Spiritual Truths in Jude

I was reading Jude today and came across many great Spiritual Truths, some of which I wanted to share here. This list will be numbered, but not in order of importance. Open up your Bible and turn to the Epistle of Jude: the second last book in the New Testament.

1. We share a common salvation Verse 3 tells us this. It is important to remember that no matter what your denomination, a Christian is a Christian. We are united by our essentials to the faith, but there is always room for debate concerning the non-essentials. As followers of Christ we need to be united with one another no matter what we think about Predestination!

2. Christ is God Who knew that a secret message of Christ's divinity can be found in this tiny epistle? Read verse 4 and 5: Verse 4 tells us that Jesus is our "only Master and Lord". Verse 5 tells us that the Lord saved the Israelites from the Egyptians. I hope you caught that! So the Lord in verse 4 is Jesus and also saved the Israelites from the Egyptians in verse 5. Due to the proximity of these verses, it seems safe to conclude that these two Lords are in some way, one and the same.

3. Men are destroyed by instinct Read on down to verse 10 and check out this passage. According to Jude, men are destroyed by there basic instincts. Because of Adam's sin, we are all affected by a sin nature. We have a wide variety of instincts which are in rebellion to God, yes, even our "evolutionary" instincts. Just because it FEELS right, doesn't make it right!

4. The book of Enoch is NOT canonical Perhaps it would be better if I left this one alone... Too late, the title for this one has already been bolded. If you didn't know any better, you would skip right on by verses 14-15 and continue merrily on your way. BUT being the scholars you are, you thought to yourself: "Hey, wait a minute! Jude is quoting from the infamous Book of Enoch that is considered to be apocrypha!" You are right young scholar, Jude is indeed quoting from a book found solely in the Roman Catholic Bible. Don't believe me? Turn to your table of contents and see if you can find it (assuming you DON'T have a Roman Catholic Bible). Anyway, no one knows exactly why Jude quoted this, although it is important to note that not everything quoted by a canonical writer is "inspired". As an example, just because Paul quoted Epimenides by saying "All Cretans are liars" in his letter to Titus, it doesn't mean that Paul is suggesting that we staple Epimenides' writings in the back of our Bibles. So it seems safe to assume that the book of Enoch is NOT meant to be a biblical book, but it DOES contain a valid prophecy. You will all thank me now that you can finally sleep at night.

5. It is our responsibility to build up faith Before you all jump on me and start screaming "FAITH IS A GIFT FROM GOD", here me out. Faith DOES come from God, but it's almost like a seed that needs to be watered. We need to water that seed daily so that we can build up a strong faith. Verse 20 tells us to do so by praying IN the Holy Spirit. This means deep, honest fellowship with God.

6. God is capable of justifying us This is the best short title I could think of, but I think a longer one would be better... "God is able to keep us from stumbling and make us stand blameless in His presence with joy". There we go, that feels MUCH better despite the awkwardness of that sentence. It's all found in verse 24 if you would like to hear it straight from the source. The truth here is that God alone is the only possible way that we can keep from stumbling... And if we do stumble, we can be sure He will pick us up so that we can stand blameless in His presence!

7. Christ is eternal This little gem is found in the last verse of Jude, verse 25. Jude tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ has been around before time, now and forever. Christ exists in the past, the present and the future! Before you confuse yourself by attempting to imagine a time traveling Jesus, consider this: Christ is outside of time and is therefore eternal. I know this is a study of the book of Jude, but would you like to cheat a bit? SNEAKILY flip a page or two forward and glance at Revelation 1:8. Are you feeling especially honest today? Find, I'll cheat for you. Christ says that He is the Alpha and the Omega. These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Therefore, Christ isn't just present for the beginning and the end, He IS the beginning and the end! Now that's eternal!

Well, seven seems like a good, spiritual number to stop at. Remember, if you have any questions, email them to spiritualsojourners@hotmail.com

I'll be waiting!