Jude Series: Jude 20b-The Recipients of Jude Were to Pray By the Power of the Holy Spirit

Jude 19 These people are divisive, who are worldly by nature because they do not possess within themselves the Spirit. 20 However, each and every one of you beloved by making it your habit of building yourselves up by means of your most holy faith, by making it your habit of occupying yourselves with praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, 21 make it your top priority of keeping yourselves in the state of loving God because of God’s love for you and continue doing so by anticipating for the benefit of yourselves the manifestation of the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ for the purpose of experiencing eternal life. (Lecturer’s translation)

As we noted, the second means by which the recipients of the epistle of Jude were to obey the command in Jude 21 to make it their top priority of keeping themselves in the state of loving God because of God’s love for them and continue doing so appears in Jude 20.

It asserts that they were to obey this command by making it their habit of occupying themselves with praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

This omnipotence is manifested in the body of doctrine, which the Spirit communicated to them through the apostles and now appears in written form in the Greek New Testament.

The noun pneuma (πνεῦμα), “the Spirit” refers of course to the Holy Spirit and this word contains the figure of metonymy which means that the Spirit is put for His divine omnipotence.

This interpretation is supported by two factors.

The first is that the Christian is taught in Scripture to pray according to the will of the Father, which is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, which He has inspired (cf. 2 Pet. 1:20-21; 2 Tim. 3:16) and the second is that Hebrews 4:12 asserts that the Word of God is alive and powerful.

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is the divine author of their “most holy faith,” which is a reference to the apostolic teaching, which was to be the means by which they were to build themselves up with spirituality.

The noun pneuma(πνεῦμα), “the Spirit” is modified by the adjective hagios(ἅγιος), “holy” denotes the state of being holy and thus refers to the holiness of the Spirit.

The noun pneuma(πνεῦμα), “the Spirit” is the object of the preposition en (ἐν), which is a marker of means indicating that the means by which the recipients of this epistle were to pray was the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, the Christian community in Judaea was required to pray according to what the Spirit is communicating to them in the Scriptures, and which communication reveals the Father’s will for their lives.

It also manifests the omnipotence of God when the child of God exercises faith in the Spirit inspired Scriptures because faith appropriates the omnipotence of God.

The verb proseuchomai (προσεύχομαι), “by making it your habit of occupying yourselves with praying” refers to prayer in a general sense without reference to what type of prayer is being offered and without reference to its content.

Thus it pertains to the simple act of making a prayer to the Father without reference to its content or what type of prayer is being offered.

Thus, this would indicate that this word refers to both intercessory prayer for others, petition for oneself and thanksgiving to God.

The participle conjugation of this verb functions as a nominative of simple apposition, which indicates that this verb is serving to identify for the recipients of the letter what they are required to do in contrast to these unregenerate Jewish Zealots who were infiltrating their meetings.

They were to continue to make it their habit of praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

The participle form of this verb proseuchomai (προσεύχομαι), “by making it your habit of occupying yourselves with praying” is also functioning as a participle of means.

This indicates that the recipients of this epistle were to obey command to keep themselves in the love of God “by means of” making it their habit of praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, they were to obey this command by making it their habit of praying according to what the Spirit revealed to them through the teaching of the apostles, which revealed the Father’s will for their lives and now resides in the Greek New Testament.

The present tense of the verb is a customary present, which would indicate that the recipients of this epistle were to keep themselves in the state of loving God because of His love for them by “making it their habit of” praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, it was to be their customary or regular activity to pray by means of the omnipotence of the Spirit, i.e. by means of the Spirit inspired apostolic teaching and gospel.

The middle voice of this verb is an indirect middle which is expressing the idea of each member of the Christian community in Judaea making it their habit of “occupying themselves” of praying to the Father.

Thus, it is expressing the idea of prayer being a regular or customary activity or we can say that they were to be people who are characterized by devotion to prayer.

Paul teaches this principle in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Each and every one of you must continue to make it your habit of not ceasing to be occupied with praying. (Lecturer’s translation)

The apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 solemnly issues another command which required that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community continue to make it their habit of not ceasing to be occupied with prayer.

Though Paul does not explicitly mention the type of prayers he wanted the Thessalonians to be engaged in, it is clear from his writings that he expected them to be interceding in prayers for the body of Christ and the non-Christian.

He also expected them to offer petitions for their own individual needs.

Paul also expected them to offer thanksgiving to the Father in prayer on a regular basis.

Lastly, he also expected them to not only to pray as individuals but also to be engaged in corporate prayer with each other.

Now, in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when Paul issues the command for the Thessalonians to continue to make it their habit of not ceasing to be occupied with prayer to the Father, we need to understand that they were already doing so.

This is indicated by the fact that in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10, which affirms that the Thessalonians were making it their habit of practicing the love of God when interacting with each other and the non-Christian.

Practicing the love of God would cause them to intercede for each other and members of the non-Christian community in prayer to the Father.

The customary present imperative conjugation of the verb proseuchomai and the temporal adverb adialeiptōs which modifies it express the idea that the Thessalonians were persevering in prayer.

Paul did not expect the Thessalonians to be in prayer every single minute of every day but rather he expected them to pray habitually since he is using “hyperbole.”

This figure is so-called because the expression adds to the sense so much that it exaggerates it and enlarges or diminishes it more than is really meant in fact or when more is said than is meant to be literally understood in order to heighten the sense.

Therefore, this indicates that Paul expected the Thessalonians to pray on a habitual or regular basis.

In other words, he wanted them to be a people characterized as devoted to prayer to their God.