Jude 1-2 (CEB) Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James.
To those who are called, loved by God the Father and kept
safe by Jesus Christ.
May you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.
Today
we begin a very short series on the New Testament Letter of Jude (pronounced “Ju-dah”).
Jude was one of the earthly brothers of Jesus, although it must be noted that
Jude did not believe Jesus was the Messiah until after Jesus died. Eventually though, Jude becomes a prominent
Christian leader, particularly among Jews who have become Christians. This letter is one that Jude wrote to one of
the communities he had served, though we are not sure of the specific
community.
Jude is
not widely read in Christian circles even today, probably because he has many
strange references to angels and the devil that are not found anywhere in the
current Old and New Testaments of Scripture. We’ll talk more about that next time, but for
now, we’ll note that at the time of Jude’s writing this letter, the texts he
references were commonly read texts in the Jewish community. Some of them are still part of the Jewish
scriptures.
Today
though, let’s simply hear the charge Jude makes to his readers in the opening
to his letter:
“May
you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.”
Jude’s hope and expectation for those he leads is that they
are growing in peace, love, and mercy. This forms the basis for the purpose of
the letter which we will talk more about next time, but let simply hear for ourselves
the charge on it’s own right now.
“May
you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.”
Think
about your long-term relationships (family of origin, spouse, children,
grandchildren, friends etc). Now, think
about the character of those relationships in the past. Go back a year, two years, or more and recall
the level of peace, love, and mercy in your part of the relationship back
then. Obviously, we have no control over
how others behave, but how did you exercise these virtues in these
relationships in the past? Now think about how you behave towards them
currently. As you compare the past with
the present, would you say that you have more peace, love, and mercy now or less?
One of
the core assumptions of the Christian faith is that following Jesus produces a
character transformation. We exhibit
more and more of the character of Christ in how we live and relate to
others. Jude’s expectation and hope is
one we should take seriously and think about often. How are we growing in the ways we live out
our faith in our daily actions?
Questions: Review the
questions above.
Prayer: Lord Jesus,
help us see how we have grown (or not grown) in our faith in the recent
past. Show us our opportunities to grow
right now. Make us more and more people
of mercy, love, and understanding. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for the many victims of several mass shootings over the holiday weekend.
Song: What’s So Funny
About Peace, Love, and Understanding – Taylor Momsen
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