Daily Bible Verses for 11/17/2016

Bible Verse
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. 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

Reading Notes
Jude was the half-brother of Jesus who, like James came to faith after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Here he is writing to fellow believers and His purpose is to encourage them and keep them strong in their faith despite the moral and doctrinal apostasy that was creeping into the church. This was during a time when Christianity was under severe political attack from the Roman government. Jude was exhorting the brethren to be watchful and ready to spot bad doctrine brought in by false teachers. What was happening was as persecution grew, false teachers were bringing in non-Christian doctrine, meant to make Christianity more like the surrounding pagan cultures. And because of this Jude is teaching the believers that preparation for such attacks is prayer and study of the scriptures.

He also exhorted them to be at the ready to help their fellow believers who might have their faith weakened by false teachers. In addition, he called them to have compassion on those who were not saved. He used the analogy, that saving someone from false doctrine was like saving a person from a burning fire. Jude finishes by reminding his audience that as followers of Christ, we have a sure and firm foundation in Jesus, who alone is able to keep us from stumbling. And through whom we are presented blameless before God as children of God and joint-heirs with Him. We are blameless before God because with our salvation, we received the imputed righteousness of Christ. Therefore, when God looks at us, He doesn’t see our sin which was washed away by the blood of Christ. Instead, He sees the righteousness of Jesus, which was freely credited to us, because of our faith in Him.