exercising my literacy

Hate the clothing, love the wearer.

"In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings... yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals -- these are the very things that destroy them.

These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires, they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

But you dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear - hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh."

(Mish-mash of verses in Jude from v8-22)

What are they like?
- Dreamers, idealists
- Critics who speak abusively against what they don't understand (ie. God)
- Grumblers and faultfinders (esp in Christianity)
- Boastful about themselves

What should we be like?
- Build ourselves up in faith
- Pray to the Holy Spirit
- Keep ourselves in God's love
- Wait for Jesus' mercy
- Be merciful - to those who doubt, to others (presumably the ones that do more than doubt) - mercy mixed with fear, and hating their clothing.

What have I learnt?
- Jude is not afraid to call it as it is - he doesn't skirt around the bush to identify what people in the world are like, he isn't afraid of being politically incorrect or offensive.

- Jude does not follow with "have nothing to do with them, spit on them, hate them" etc. His next section warns us how to guard ourselves, because it is all too easy to be influenced by the people around us. He calls for us to cling onto the Trinity (pray to the Spirit, remember God's love and Christ's mercy).

- Directly after he calls us to await Jesus' mercy, he repeatedly calls us to be merciful to these people that he rather unsavourly described. We are not to treat them with disdain, but the same attitude that Christ held out for us. We are to snatch them from the fire and save them. We can still hate their clothing, but we are to have compassion on them.

Don't get tripped up by the world; don't get on a high horse. Cling to God, love His people. And it's the only way our sin-hating and people-loving God would have it.

posted by me. @ 6:40 AM