The Monday after the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 13, 2025 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
When St. Jude says, “keep yourselves in the love of God,” it sounds like we are the ones doing the “keeping”, or so many interpret it. They assume that God would never command something that is impossible, therefore it follows—so they think—that it is God who saves us, but it is up to us and our own powers to “keep ourselves” saved.
But this is a mishandling of both the divine Law and of St. Jude. For Scripture also commands, “you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48), and only the foolish believe they can do this. The Law does not change because we fail to keep it; we are still guilty. As for St. Jude, he answers his own dilemma with the message of God’s mercy, calling Him, “Him who is able to keep you,” so that we would not trust in our own power but in His.
Furthermore, the context shows that St. Jude is writing to Christians who have been renewed in Baptism. These possess from the Holy Spirit the power to cooperate with the Triune God, which consists of repentance and not resisting the work of God, so that He remains the active “worker”, rather than us sinners. This is realized in the Divine Service, where it is God and His Word which produce the Sacraments, and the Christian is merely a passive, though willing, participant.
Collect: 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.
