Christian Responsibility

Jude 1:20, 21

When instruction is given in the New Testament, it is for the edification or the building up of the believer. Instruction in the Old Testament was given by command, and if not adhered to would lead to curses and even death. Thank God that Jesus came and took the curse so that we could be free!

This is not intended to indicate that the instructions of the New Testament are not important. These were written down by the founding apostles of the church, those who had seen Jesus face to face and were now trying to put down their thoughts, guided by the Holy Spirit, for all to benefit by.

Jude was the half-brother of Jesus Christ, but neither scripture nor history shows him taking much interest in being known as such while Jesus was on this earth. To his credit, once Christ has ascended, Jude becomes a follower of Christ, and instead of using his family position to further his ministry, he calls himself a “servant of Jesus Christ” (verse 1). It is from a man with this kind of integrity that we can take some instruction on Christian responsibility.

Jude gives two things that every believer must do themselves: Build themselves up and keep themselves in the love of God. The first, he says, is done, “on your most holy faith”. This links your strength from day to day on having your faith properly placed in Jesus Christ, but then gives the mechanism by which we bring this about as being, “praying in the Holy Ghost” (verse 20). This is the believer’s right and privilege of praying in tongues, which builds them up and speaks to God (1 Corinthians 14:2, 4). Every child of God should use their prayer language every day. If you have never done so, pray to the Father that He give you this manifestation of His Holy Spirit. It is His good pleasure to do so (Luke 11:13).

The second instruction in this passage, given by Jude is found in verse 21, “Keep yourselves in the love of God”. Paul sounds as if he says something totally different when he reminds the believer, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39).

There is no contradiction here, as Paul is reminding us that there is nothing that can come between God’s love for us, but Jude is telling us to keep ourselves there. Don’t allow your circumstances to convince you that God does not love you. Paul says that God does love you, while Jude wants you to remind yourself of that every day.

By keeping yourself in that love, you are living under the constant mercy of God (verse 21). Only within the framework of God’s precious love can we understand His wonderful mercy. To see His love for us is to see His heart of compassion and concern.

While all of the world falls around you saint, keep yourself in the love of the Lord today. You can’t do this by effort and works, but rather by remembering His love for you. Don’t forget that very famous verse, “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16). His “so” love is “so” big!

Blessed is the Nation

Psalms 33:12

Is America a Christian nation? If it is considered a Christian nation, what does that mean? If the answer is “No, America is not a Christian nation”, what changes? Truthfully, neither this nation nor any nation is actually Christian, for the entire country cannot be born again. There may be many Christians within that nation, but that doesn’t make a country “saved” or “lost”.

Some say that America is inherently Christian because it was founded on Christian principles. Again, facts and fiction should be clearly separated. Most nations are founded on simple, fundamental ideas of personal freedom and morality, all of which are spelled out in one way or the other by the Law of God. This fact does not make America Christian, for you can have principles of morality, and know nothing about Jesus Christ.

Again, the argument is made that our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution provided Godly, moral principles upon which we are built. Actually, the Declaration of Independence declares that all men are created equal, but a look around will show you that the man born blind or without any legs might beg to differ. The Constitution declared that slaves were property of their owners and could be counted as 3/5 of a man. Can you believe that? That is a Christian principle?

Thankfully, blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, and we do not need to concern ourselves with rather or not America qualifies. The reason for this is that when we accepted Christ as our Savior, we became a citizen of a greater nation, whose founder and leader is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter wrote his first epistle to “the strangers scattered” (1 Peter 1:1). Those “strangers” were Gentiles, just like you and I, and he told them that they were “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9). Acceptance of Christ as Lord formed a new, “holy nation”, of which we all belong. This nation of believers is also called the church, and we now retain the blessing of Psalm 33:12. Because Jesus took our curse at Calvary, this holy nation takes the blessings of heaven and calls them their own.

This is not to insinuate that prayer for America is less than necessary. God uses any nation that brings glory to the finished work of His Son, and America has certainly been blessed for that very cause. It could probably be said that America has done more to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the world than any nation in the history of the world. For that one fact alone, America has experienced great favor by the hand of God. Any nation that brings honor to the finished work of Christ and ministers of His glorious grace can prepare themselves for great blessings, for God does all things for the sake of His Son.

You belong to a holy nation of people, and you are a ready recipient of God’s wonderful favor. Live today as a citizen of this heavenly nation, sure to bring honor and glory to our King.

Christian Responsibility

Jude 1:20, 21

When instruction is given in the New Testament, it is for the edification or the building up of the believer. Instruction in the Old Testament was given by command, and if not adhered to would lead to curses and even death. Thank God that Jesus came and took the curse so that we could be free!

