Post by foxjj on May 30, 2019 7:26:43 GMT
Those Who Have Been Called
The Epistle of Jude was written by the brother of Jesus and James, as we read in Mark 6:3: “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” He wrote his Epistle in the mid sixty’s because of his concern for the purity of the Christian faith as many false teachings had infiltrated the new Church. As Christians you and I must remember that we are called out of the world into God’s Kingdom of light and truth. Therefore, as members of Christ’s Church; we are the set apart ones. We can also see similar warnings written by Paul, John and Peter in their Epistles.
Jude addressees his letter “To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.” (Jude 1:1-2) The call that Jude is speaking of is an effectual calling, meaning that it requires a response. The calling is made through the message of The Gospel which requires a personal response from the hearer as Paul explained in Romans 10:9-10: “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
Jude stated that we are “loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.” John also wrote of God’s love for believers: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10) To be kept is to be looked after, to be provided for. Peter puts it this way: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)
We who have been called into God’s Kingdom have received “mercy, peace and love.” To have experienced these is to know that you have been forgiven and accepted as a child of God. We now have a wonderful sense of well been, a personal assurance that we are right with God. After addressing the false teachings, Jude closed his short Epistle with this wonderful blessing: “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
Today, let us give thanks for God’s calling.
John Joseph Fox.
The Epistle of Jude was written by the brother of Jesus and James, as we read in Mark 6:3: “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” He wrote his Epistle in the mid sixty’s because of his concern for the purity of the Christian faith as many false teachings had infiltrated the new Church. As Christians you and I must remember that we are called out of the world into God’s Kingdom of light and truth. Therefore, as members of Christ’s Church; we are the set apart ones. We can also see similar warnings written by Paul, John and Peter in their Epistles.
Jude addressees his letter “To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.” (Jude 1:1-2) The call that Jude is speaking of is an effectual calling, meaning that it requires a response. The calling is made through the message of The Gospel which requires a personal response from the hearer as Paul explained in Romans 10:9-10: “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
Jude stated that we are “loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.” John also wrote of God’s love for believers: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10) To be kept is to be looked after, to be provided for. Peter puts it this way: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)
We who have been called into God’s Kingdom have received “mercy, peace and love.” To have experienced these is to know that you have been forgiven and accepted as a child of God. We now have a wonderful sense of well been, a personal assurance that we are right with God. After addressing the false teachings, Jude closed his short Epistle with this wonderful blessing: “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
Today, let us give thanks for God’s calling.
John Joseph Fox.