrast because Jude uses similar words for each group: “those people” (the rebels) and “those loved.”

“Those people” (the rebels) are storing up God’s punishment on the day of judgment. (Jude 8, 10, 12, 14, 16)

“Those people” create divisions, are worldly, not having the Spirit… (Jude 1:19)

“But you beloved…” (Jude 1:20)

“Those loved” won’t experience God’s punishment on the day of judgment. For the beloved, the day of judgement is a day of mercy.

The beloved are “the called, loved by God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:1)

Keep Love Alive

Because true believers are loved by God, there are certain things they ought to do.

Last week they were to remember what the apostles had preached. This week they are to keep themselves in the love of God.

That’s the key imperative of Jude 1:20. It looks like four commands but there’s really only one.

You can even see this in the English with the way it’s translated. There’s one imperative and three participles.

IMPERATIVE: “keep yourselves in the love of God”

PARTICIPLES: “building yourselves…. praying…. waiting/looking…”

Before we drill down into the methods, we must first understand Jude’s main exhortation.

“But you, beloved…keep yourselves in the love of God…” (Jude 20-21)

Those whom God loves, remain in God’s love.

The word translated “keep” has been used by Jude before. (Jude 1, 6, 13, 21)

In Jude 1 believers are “kept [by God] for Jesus Christ.”

In Jude 6 the angels who did not “keep” their own position God now “keeps” in eternal chains.

In Jude 13 “those rebels” are like wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved/kept for ever.”

Finally in Jude 21 believers are to “keep” themselves in God’s love.

So “keeping” is something God does “for us” AND something “we do” ourselves.

God “keeps” rebels for a day of punishment and God “keeps” the beloved for a day of mercy.

Keep Yourselves

So what does it mean for God to keep us and in what way are believers meant to keep themselves?

The word translated keep (tereo) means to “keep watch over” or guard, preserve, attend to, etc.

In Jude 6 I used the example of a prison guard “keeping” prisoners.

The idea is that you take responsibility to see that a thing gets done until the appointed time when it’s no longer needed.

We still use it this way in English as well.

An unkept house needs a “house keeper.” An unruly zoo needs a “zoo keeper.” You could be a “beekeeper,” “gatekeeper,” “bookkeeper,” “timekeeper.” “record keeper,” etc.”

You keep your desk clean, your oil changed, your marriage healthy, hope alive… you get the idea.

To keep is to “look after, watch over, guard, attend to, protect…”

A keeper must “see to it that ___.” Their keeping is characterized by “continual responsible oversight.”

If that’s what Jude means then how do we “keep ourselves” and how does that relate to God “keeping us.”

Jude is giving us a paradox within the Christian faith. It’s the tension between divine preservation and human perseverance.

The Christian life is full of these paradoxes.

Jesus is fully God and fully man. Mankind is royal and wretched. God is sovereign and mankind is free.

We work out our salvation with fear and trembling for GOD works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Phil 2:12-13)

You don’t solve a paradox you hold it in tension. That’s why some people can’t stand them.

A true paradox will usually drive you towards a profound truth. The cross of Christ is the greatest example

“The center of the cross is a collision and a contradiction, yet its four arms extend forever and ever without ever altering it’s shape.” G.K. Chesterton

Glorious truth is often paradoxical because it’s draws us into the everlasting God.

That’s also true with what Jude says about “keeping ourselves in the love of God” even as “we’re kept by God because of his love.”

Jude’s usage of the word love is intentional. He could’ve said “will of God” or “knowledge of God.” But he didn’t. He chose “love.” Why?

Umbrella & The Sun

Jude chooses God’s love as that which we are to keep because God’s love uniquely sheds light on this paradox.

Imagine if the “love of God” was like light from the sun.

God’s love is like sunlight if you’re in Jesus.

You don’t experience the sun because you deserve it. Whether the sun will shine doesn’t depend upon your actions.

God’s love is poured out on the beloved whether they deserve it or even want it.

God’s love is the source of life, warmth and vision. God’s love is what gets us up in the morning. It draws us out of sleep into the warmth of day.

In even the coldest night, God’s love can break through and melt the ice and snow.

God’s love is like sunlight if you’re in Jesus.