This is not intended to indicate that the instructions of the New Testament are not important. These were written down by the founding apostles of the church, those who had seen Jesus face to face and were now trying to put down their thoughts, guided by the Holy Spirit, for all to benefit by.

Jude was the half-brother of Jesus Christ, but neither scripture nor history shows him taking much interest in being known as such while Jesus was on this earth. To his credit, once Christ has ascended, Jude becomes a follower of Christ, and instead of using his family position to further his ministry, he calls himself a “servant of Jesus Christ” (verse 1). It is from a man with this kind of integrity that we can take some instruction on Christian responsibility.

Jude gives two things that every believer must do themselves: Build themselves up and keep themselves in the love of God. The first, he says, is done, “on your most holy faith”. This links your strength from day to day on having your faith properly placed in Jesus Christ, but then gives the mechanism by which we bring this about as being, “praying in the Holy Ghost” (verse 20). This is the believer’s right and privilege of praying in tongues, which builds them up and speaks to God (1 Corinthians 14:2, 4). Every child of God should use their prayer language every day. If you have never done so, pray to the Father that He give you this manifestation of His Holy Spirit. It is His good pleasure to do so (Luke 11:13).

The second instruction in this passage, given by Jude is found in verse 21, “Keep yourselves in the love of God”. Paul sounds as if he says something totally different when he reminds the believer, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39).

There is no contradiction here, as Paul is reminding us that there is nothing that can come between God’s love for us, but Jude is telling us to keep ourselves there. Don’t allow your circumstances to convince you that God does not love you. Paul says that God does love you, while Jude wants you to remind yourself of that every day.

By keeping yourself in that love, you are living under the constant mercy of God (verse 21). Only within the framework of God’s precious love can we understand His wonderful mercy. To see His love for us is to see His heart of compassion and concern.

While all of the world falls around you saint, keep yourself in the love of the Lord today. You can’t do this by effort and works, but rather by remembering His love for you. Don’t forget that very famous verse, “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16). His “so” love is “so” big!

Blessed is the Nation

Psalms 33:12

Is America a Christian nation? If it is considered a Christian nation, what does that mean? If the answer is “No, America is not a Christian nation”, what changes? Truthfully, neither this nation nor any nation is actually Christian, for the entire country cannot be born again. There may be many Christians within that nation, but that doesn’t make a country “saved” or “lost”.

Some say that America is inherently Christian because it was founded on Christian principles. Again, facts and fiction should be clearly separated. Most nations are founded on simple, fundamental ideas of personal freedom and morality, all of which are spelled out in one way or the other by the Law of God. This fact does not make America Christian, for you can have principles of morality, and know nothing about Jesus Christ.

Again, the argument is made that our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution provided Godly, moral principles upon which we are built. Actually, the Declaration of Independence declares that all men are created equal, but a look around will show you that the man born blind or without any legs might beg to differ. The Constitution declared that slaves were property of their owners and could be counted as 3/5 of a man. Can you believe that? That is a Christian principle?

Thankfully, blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, and we do not need to concern ourselves with rather or not America qualifies. The reason for this is that when we accepted Christ as our Savior, we became a citizen of a greater nation, whose founder and leader is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter wrote his first epistle to “the strangers scattered” (1 Peter 1:1). Those “strangers” were Gentiles, just like you and I, and he told them that they were “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9). Acceptance of Christ as Lord formed a new, “holy nation”, of which we all belong. This nation of believers is also called the church, and we now retain the blessing of Psalm 33:12. Because Jesus took our curse at Calvary, this holy nation takes the blessings of heaven and calls them their own.

This is not to insinuate that prayer for America is less than necessary. God uses any nation that brings glory to the finished work of His Son, and America has certainly been blessed for that very cause. It could probably be said that America has done more to take the good news of Jesus Christ to the world than any nation in the history of the world. For that one fact alone, America has experienced great favor by the hand of God. Any nation that brings honor to the finished work of Christ and ministers of His glorious grace can prepare themselves for great blessings, for God does all things for the sake of His Son.

You belong to a holy nation of people, and you are a ready recipient of God’s wonderful favor. Live today as a citizen of this heavenly nation, sure to bring honor and glory to our King.

What If the Christian Fails to Confess?

1 John 1:9

This verse marks the only time in the New Testament that we are told to confess our sins in order to receive forgiveness. Paul wrote 14 books of the New Testament, and was given the Covenant of God’s grace in face-to-face meetings with the Lord Jesus, and he never once mentions confession by the saint. Paul’s lone usage of “confess” as it regards salvation is found in Romans 10:9, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”. This confession is obviously for salvation and not the repeated confessing of sins that we commit.

