Jude 24-25
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
This doxology from Jude's short little letter is one of my favorite in all of Scripture. The word doxology comes from the latin words for "praise" and "to speak" so usually it's just called a "hymn of praise". Jude's message is all about living in the truth and persevering to the end. It is fitting then that he ends his message in this way.
I'm a pretty klutzy person, so it's not entirely unheard of for me to lose my balance on a perfectly level surface. Typically in everyday life though, the risk of stumbling is only present when the way is rough. This promise that Jesus will keep you from stumbling would have no importance if the road was always smooth, so it must imply something about the life of a follower of Jesus.
Imagine you're going on a walk and you come to a split in the path. One way is paved smooth, has signs indicating what's ahead, and is clearly headed toward civilization. The other way looks like it hasn't been touched in years. It's more like a well worn deer trail through the woods. It's uneven, has muddy potholes, and leads into the mountains. Who knows if it even goes anywhere!
Which one would you choose? While the intrigue of the unknown might call me for a minute, I would eventually take the paved way because I want to make it back alive. And because if anything were to happen to me, I have plenty of friends and family would would yell at me for doing anything so risky!
Unfortunately, the gospel is not interested in which way is safer. In fact, Jesus promises a difficult life for those who follow him. In Matthew 7:13-14 he says, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." Jesus tells his disciples later on, when they are vying to be Jesus' second in command that they don't know what they're asking for (Matt. 20:22). Even the disciples who saw Jesus every day expected that following him would lead to an easy life. But Jesus' call is "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24).
Jesus promises to keep us from stumbling not by keeping the path smooth, but by providing us with the strength, maturity, and support we need to keep our balance. In keeping us from stumbling into sin, he may not remove the temptation, but he will always give us the strength to withstand it or the resources to run (I Cor. 10:13).
Running from sin can be a lot more successful than we often imagine. When you picture yourself saved from sin, do you see yourself as covered in torn clothes, cuts from the jungle brush, with bite marks from the lion you ran from? Or do you picture yourself as clothed in royal robes, and celebrated with joy as blameless? That is what Jude says we are!
If you know Jesus and have surrendered your life to him, you are not one who has escaped death by the skin of your teeth. You are one whom the only God saved through his son Jesus Christ! As the only God he holds all the glory, he is the most majestic, and he has power over everything in the universe from before it was created, until forever! How can we not praise our God with great joy?
Yes, the road of the believer is rough and narrow and filled with places to stumble. But the reward is so much greater than any reward we can find if we follow the wide path.
I have been loving the first letter of John recently. Whenever I read Scripture I rarely take in every word, so I can read the same chapter (or paragraph!) for a while before I'm able to recall what it says. Anyway, one of my favorite elements of John's writing is the names he uses for his audience. My little children. Beloved. Children of God. Some people may not appreciate being called children and see it as condescending, but I think he is using parental language because of his deep love for them and he can find no more affectionate way to address them.
In calling the readers children, John also draws attention to their, and our, relationship to God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. We are not just in an earthly family, we are part of God's family too! Through this whole letter I can almost hear John pleading with his readers to understand and embrace their standing with the Father. In chapter three, John makes the connection for why it is so critical to understand our relationship with God. "See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are!" (exclamation mine)
What are children like? You could answer that question a lot of ways. For one, kids tend to acquire traits from their parents. They might have the same mannerisms, tastes, opinions, or sense of humor. Kids pick up on these things innately, sometimes even while unaware of what they are doing. In verse two John says children of God ought to be the same way. Someday when we see God in person we will look like him. Until that day we live in the hope of his coming and we ought to emulate him, even if our knowledge of him is imperfect. He has given us enough through his Word to mature into his likeness. "And everyone who hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure" (vs. 3).
Then there's a new paragraph. Until recently I had never really noticed the connection between 3:1-3 and 3:4-10. Verses 4-10 are often looked at when talking about eternal security and sin in the life of a believer, and that is fine. But I think it is much more compelling to read that paragraph through the lens of life in God's family. Right after John says God's kids ought to be pure because he is, he gives an example of the opposite. "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness…no one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has seen him or known him...By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother."
While I would much prefer to believe that I am my own person, independent of any outside influence, that is clearly not the case. I am either a child of the devil, or a child of God. And my life will reflect my family tree. Either I will live a life defined by sin, or I will be made righteous by my new Father. There is not a lot of grey area here.
John goes on a roll for pretty much the rest of the letter talking about abiding in Christ and letting the Spirit lead, and having wisdom in a world controlled by the devil. If you haven't read it, I recommend it. It's a short one. Then, we get to the last paragraph of the letter: "We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols."
Sometimes when I'm reading letters like this one I imagine the author writing it. Where was he sitting? What materials and tools was he using? This letter ends so abruptly that it makes me wonder if he ran out of parchment! Did he start the last paragraph and then realize his handwriting was too big to fit in his thoughts? Maybe he said, "Oh shoot, I was going to explain the connection here, but I'll just squeeze the conclusion in…Kids, stay away from idols. There. They'll figure it out." God must have wanted him to be brief, but you have to admit it's a funny way to end a letter! If Paul was writing this he would have gone on for pages...
So what is the connection? God's family doesn't live in continual sin…got it. The world is under the power of the evil one and doesn't know God, so the world sins…check. Only Jesus has the power to save leading to eternal life and give us an understanding of God…right…so what about idols?
Idolatry is the worship of anything that is less than God; it's putting anything in place of God in our lives. In other words, the world lives in perpetual idolatry because they do not know the one true God. The world puts a myriad of things on the throne and calls many things King. This is a temptation that believers have to fight every moment. Being in the world, we are tempted and enchanted by lots of glittering things that only look like they will satisfy. We are God's children and to follow, worship, or surrender to anything other than our Father is to walk a path that is not laid out by the Spirit. It will only lead to death. So consider: what are you following that is not the one true God? What things of the world are getting your allegiance? What do you spend the most time thinking about? If we know Christ, we need to ask these kinds of questions and continually grow into the likeness of our Father. That will not happen if we are being led by the things of this world. "Little children, keep yourself from idols."
