By J. Wilbur Chapman
"Keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 21).
Jude's is one of the briefest of all the letters in the New Testament, containing only twenty-five verses. It is, perhaps, the last of the epistles. Though the date is not definitely settled, it was probably written after the destruction of Jerusalem, when most of the Apostles had finished their work. There is a most delightful spirit of humility in the letter. The writer called himself a servant, and the bondsman of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James; and that is a beautiful modesty, for, in fact, it is generally believed that he was the Lord's own brother and the son of Joseph and Mary.
To no particular church or people was the letter written, but the accounts make it especially applicable to us. It is very practical. The heart of Jude was stirred because certain men were denying God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, because of this, "I exhort you that you should contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." That expression in the Greek, however, reads for the faith delivered "once and for all" to the saints. So the doctrine is the same today as in the days of Jude and before then. Reading on to the twentieth and twenty-fifth verses, they indicate that we are expected to contend as did the early disciples.
It has always seemed to me that faith produced men, and their living in the world was a contending for the faith. We have the pattern of the life of the Apostolic Christian given to us. If you study the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of Paul, Peter, John, and, better still, the wonderful prayer of Christ in the seventeenth chapter of John, you will see that there were three great elements in their character. They were in the world, but not of it; they were constantly looking for the coming of Christ; and they were filled with missionary fire and zeal. These three Characteristics must predominate now if the church is to have power. When one is in the world and not of it, he realizes he is a pilgrim and a stranger here, and he endures trials and temptations, because he knows that they are but for a little while. The second characteristic has just as great an influence. The disciples were constantly expecting the return of our Lord; they remembered the testimony of the men who had heard the angels on the slopes of Olivet, and again and again they opened their eyes, expecting to behold Him face to face. It was this hope in their hearts which inspired their lives, transfigured the cross and its shame, and kept them pure in the midst of all temptation and sin.
The third characteristic is equally important. How much we need to long for the salvation of others! Nothing so touches the hidden, springs of the Christian heart as to feel in some measure that he is responsible for those about him. Some one has said, when God would draw out all the fathomless love of a woman's heart, He lays a helpless babe upon her bosom; and it is true that the church will awake to power when she awakes to responsibility.
There is something which I have in mind which will give us all the things I have spoken about. It is described in the text. If there could be any subject growing out of the text to describe it, I should say that it would be "Live in the sunshine." I know what the sunshine does for the clouds; it gives them a silver lining. I know what it does for the grass and the trees and the flowers; it warms and nourishes until they blossom into beauty and fruitfulness. Take the plant away from the light, and it will droop and die; place it where the sun will kiss it, and every leaf rejoices. This is the very poorest illustration as to what the love of God will do for us; so let us keep ourselves in the love of God.
I. That word "keep" is the key word of Jude's epistle. In it we are told that God will keep us, but we are also told to keep ourselves. We are told to persevere, but it is also said we will be preserved. This is God and man working together, and it is singular, to say the least, that the word "preserve" and the word "persevere" are composed of exactly the same letters. The literal rendering of the expression that God will keep us is "as in a garrison." How secure, then, we must be!
How May We Keep Ourselves In The Love Of God?
1. No way so efficient as by prayer. There are different kinds of prayer. Jacob prayed when he met the angel of Jabbok, and his name changed from Jacob to Israel. Moses prayed when he plead with God to look with favor again upon His chosen people. Christ prayed in the garden, for it is said: "Being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly." But this is not the kind of prayer I have in mind; it is rather the kind that Christ offered when He was alone on the mountain with God. I imagine the Father talked with Him more than He with the Father. It is the kind that David describes when he says. "My meditation of Him shall be sweet." Faith is the eye with which we can see God, and meditation the wing with which we fly to Him. It is the kind of prayer offered when the suppliant feeds that he is the only one in all the universe; it is the kind of prayer which if our mother could hear, or the dearest friend we had on earth, we should feel that it had been diverted and had not reached God. It is the kind of prayer we offer when we let God talk to us as well as talk to Him. This will keep us in the love of God.
2. Few things will so help us as this old book, the Bible. Two gentlemen were riding together, and when they were about to separate, one asked the other, "Do you ever read your Bible?" "Yes," said his friend; "I do, but I receive no benefit because I feel that I do not love God." "Neither did I," replied the other; "but God loved me," and that answer fairly lifted the man into the skies, for it gave him a new thought. The question is not at all as to how much I love God, but rather as to how much God loves me. Read the Bible in that way, and it will help you to live in the text.
Love dictated every word, love selected every sentence, love presented every Providence, love sent Christ to die upon the cross, and you can not read it in this way without keeping yourself in the love of God.
3. All the means of grace will keep us, but if there is one above another it would be the Lord's Supper. The very coming to the table and taking that which represents His body and His blood really lifts the soul into such a condition that it is one with Christ. He that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father, and he that is in Christ is in the Father. What better way, could there be of entering into His love?
II. There must be emphasis upon the preposition "in." The Greek signifies the closest connection, the most intimate association and the most perfect communion. All these things are possible. The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and there may be just as close a fellowship between Christ and His followers. Now and then in this world we find persons whose lives are so blended that they almost look alike. This is oftentimes true of the husband and wife. Tennyson had it in his mind when he said: "In the long years liker must they grow." This communion of the believer with Christ is suggested by the stones in a building, which take hold upon the foundation; by the branches which take hold upon the vine; by the different members of the body all knit together; by the union of the husband and wife; by the union of the Father and the Son; so that in this union there is a stability, vitality, consciousness, affection and perfect harmony. If one is in Christ, he will live above the world and the storm's effect. The earth may be covered with storms, but a little way up the atmosphere is clear and the sun is shining. If we wait upon the Lord, we shall renew our strength; we shall mount with wings as eagles. The Love Of God
III. Would that we might understand the meaning of the expression "the love of God." It is hinted at in this world. Passing along the streets, one hears the words of a song or catches the strains of a piece of music being played, and he says, "That is from Beethoven or Mozart, I recognize the movement." So in this life, we catch strains of the love of God. We behold it in the mother's disinterested, self-denying love; we see it in the lover's glow, and in the little child's innocent affection; but these things are only hints. The Bible gives us the best revelation. Beginning with Genesis the scroll is constantly unfolding. Patriarchs and prophets, judges and kings, each tell their story. So, little by little, we get flashes out of His great heart until they all come together as the rays of the sun are converged in the sun-glass; then we begin to understand. It was not, however, until the Sun of Righteousness arose at the advent that there came the morning light which gives us the thought, not of the administration of God, but of His heart. What is infinite love? The purest, sweetest, tenderest thing known on earth is the over-hanging heart of a mother over the cradle that contains her babe that can give nothing back; receiving everything and returning nothing -- yet the love of the mother is but a drop in the ocean when compared with the love of God. It is infinite, infinite!
There's a wideness in God's mercy
Like the wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man's mind,
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
Over in England an archdeacon, having reached almost the end of his life, had his home so constructed that he could spend his closing days in sunshine. In the morning they placed his chair so that he could turn his face toward the east and see the rising sun; at noontime they wheeled his chair into the south window, where he could behold the sun in his meridian; but in the evening hours they would place him in the west window, where he could behold the king of day sinking behind the distant hills. So let me ask you in the morning of your life to keep your faces toward the east window, and at noontide live in the south window, but when evening time comes, turn your face toward the west window, so that all your journey through you may live in the sunshine, and thus keep yourselves in the love of God.