You can’t keep God’s love from shining but you can cover up your skin.

You can put on sunscreen. You can wear a hat. You can even pull out an umbrella and hide beneath the rays.

Because God keeps those he loves, the sun will always shine. We keep ourselves in God’s love by staying beneath the rays; by avoiding and removing that which shields our heart.

This could include many different things: people, behaviors, beliefs, dispositions. There are 1,001 ways to shield yourself from God. (the sunscreen of unbelief, the shadows of idolatry, the stormy clouds of sin)

When you shield yourself from the love of God remove yourself from the sphere of blessing. That’s also what Jude means by “keeping yourself in the love of God.”

The Prodigal God

To keep yourself in God’s love is to remain in sphere of his blessing.

It’s to orient your heart so that God can do what he WANTS to do.

Learn to linger where God can bless you.

He LOVES YOU. He desires to BLESS YOU. He is full of MERCY and GRACE.

So many of us are like the Prodigal Son of Luke 15. We take the Father’s inheritance and run away to the far country.

No matter how far the son ran, the Father never stopped loving the son. And that’s true of God’s love for you.

When we “come to our senses,” come back to our Father, go into his house and receive his love, then and only then do we experience his blessing.

Keep yourselves in the love of God. Not SO THAT God will love you or because he may stop.

Stay in God’s love because it’s the place of true JOY: the only place of blessing, security and satisfaction.

This is what Jude desires to drive home. Everything that comes before and after is given to serve this goal.

This is what’s most important.

Jesus taught the same thing in John 15:4-5

John 15:9–10 CSB

9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

HOW TO KEEP

Now that we’ve established what it means to keep ourselves in the love of God, we need to unpack the way to go about it.

Jude gives us three pathways or tools for how to do it. Each of them are corporately applied.

So while these are things we can do individually we should also apply them to our life together.

We work together to

build one another up in our most holy faith.

pray with one another in the Holy Spirit.

wait expectantly for the mercy of Jesus and eternal life.

Those loved by God must learn to…

Labor in the Word of God

Lean upon the Spirit of God

Look for the Lord’s Return

Labor in the Word

The first strategy Jude gives is at the beginning of Jude 20. “as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith…” (Jude 20)

Labor in God’s Word

I chose the word “labor” because of the word Jude chose for “building.”

It’s not the normal word for building. It’s the idea of “building something further” or “building something to completion.”

When I think about working my land out at our place and bringing that place into completion the word that comes to my mind is the word “labor.”

Because the word Jude chose implies some kind of prior foundation it also helps us understand what he means by “faith.”

So Jude isn’t saying “start from scratch and find something you can believe in.” He’s implying a foundation/framework that’s already been laid.

Foundation of Faith

Jude’s definition of “faith” isn’t fluid or subjective.

It’s not “you have your faith and I have my faith.” He’s not even using the word faith as a verb.

He means “faith” as noun and a catalog of truth. Truth discovered by the apostles (original eyewitnesses), delivered and undiluted.

He’s already hinted at this in Jude 3. He’s described the Christian faith as a “salvation we all share… a faith that was delivered to the saints once for all…”

He did so last week in his appeal to apostles and what they said about the end. (Jude 17)

This also explains why Jude added the phrase “most holy.”

Two interesting adjectives for faith used nowhere else in the New Testament.

Why did Jude use this language? I can’t be sure but Jude’s opponents likely leveraged religious sounding language. So Jude uses stronger language to counteract their lies.

“They say their faith is holy? They say their faith is true? The faith entrusted to you was handed down by the APOSTLES. It’s the power of God for salvation. It will bring mercy on the day of judgment.”

Application

This “most holy faith” needs to built up in your heart. Practically, this requires us to “labor” in God’s Word.

If you’re just getting started in the Christian faith and reading the Bible, you know how overwhelming and frustrating it can be.

There are all of these big words and unfamiliar characters. This is especially true if you didn’t grow up in a religious household. It can be overwhelming!

I know the word “doctrine” doesn’t sound fun. I know we tossed the language of “Sunday School” because of it’s educational implications. We ditched Sunday night “training union” because people would rather stay at home.

But in doing so we may have unintentionally suggested that the Christian life doesn’t require any labor. But it does! You must learn to labor in the Word if you want to stay in the sun!

