Jude wrote a hard letter he hadn't planned to.
Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all, Jude 3. He had a warm letter in mind. Then word reached him of what was happening in the churches, and he set the warm letter aside.
What he wrote instead runs twenty-five verses, and most of it burns. Cain. Balaam. Korah. Waterless clouds. Autumn trees without fruit, uprooted twice. Wandering stars bound for blackest darkness. The trouble is not out in the world somewhere. It has come inside and is right among them.
Then the last two verses change key... significantly...
Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen, Jude 24-25.
A man who has spent an entire letter cataloging what can go wrong closes it by telling you who is able.
Him Who Is Able
Look at who is able. Jude does not put it on the church.
Given what he had just asked of them, this is significant. But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, Jude 20-21. Build. Pray. Keep. Wait. Then show mercy to the doubting and pull others out of the fire, Jude 22-23.
So which is it? Do we keep ourselves, or does God keep us? Jude covers it in the same paragraph and never stops to explain how they fit.
We are told to keep ourselves.
We are kept.
How the Two Fit
The word “to keep,” tēreō, which means to guard, runs throughout the letter, appearing five times.
He opens with it. To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, Jude 1. Passive voice. Something was done to them.
He uses it twice on the angels, who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling. God has therefore kept them in eternal chains, Jude 6. They failed to keep. They are kept now, though not in a way anyone would want.
Then he focuses on his readers. Keep yourselves in the love of God, Jude 21. Active voice. Imperative. Your move.
Jude never tells you to keep yourself loved. He tells you to keep yourself in the love of God. God’s love is not the thing in question here. Your address is. Stay where the keeping happens.
Now see how he says to do it. Building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, Jude 20-21. Build on a faith that was handed to you, Jude 3. Pray in the Spirit. Wait for a mercy you cannot produce yourself. Every one of those is a receiving action. Our keeping does not supply what God’s keeping lacks. Our keeping is standing where his keeping does its work.
Paul settled this on a sinking ship. An angel told him that not one life aboard would be lost, and he stood up in front of all 276 men and said so, Acts 27.22-24. A few hours later, some sailors tried to slip away in the skiff, and Paul told the centurion, Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved, Acts 27.31. Same man, same night, no contradiction. God had guaranteed the outcome. Staying aboard was how the guarantee arrived.
The angels are the sober half of this. They stood nearer the throne than any of us has ever stood, and they left it. Being kept does not mean you cannot walk away.
Stay in the ship. He is the one who brings her in.
Kept From Stumbling
The word Jude chose for stumbling appears nowhere else in the New Testament. It conveys sure-footedness, and the Greeks used it for a horse that kept its feet on bad ground.
Notice what is not being promised. Nobody is guaranteed level ground. What God guarantees is that your feet stay under you on the trail you are already on.
Watch a young father cross an icy parking lot with a toddler. The child has one finger in his fist. His feet slide out from under him three times before they reach the car, and he never once hits the pavement. He is not a good walker. The hand above him simply will not turn loose. Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord supports him with his hand, Psalm 37.24.
Made to Stand
To make you stand in the presence of his glory.
Stand where? In front of God. That is the moment most of us quietly dread, because we know what we are and we remember what our life looked like.
So read the next phrase slowly. Without blemish. That is the language of sacrifice taken straight out of Leviticus, where the lamb was brought to the altar and inspected and passed. Peter uses the same word of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, 1 Peter 1.19. Jude turns around and uses it of you.
And how do we arrive? With great joy. This is not describing the feeling of relief or somehow slipping in a side door hoping nobody pulls the record. The word describes exultation, the kind of gladness that will not sit still. Paul says it from another angle. I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus, Philippians 1.6.
If You Are Struggling Today
Some of you keep tripping over the same sin. The same one. Ten years running, and you have confessed it so many times the words have worn thin. Read verse 24 again. He is able to keep you from stumbling, and the fact that you still hate what you did shows he has not let you go.
Others fear falling less than not finishing. You look down the road at the years still ahead and wonder whether you have enough left. You do not. He does. The one who presents you is the one who holds you.
And some of you are simply tired. The season has been long. Something is wrong at home, or at work, or in your body, and it has been wrong a while now. Jude never tells you to grip harder. He tells you who is holding on.
So what will you do with this today? Whose strength have you been counting on this week? What are you carrying that God never asked you to carry by yourself? When were you last grateful for a fall you never took?
Jude had every reason to end this letter with a warning. He ended it with a doxology. He is able.
