Defend and Protect

Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.           Jude 3

Jude, the half brother of Jesus changed his mind concerning the subject he wanted to convey. He wanted to write and encourage his readers in their salvation, and that is a noble and wise subject, but now he wants them to defend it because it is under attack. Even in the days of the early church there were those who attacked it.

But who is the small book of Jude written to? Strangely, it is the church of his day and that means only one thing. The people who needed to start defending the faith are the very people who were already in the churches, some of whom were the problem. Ouch. So let me get this right, the biggest problem back then, and even now in our day, are those ‘loosely’ worshipping in the same church as the defenders of that same faith. All we need to do is figure out which is which and where we stand. Not as easy as it looks, and doing anything about it would certainly ruffle a few feathers.

Tell you what. Let’s pretend we didn’t come across this verse, and just ignore it. After all, who would know? Somebody might think we are part of the problem and we can’t be having that! I don’t like it when the Bible talks to me like that. Well, do you?

The Untarnished Gospel

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. Romans 1:16

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13

Possibly like you, I have sat under many sermons and from many differing churches and pastors. Sometimes I did not recognise the gospel that brought me to Christ. I believe we can be guilty of making the gospel something it is not. At the risk of offending or saying something out of turn, let me share with you some of the things that the gospel is NOT.

The gospel is NOT:

A talk on history. Not even middle east history.

A lecture on Sociology.

A discourse on Psychology

A comparison of religion to science

… If I needed any of these improvements to my education, I would go back to University or Night Classes. My own thought is that these things can be used to show how clever or knowledgeable the preacher is. They do not have anything to do with the gospel, the grace of God or our salvation.

When will we get back to basics and preach the whole gospel in our various churches? Our wise God gave us all that we need to know, through His Word, and the advice to young pastor Timothy when he encouraged him, and us, to:

Preach the Word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favourable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2

'Bond'age

A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1 NIV

What's in a name? Not a lot you may say, but what if it is a good name? And I don't mean a fine posh society name, I mean a name of a good family or pedigree? In royal or high society circles it means a lot. It tells character, and shows integrity. Well it is supposed to, except we have seen that some of the people we once associated with integrity, have abused the name. You only have to look at the reputation of politicians for example to see where a good name can be easily lost, and tarnished. A name that may have taken generations to make good, can be lost in minutes. The Christian family name is not immune. I happens to us too.

I was told by my dad that “a man's word is his bond”, and the description has stuck with me. When all else has been taken away from a person, he or she can still be left with a good name. We can all relate to good people who are not rich in financial wealth, but have integrity. It is their character, and probably has taken many years for them to get to the place where others grant them the honour of being someone who keeps their word. Sadly, I have also seen that same good reputation be lost in a short time. My concern is that there may never be enough time on this earth to regain that good reputation.  

Since a man's word is his bond, it follows that when we give our word, we are 'bonded' to the promise. That means many things, but primarily that you stake your own reputation on keeping your word. You are in 'bond'age to your word. What a thought. We give our word to our children, our friends, and our marriage partner. We do it voluntarily, and in good faith, and we give those people our assurance that we will follow through on our word, because we are 'bond'ed to it. Our integrity is wedded to our word, and we are obliged to keep faith with our promise, at all and any cost.

However, I have to confess, from personal experience, not all promises can be kept. Some promises are taken out of our hands by circumstance, and that is understandable. Children know when a well meant promise just cannot be kept,  but I think as we get older, the significance of the word we give can get weakened. We go from understanding the reasons when some promises cannot be kept, to making excuses for not making our word our bond. Can I be so bold to suggest that sometimes we don't really want to be in bondage to our word?

A man or woman of integrity is still a special and wonderful person, and you are blessed if you have such a person in your life. Of course, we can't confer 'integrity' on ourselves. It has to be given to us by others, and when it is, guard it well, because these are the same people who will also decide that you don't deserve the honour of the name any longer. We all know it is easier to lose integrity, than it is to achieve it, so why do we sail so close to the wind and jeopardise it?