Are you grounded or groundless in what you know about God?

Given the resources we have available today there is NO REASON why you can’t be doctrinally grounded.

Being grounded in what the Bible says about God is the only way to persevere in your faith. Especially in a culture pushing out lies!

Falsehood thrives where truth is denied. This is how and why people fall into cults. (shallow church = cult captured… see history and evidence)

Loving Jesus is not enough. Sweet sentiments are dangerous when they’re detached from truth. What if you end up loving the wrong Jesus?

The neglect of doctrine makes people vulnerable to another gospel, a false Gospel that will damn them to hell.

Lean on the Holy Spirit

The second major pathway for staying in God’s love is “praying in the Holy Spirit…” Jude 20

What does Jude mean by “praying in the Holy Spirit?” It’s the normal word for praying and the third member of the Trinity.

Some people read that phrase and assume it means “praying in tongues.” (an ecstatic utterance distinct from praying with your mind. 1 Cor 14:2, 4, 14-15).

Whatever your view on tongues and a private prayer language, this Spirit-prayer in Jude is commanded for EVERY Christian. What Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14 is linked to a spiritual gift reserved for certain Christians.

Some point to Paul’s broader teaching on prayer and spiritual warfare. “Praying at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request…” Eph 6:18

Paul teaches something similar about prayer in Romans 8:26-27

Romans 8:26–27 CSB

26 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Spirit-Enabled Prayer

I find this view more probable and would describe this kind of prayer as “Spirit-enabled prayer.”

Thus believers must to labor in the word.

Believers must also lean on the Holy Spirit.

Spirit-prayer is not a particular prayer “genre.” Spirit prayer authenticates whether the prayer is true.

The Bible teaches about all kinds of prayer:

deprecatory prayer (turn away wrath); supplicatory (ask for stuff),

personal prayer (for self), intercessory prayer (for others),

public prayer, private prayer,

vocal prayer (out loud), silent prayer (in your mind),

long prayers, short prayers,

confessional prayers, thanksgiving prayers,

sung prayers, wept prayers

But in every category and with every style, if it’s not Spirit-empowered then it’s not Spirit-prayer.

Each of those prayer genres could be prayed “without” the Spirit. Jesus described this prayer in the Sermon on the Mount.

Unspiritual prayer is for the sake of appearances. It’s prayer that treats God like a genie in a bottle. It’s self-centered and self-exalting. (Mat 6:5-8)

Jesus described this prayer as soulless and repetitive. Throwing up a bunch of words to twist God’s arm or bend his will.

It’s not directed by the Spirit, enabled by the Spirit, in agreement with the Spirit or Spirit-shaped in any way.

As someone who has experienced both kinds of prayer, Spirit-empowered prayer is just different and you sense it as you pray.

I’ve engaged in both kinds of prayer and Spirit-prayer is set apart.

Prayer & Perseverance

God has chosen Spirit-prayer as a means for perseverance. Prayer is a mechanism to “keep us in God’s love.”

Prayer is like breath in our lungs. It’s the breathing of the Christian life. You simply cannot go without it.

Even though that’s true, nothing fades so fast as the Christian urge to pray.

I wonder if that’s because we’ve forgotten WHY we pray.

God doesn’t need ours prayers to know about our needs. God knows what we’ll pray before we even pray it.

Prayer is not just a tool to tell God what we want. Prayer is a conduit to receive what we need!

Prayer is a conduit for divine enablement. If we really believed that I think we’d pray more often.

Spurgeon calls prayer, “the first born child of faith.” Faith is the root, prayer is the fruit.

If there is no prayer, there probably is no faith. Especially if that prayer is an expression of communion.

Just like a married couple speaks differently than professional colleagues, so also does Spirit-prayer reflect a greater communion.

Only Spirit-led prayer can keep us in God’s love. Not rote words, not fleshly supplication. It must be shaped by the Spirit’s desires and power.

Are your prayers Spirit-born or self-born?

Are they empty recitations of formal religion or sincere expressions of a heartfelt devotion?

Look For Christ’s Return

The last thing that helps believers stay in the love of God is given in the second half of Jude 21.

“Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.” (Jude 21)

In your notes I frame this as “Look to the Lord’s Return.”

