Jude: Relief

Jude 24-25

I just finished reading "The Hiding Place", which is the story of Corrie Ten Boom and her family as they hid Jews from the NAZI forces and then found themselves in prison and the infamous Ravensbruck concentration camp. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. One thing that stuck out to me is that every time things seemed impossible, the family did two things: they prayed and they praised. What an example Corrie and Betsie were to the people they were incarcerated with, and to us today.

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Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

Jude 24-25

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I love that Jude ends his letter with praise! He told us that he wanted to write about salvation. That is an exciting and joyous topic. Instead, the Holy Spirit led him to write about apostates in the last days. While this was, and is, a much needed letter, what a letdown to have to write about something so negative when his heart was bursting with excitement about salvation. So, what does he do after dealing with all of this negativity? He praises God.

First, Jude reminds the reader that God is able to keep them from falling into apostasy. God keeps us. That is part of our salvation. Though not able to say as much as he wanted, Jude still worked it into his letter. Jesus said, "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day" (John 6:39). Please do not misunderstand. I am not saying that Jude did anything wrong. What I am saying is that for believers, our salvation is what anchors us. When trouble comes, we have an anchor (Hebrews 6:19). When persecution comes, we have an anchor. When failure comes, we have an anchor. If we have that anchor, no matter what we face, we have a reason to praise God!

The final verse is almost a contrast to the apostates. They blaspheme God by denying his doctrines. This takes the power out of the truth and leaves only the feel good stuff. They have a form of godliness but deny its power (II Timothy 3:5). It is not that they somehow take away God's power to save. He is still "God our Savior". They just refuse to acknowledge Him as Savior.

They do this because they claim to be wise. However, "Professing to be wise, they become fools" (Romans 1:22). We must remember that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10). There is no wisdom apart from God. There is a facade of wisdom, but it is not real. As Christians, we must remember what Solomon said, "For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it (Ecclesiastes 7:12).

Finally, Jude said, "be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen". God alone is worthy of worship. Our worship does not add to Him in any way. Neither does our lack of worship diminish Him in any way. All worship does is begin to give us an appropriate view of who God is, has been, and always will be. This is really what the apostate wants to take from God. They want the worship and adoration all to themselves. They cannot bear the idea of someone being superior to them. As Christians, we must give God the praise He is due. This is for our benefit.

When we praise God, even in the bad times, it tunes our hearts to His heart. Soon we see that even in the bad times, God is there working. Yes, people do bad things to us, but God can redeem it for His glory. He can do a work in the situation that we will look at and realize that only He could have ordained the outcome. Otherwise we just flop and flail through life and miss out on God's mercy and grace because we refuse to see it.

In the book "The Hiding Place", Corrie tells of a time when her sister Betsie prayed and thanked God for the fleas that had infested the dormitory at Ravensbruck. Corrie asked her how she could possibly be thankful for the fleas. Betsie said that she did not know why God had allowed them, but He had, and they were for something good. Later they learned that the lack of supervision they had in the dorm, which allowed them some peace and the opportunity to hold Bible study with their contraband Bible, was due to the fact that the guards would not enter the dorm because of the fleas. God did not send the fleas, but He did use them to keep the Germans away so that Corrie and Betsie could minister to those around them.

Father, help us to be thankful for the fleas in our lives. So often we just complain about the bad things, and we never ask You to use them for Your good. When we face people who want to cause us harm, help us to remember that Your Son died for them too. Let us not be foolish, but may we also not hide away in fear. In all things, teach us to praise You, because You are worthy!