The Monday after the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 28, 2026 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
Jude spends much of his epistle warning about wickedness and its consequences. But in these verses his tone changes to emphasize love and mercy. The kingdom of God and His righteousness focuses on both justice and grace. God’s Word teaches discipline, but it also teaches forgiveness. The Law and the Gospel are certainly not incompatible! They are the aspects of His Word, which restores us to life and builds us up in true faith.
Those who are openly rebellious and faithless must be warned and corrected. It is appropriate to hate the disobedience of man’s fleshly pride. “The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity” (Ps. 5:5). But God also has compassion on the wicked. He hopes for our repentance and our restoration to faith and life in Him; and He teaches the Church to seek the same for all people. “ ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways!’” (Ezek. 33:11).
Those who reject the Lord’s mercy and ignore His rebuke will be subject to His justice, in that they will suffer eternal fire and darkness. Still, He continues to declare His love and mercy through the Church, as it confesses the Gospel of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, until He comes again in all His glory!
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.
