How Do You Keep Yourself?
In Jude 20-21 it says, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.” In this passage there is one command (keep yourselves in the love of God), and then three supporting participial phrases that teach us how to keep ourselves in the love of God (building yourselves up in the holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; and waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life). Yesterday we talked about what it means to keep yourself, today we are going to look at how we do that. Jude has provided us with three practical ways to accomplish his command.
The first practical way that we can keep ourselves is to build upon the foundation of our faith. Jude writes, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith…” When Jude refers to our “most holy faith” he is referring to the “objective body of biblical truth.” It makes a lot of sense that Jude would encourage us to build upon our knowledge of the truth since our fight is for the truth. We need to know the difference between truth and error, and be able recognize idolatrous thoughts.Let me give you an idea of what this would look like practically. When someone first becomes a Christian there are several things that they must understand. They must understand that they are a sinner, that Jesus has made a sacrifice for their sins, and that they need to submit to Him and seek forgiveness. By understanding these things this person has laid the foundation of the Gospel in their lives. However, if they do not continue to build upon this foundation by studying God’s word then there will be many other aspects of the Christian faith that they will never understand. Consequently, they will not be ready to fight for the faith. This is why, as we prepare to fight for the faith, we must secure our own positions by growing in our knowledge of God’s word.
The second practical way that we can keep ourselves is to pray in the Holy Spirit. Jude writes, “But you, beloved… praying in the Holy Spirit…” If we are going to keep ourselves in the love of God so that we can fight for the faith we must be people who are committed to prayer. Specifically, we must be people who pray in the Holy Spirit. This isn’t talking about speaking in tongues when we pray (as some might teach), but rather it means that our prayers should be consistent with the will of the Holy Spirit. This should be an achievable goal since God’s will has been revealed to us in Scripture, however many times we become so consumed with our own prerogatives that we are unable to practically apply God’s will to specific situation. Thankfully in times like this the Scriptures teach us the Spirit makes up for our own deficiencies by interceding on our behalf before the Father (Romans 8:26-27). So the Holy Spirit is very important in our prayer lives. As we pray we must submit to Him, seek His wisdom, seek His will, and trust in His power as we pray. Praying this way will force us to be more mindful of God’s will and less concerned with our own will. And prayers like these will be used by God to accomplish much in our fight for the faith. In fact, Jesus spoke of this kind of prayer in John 14:14:
“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
The third practical way that we can keep ourselves is to anxiously expect the return of Jesus. This last step in keeping ourselves in the love of God looks to the future when we will see the ultimate consummation of God’s mercy. Jude writes, “But you beloved… keep yourselves in the Love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.” As we seek to live our lives like new creatures created in Christ, Jude reminds us that it is important look forward to the return of Jesus. This is something that we often loose track of in the business of day-to-day life. We usually remember that Jesus has already come into this world once. He came and died on the cross in order to become a saving substitute for the sins of those who would accept him in faith. However, this is not the end of the story. Jesus is coming back a second time. In Matthew 16:27 Jesus said:
For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.
This is our great hope as Christians. On that day when Jesus comes back our salvation will be made complete and we will understand His mercy far more than we could ever imagine. On that day – when Jesus comes back – true Christians will be vindicated, and the mockers (2 Peter 3:3-4) will be proved wrong.
When we are anxiously awaiting the return of Jesus it will change the way that we live now. This is why the Bible teaches us so much about Jesus’ return. In 1 John 3:3 John described how this outlook on life will change the way we live in when he said:
Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Our hope in the return of Jesus will have purifying affect on our lives and help us to keep ourselves in the love of God. Speaking to this subject John MacArthur said this:
This is the test of a healthy eschatology: Is your hope a sanctifying influence on your soul? Rather than getting caught up in hype and hysteria about current events and newspaper headlines, are you looking beyond the commotion of this world with the realization that you could soon meet Christ face-to-face, and are you preparing your heart and soul for that day? Instead of despairing, as some do, over how long Christ has delayed His coming, are you filled with hope and expectation? This is the attitude that Scripture calls us to.
The Second Coming is not supposed to make us stop what we’re doing to wait for the Lord’s return. And neither should it motivate us to focus all our attention to the events of political developments of the world. Instead, it should direct our hearts toward Christ, whose coming we await—and it should prompt us to purify ourselves as He is pure.
This is why we must secure our own position by anxiously awaiting the return of Christ.
