Jude 1:20 But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, "But ye, beloved." These three words, repeated within a few lines, come upon the reader with some unexpectedness. They tell us, what we may have forgotten since we read the "beloved" with which the Epistle opens, that the holy energy which pulses through this short letter, though sometimes it approaches to vehemence, is not the energy of a character that works to one side only. They tell us that the energy is one of sympathies, after all, and not of mere antipathies. His vehemence is to be traced to the depth and strength of His love. When this verse occurs, the turning-point of the Epistle has just been passed. The thunderstorm of invective, which the writer has been hurling against certain godless disturbers of the purity and peace of the Church, spends itself almost abruptly here, and the Epistle seems to gather to a close among the quiet sunset light of a sky that has been clarified by the storm. These last calm sentences are directly for the saints whom he loves. "But ye," says he, "see that ye make a contrast to all this vapid corruption. The contrast which already exists between your condition and theirs, your prospects and theirs — let it be carried forth into a contrast between your conduct and theirs, your habits and theirs." I. THE WORK OF SELF-KEEPING. 1. To keep an eye upon ourselves — an eye that is clear and true; to keep a hand upon ourselves — a hand that is steady and strong; to maintain the right attitude of mind and heart from hour to hour. Is this, then, a work for which a man himself is competent? Can a man keep himself? Our thoughts may easily alight upon passages which seem to conflict with Jude's words (1 Peter 1:5; 1 Peter 4:19; John 17:11, 15). In older days the Psalmist, in that hymn about keeping which the Christian Church has taken to its heart, seems persistently out of tune with the strain of Jude (Psalm 121:3, 4, 5, 7). That, indeed, is the more usual language of Scripture concerning spiritual keeping. But neither is the language of the text without parallel (Proverbs 4:23; 1 John 5:18, 21). The two sets of passages make no discord. It is only the familiar, inexplicable mingling of the human and the Divine. It is only the working together — so incomprehensible, so practicable, so blessed — of man's weakness with God's almightiness. "Keep yourselves," for it is God that keepeth you. 2. God's love to us is the element within which the keeping of ourselves becomes real keeping, safe keeping, happy keeping. That is the over-arching firmament, with its infinitude, within which our keeping is kept. We ourselves are to abide within our own poor keeping; yes, and our own poor keeping is to abide within God's tender might of love. The flower is to be environed by the frail globe of glass — the frail globe is to be environed and penetrated by the sweet, warm sunlight that comes across the tracks of worlds to illumine our dark atmosphere with safety and life. (1) These men and women, as being Christians, were "in the love of God" in a sense which did not apply to those who were not Christians. (2) A man may be more, or may be less — consciously and efficiently — "in the love of God." Give me a living assurance that my God is caring tenderly for me, for this danger-haunted sinner that I am — and that His great saving love is actually around me like shielding sunlight, I shall then have heart and motive to look to my ways. If I am worth God's watching, I am worth my own. I will watch myself for Him. I will gird up my loins to keep myself, just because God is keeping me. 3. Note the harmony subsisting between this precept and this qualification of the precept. Being "in the love of God" does not neutralise an atom of our utmost diligence in the task of self-keeping. If I feel that I am enclosed by the strong ramparts of a fortress-home, there is animating reason why I should guard myself from the lesser hazards that may still encompass me within that home; my keeping of myself is not at an end, but is only reduced to manageable dimensions. If I be on board a steam-liner, which holds her head before the wildest weather with undaunted majesty, and only fills the air above her bows with the smoke of billows she is shattering in the strong tremor of her power, I have still to care how I mount the companion-way, and pace the deck, and stow my valuables in my cabin. Indeed, it is only when I am secure from wreck or foundering, that all this minor care is of much account. "Keep yourselves — in the love of God." II. THE MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED IN SELF-KEEPING. 