Monday after the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 27, 2021 by under
Scripture: Jude 20-25 (NKJV)
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
24 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,
25 to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
Devotion
St. Jude in the final verses of his Epistle says there is a distinction to be made. The distinction centers on what sort of garment a person is wearing. Those whose garments are “defiled by the flesh” are those who live in continuous, unrepentant sin. Their sinful behavior is not to be tolerated. He gives us the image that they are inside of a fire. They are being burned and destroyed by their own willful, impenitent sinning. The Lord God cannot tolerate impenitent sinning. We are to keep ourselves from such sins and to keep ourselves from supporting such sins. Many in our society either live in the sin of homosexuality, or support it. To support this sin is to allow a person to remain burning in fire. Their garments are defiled.
The Church can show compassion not by condoning the sin, but by calling those who commit such sins to repentance. Through the preaching of the Word of God, especially the Law, the Church shows compassion by pulling openly manifest sinners out of the fire. Some will cling to their impenitence and remain in the fire, rebuking the Word and admonition of the Lord God. Those who do repent and cling in faith to the Christ, however, will have their defiled garments removed and will be given the pure and spotless white robes of the righteousness of the Christ. Only through His obedience to the Law and His sacrifice for us does mankind have salvation.
Prayer: Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil and with pure hearts and minds to follow Thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
