Hold firmly to the teaching

My dear friends, I was doing my best to write to you about the salvation we share in common, when I felt the need to write at once to encourage you to fight on for the faith which once and for all God has given to his people. For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, people who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received. (verses 3,4)

Read Jude 1-16

If Jude was writing to us today he might well warn us of the way the New Age movement is sneaking in under false pretences as a threat to biblical doctrine, here called ‘the faith’.

People can mouth Christian phrases, quote Bible verses, sing new songs but still refuse to accept the right of Jesus to control and guide their lives. Even for some who claim to be Christians all insights are equally valid and you are free to shape your own morality.

Jude urges the church to put in every effort to hold on to the ‘once and for all’ faith, while still addressing current issues in a relevant Christ-centred way.

Make me alert, Lord, to how basic Christian truths are being distorted and undermined by the ‘spirit of our age’. Amen.

by Paul Lohe, in ‘Assurance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2004)

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