1. It is significant that the first sort of occupation here named as promotive of the work of keeping is so active an occupation as that of "building up themselves." In order to conserve, they must construct. They are beset by forces which are busy to disintegrate and destroy. A Christian character is not reared as a coral structure is — by instinct. It demands a sustained effort of intelligent will The work is laboriously slow — slow, yet urgent. There is need we should bring to bear upon it something of the systematic steadiness which tells so marvellously in the meaner sphere of our worldly work — permitting to ourselves no half-heartedness in it; setting upon it the banded force of all the faculties of body and soul and spirit; pushing it on in frost and rain, and by light of torch when the daylight fails us. And there is danger, too, lest the durable qualities of our work should be imperfect. It would spare Christians many a pang of disappointment and much rebuilding of what had been built in their character, did they always make sure that they were building firmly and strictly after the plan of Christ. In any development of character which is slim and faulty, there can be no real contribution to the "keeping," the staid security, which Jude would instruct us to accomplish. In that character-structure of ours there must be settlement and stability, mass and strength, and the geometric beauty of symmetry; that is, there must be proportions well balanced upon a sufficient foundation. And what is that sufficient foundation? A sea-rock, indeed, but yet a rock — "our most holy faith." It is the truth of God in the gospel of His Son. 2. Prayer is an occupation, and a companion one to that of rearing a Christian character. Practically it is not very sound to dissociate the one occupation from the other, for prayer is not doing for us the whole that it might do unless it is breathing like an odour through all our changing activities. Yet there must be seasons when prayer is concentrated into specific labour of its own kind; then it is the most sacred manner of work, and the most productive. In this sense we can regard upbuilding and prayer as twin labourers, fitting to each other, like rampart and moat, towards the keeping of our souls. 3. We are to pray "in the Holy Ghost." The pregnant phrase wraps up a very solemnity of privilege. It is a great thing to pray in the mere presence of the Divine Spirit, or under His loving glance. It is a greater thing to pray with the vouchsafed assistance of this Divine One, as He moulds and energises our petitions. It is a greater thing still, and enters the region of permanent miracle, that we should pray with the Eternal Spirit in us, abiding in our meagre hearts, identifying Himself with us, and mingling His own intercessions with ours. We, and our prayer, and our praying — all are to be within Him — encompassed by His power, impregnated by His efficacy, informed by His light. He is to be in us while we pray, as the ocean is in the chambers of the tiny shell which has dropped into its depths. III. THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO BE SOUGHT IN SELF-KEEPING. "Looking for the mercy of our Lord," etc. Hard work and brighter hope; it is these together that make up the Christian life as God means it. When the two are most sharply set over against each other in the New Testament, it is that they may be mingled by us into one. God would not have His children to toil without heart. "Ever follow that which is good. Rejoice evermore." "Live soberly, righteously, and godly... looking for the happy hope." It is not enough to have rest when the toil is over; there must be spirit while the toil is going on. "Building up yourselves," "praying," and so "keeping yourselves." Is it a catalogue of labours? Well, there follows the complementary duty, as if he added, "Cheering yourselves." Now, it is below the truth to say that while there may be other lines of activity in the world which are quite as arduous as that of the self-keeping of the Christian, there is not any line of activity which bears along it so magnificent a contingent of inspiriting considerations. But there is a practical peculiarity in the case of the Christian. It is a common thing for a man, when he throws his energies upon any pursuit, to be constantly animating himself by expectations that are exaggerated, and by data that are good only to disappoint him. The Christian, on the contrary, following the pursuit which God Himself has set along the highway to all blessed issues, is constantly underdoing his expectations — is habitually forgetting, or only half-believing, the splendid certainties by which his hope ought to be nerving his diligence. Thereby everything suffers. Thereby the reconstruction of character goes heavily, and prayer is dull; the self-custody of the soul is slack-handed and insecure. Hence the force of the great concluding exhortation of Jude: "There is your sublime task; take thought of your sublimer prospects, that you may hold on to your task with unflagging hearts and unstaying hands." On what, then, is it that our eye is to be set as the focus of all our encouragement in the grand task of our life? "Looking for — mercy." Still mercy — after all our hard work, our God-given work, in building, praying, keeping? Let us thank God that it is. Our work — it is blundering and inconstant; the worker — he is weak and unworthy: here, smiling around us out of the heaven which it makes so bright, is the Divine yet brotherly compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ. No other encouragement could be so complete as this. It is the sum of all tenderest things; the pledge of all that is most unimaginable in its gloriousness. (J. A. K. Bain, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,WEB: But you, beloved, keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. |
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