John’s usage is not as a foundational principle for how believers deal with sin. If it were, then we would be judged responsible for all of our sins, every moment of every day. This would take the judgment for sins off of Jesus, and place it onto the believer. The load of this is more than any of us can bear.

Do you suppose that you can remember all of your faults? If you can, then you must literally remember ALL of them. Not one can be left out. Not only would you have to confess the sins that you committed, you would also have to seek forgiveness for the ones that you committed but do not know about. You would also be responsible for the sins of omission; the things you should have done but did not do. This is overwhelming!

John furthers his case in chapter two, by telling the believer, “My little children, these things write I unto to you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1, 2). Here, John does not mention confessing the sins; only remember than Jesus is your attorney in the high court of heaven. He is the “propitiation” or “satisfaction” for all of our sins. God cannot be angry with sin, for He has been satisfied by the sin offering.

By informing us that all of our sins are forgiven, John is equipping us to “sin not”. Only he who knows that he is forgiven can have the peace and joy to live free from this world of sin. Sin comes natural to us, because we did it our whole lives. Even though we are free from the old nature that we had, we still know how to sin by habit, like tying our shoes without thinking about it. The knowledge that we are completely washed and forgiven is the very thing that Satan wishes to deny us. Grasp hold of that knowledge and watch sin vanish from your life.

If Paul intended for the believer to confess their sins in order to have them forgiven, wouldn’t it have been a good idea to remind us of this at least once in 14 books? He deals with Christians getting drunk on communion wine, committing incest, suing one another and sleeping with harlots (all in 1 Corinthians alone!) and yet he tells none of these to “confess your sins”. He simply reminds them of who they are in Christ and tells them to wake up to this fact.

John is telling us of a passionate relationship that ensues when we confess our failures to Jesus. I forgive my son for whatever wrong that he might commit, even if he never asks me to. I do this because he is mine, and I love him unconditionally. However, I love for him to say I am sorry because it gives me an opportunity to shower him with love. My forgiveness is not dependent on his confession, but the hug that comes to him is so much sweeter because of it.

When you fail and you know it, confess it to the Father. Don’t do it because you think He will send you to hell without it, but rather because you know that on the other side of that confession He sheds His love on you, and that is a wonderful feeling.

Christian Responsibility

Jude 1:20, 21

When instruction is given in the New Testament, it is for the edification or the building up of the believer. Instruction in the Old Testament was given by command, and if not adhered to would lead to curses and even death. Thank God that Jesus came and took the curse so that we could be free!

This is not intended to indicate that the instructions of the New Testament are not important. These were written down by the founding apostles of the church, those who had seen Jesus face to face and were now trying to put down their thoughts, guided by the Holy Spirit, for all to benefit by.

Jude was the half-brother of Jesus Christ, but neither scripture nor history shows him taking much interest in being known as such while Jesus was on this earth. To his credit, once Christ has ascended, Jude becomes a follower of Christ, and instead of using his family position to further his ministry, he calls himself a “servant of Jesus Christ” (verse 1). It is from a man with this kind of integrity that we can take some instruction on Christian responsibility.

Jude gives two things that every believer must do themselves: Build themselves up and keep themselves in the love of God. The first, he says, is done, “on your most holy faith”. This links your strength from day to day on having your faith properly placed in Jesus Christ, but then gives the mechanism by which we bring this about as being, “praying in the Holy Ghost” (verse 20). This is the believer’s right and privilege of praying in tongues, which builds them up and speaks to God (1 Corinthians 14:2, 4). Every child of God should use their prayer language every day. If you have never done so, pray to the Father that He give you this manifestation of His Holy Spirit. It is His good pleasure to do so (Luke 11:13).

The second instruction in this passage, given by Jude is found in verse 21, “Keep yourselves in the love of God”. Paul sounds as if he says something totally different when he reminds the believer, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39).

There is no contradiction here, as Paul is reminding us that there is nothing that can come between God’s love for us, but Jude is telling us to keep ourselves there. Don’t allow your circumstances to convince you that God does not love you. Paul says that God does love you, while Jude wants you to remind yourself of that every day.

By keeping yourself in that love, you are living under the constant mercy of God (verse 21). Only within the framework of God’s precious love can we understand His wonderful mercy. To see His love for us is to see His heart of compassion and concern.

While all of the world falls around you saint, keep yourself in the love of the Lord today. You can’t do this by effort and works, but rather by remembering His love for you. Don’t forget that very famous verse, “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16). His “so” love is “so” big!