Jude also mentioned mercy in his introduction to this letter. Jude 2 “May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.”

Why would Jude’s use of the term “mercy” be a stand in for the Lord’s Return?

It’s because God’s mercy is what distinguishes them from the apostates rebels.

In Jude 14-15 Jude quotes a passage from 1 Enoch. It described the day of Judgment and the outcome for the ungodly.

Enoch describes a universal judgment on the Day of the Lord. EVERYONE stands before the Lord and Jesus is judge of ALL. (Jude 1:15. Cf. Revelation 20:11-15; Rom 14:10-12; 2 Cor 5:10; Romans 2:5–8)

But even though we ALL stand on the day of judgment, the outcome for believers isn’t punishment or wrath. For the beloved, the Day of Judgment is a day of MERCY. (1 Pet 1:3-5, 13; 2 Tim 1:18)

As Jesus said in John 5:24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.”

Or Paul in Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus…”

Eager Expectation

People have different views on the “Day of the Lord” and what it’ll look like. My purpose here isn’t to push one over the other.

But Jude wants to ensure that the beloved not FEAR this day. Rather, the beloved should welcome it’s arrival.

The word translated “wait” (prosdechomai) means to “look forward to the arrival of.”

It doesn’t convey something passive, negative or resigned. It’s marked by eagerness, confidence and glorious excitement.

It’s the difference between waiting paint dry and your first big Christmas. It’s that excitement you feel right before the wedding day…right before the baby comes…

Why would believers look forward to that day? Because we will NOT receive what our sins deserve. We will NOT be shamed, destroyed or condemned. Rather, we will be vindicated and rewarded for our faith!

Application

Do you live like that? Or, do you become more focused on the here and the now?

I’m not saying we should be so fixed on heaven that we neglect our responsibilities. There’s work for us to do. Missions, evangelism and living your daily life.

Jude isn’t saying we should check out or give up. He’s saying we should live with hope because our day will come.

Remember the context. There were people pushing a different Gospel and a different hope for the future. A different way to make thing right… something immediate for the here and now.

Jude’s response for genuine Christians is to put our hope in God. Put our hope in the mercy of Jesus and the eternal life we have now and forever.

“There is a HOPE for all the suffering… a song of JOY for all who weep… There is an anchor for the stumbling… A mighty fortress to the one who is in need… Unto Him, who can keep us make us blameless in His presence. Unto Jesus, unto the only God. Unto Him who has saved us be all glory be all majesty. Dominion, all authority is Yours, right now and forever more.”

CONCLUSION

Notice how all these three things work synergistically? The Word, Sprit-prayer and hope in the Lord’s Return are all interlinked.

As you invest into one you’re investing in the others. It’s the bread and butter of the Christian life.

And yet, for many Christians - even in a culture with an embarrassment of resources - we are NOT characterized by these things.

We are characterized by biblical illiteracy.

We are characterized by prayerlessness.

We are characterized by anxiety or worldliness.

Brothers and sisters this should not be! We live in a culture VERY similar to the culture Jude addresses.

We may not have political Zealots who are trying to overthrow the government.

But we do have “Christian celebrities” who’ve deconstructed their faith and encourage others to follow.

We have people who claim to be Christians who grumble and complain about God, who twist the Scripture and turn God’s grace into a license for sensual indulgence.

We have people who create division, who are worldly, and who do not have the Holy Spirit. They are running in OUR circles. Sometimes they even SIT in our pews.

How will we contend against such a great threat? How will new believer stand strong against such opposition?

Only if they see us “living in the sun.”

The greatest apologetic for the truth of Christianity is a genuine believer who is happy in the Lord.

Genuine faith, expressing itself through Christ-like love… Joyful people who keep themselves in the love of God.

When the light of Christ shines down of us his light shines THROUGH us into the world.

As we are transformed by the Gospel from one degree of glory to the next - the darkness of our culture is lit up by our presence.

Where can I get a joy like that?

Where can I find such confidence?

Why are they never crushed by suffering?

Why are the so confident in God’s love?

How they just “forgive?”

How can they be so “patient?”

It’s because they’re sitting beneath the sun. They are ever kept and ever keeping the steadfast love of God.

Will you let the light of God shine down on you?