We Wait

 

DEVOTION

THE LETTER OF JUDE

WE WAIT

Jude 17-21

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

NIV

It seems there are still those who are scoffers and are following their own ungodly desires. That Greek word translated as scoffer carries the meaning of a mocker or a false teacher. What is interesting is in Hebrew the word for mocker means to make mouths at, or give lip service. That is to say talk about things that appear to be holy and true, but not really believing it and thus just putting up a façade for the sake being able to persuade people to follow them in order to achieve some personal gain. What is also interesting is that Jude is most likely writing to the first-century church, which may have consisted of both Jews and Gentiles, telling them about the last times. Just as with us, they did not know when the Lord Jesus would return, but they must have believed they were living in the last times. Yet, here it is some two thousand years and we are still living in the last times, and there are still scoffers all around us. We have witnessed some of their methods to divide up the church so as to gain followers so these scoffers can live an overabundant lifestyle from the offers of those they have deceived. They use human methods of success and speak those titillating words into the ears, the hearts, and minds of those who follow them. They do not have the Spirit. We cannot allow them to influence us in any way. We close our ears, our hearts, and minds to them, for we have Spirit and we know walking in the Spirit means we build each other up as we build ourselves up in the most holy faith. We encourage one another to live in the Spirit for He leads us to the truth and we do this until we reach unity in the faith, not a division. Those who would cause dissension, division in the church are not from God, they only serve their own thirst. But, we will not listen to gossip, which is another form of division rather than unity. Let us walk in the Spirit, building, encouraging each other so that there is unity in the Spirit as we continue to pray in the Spirit, which simply means praying as directed or influenced by the Spirit so that we are praying in the will of God. We will remain in Christ, our only hope, and we are living in the love of God, and we are waiting for the day that His mercy is complete, and we meet our Lord in the air where he will bring us into eternal life. Yes, it is true, we have already begun our eternal life the day we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the day we were born again. But we are still in the flesh, still living in the corruption of the world. That day when we meet our Lord, we will be transformed from corruptible to incorruptible, perishable to imperishable, mortal, to immortal. So we hold on until that day of days when we see our Jesus face to face, in all his glory as he brings us into eternal life.  We wait.