SCRIPTURE: Jude 1:1-10

OBSERVATION:
Jude addresses a serious concern in this church: unconverted “Christians”, wolves in sheep’s clothing, who twist the message to justify their own greed and immorality. Jude shows that such people have plagued God’s people through the ages, and that the outcome is the same for all of them – God will separate the wheat from the weeds. Jude describes these ‘wolves’ as: godless, immoral, denying Jesus as Lord, dreamers, rejecting authority, slandering spiritual beings, and twisting what “truth” they do know to their own destruction.

APPLICATION:
Are there people like this in the church today? I do not see evidence of them at Hope, at least not to this extreme degree. There are no doubt weak or even unconverted “Christians” (in name only) but they are not as explicit in their destructive behaviour. Nevertheless, we should all be open to checking our hearts: are we sincere, are we striving to imitate Christ, are we submitting to authority, are we critical in spirit, are we worldly in our commitments, are we living double lives? May we not become the kind of people that twist the truth to our own destruction.

PRAYER:
Lord, open my eyes to see ways that I am even remotely like these godless people Jude refers to. Help me to surrender my heart to You again, and to be a lamb and not a wolf among Your people. Amen.