Building One Another Up
Jesus says in John 15:9-10, “Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
And Jesus’ half-brother Jude echoes this in his letter when he exhorts those he is writing to, to help keep each other in the love of God.
To keep in the love of God is to obey the Word of God. This doesn’t mean God’s love is dependent on our obedience.
Your obedience does not control God’s love. God’s love controls you. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves. but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
To keep yourselves in the love of God is to fight to see that the love of God is what controls you. It’s to hold firm to the promises and warnings God gives us in His Word using them to direct our way of life and interpret how we view and understand our circumstances.
And one of the ways Jude encourages the church to do this is, according to verse 24 of Jude, is by “Building yourselves (one another) up in our most holy faith.” Holy faith being the gospel that has been gifted to us and all of its implications.
It should be our desire to fill our hearts and our minds with knowledge and understanding of the Word of God to strengthen ourselves and each other to press on and make it to the end. This means that knowledge of God’s Word must move beyond our mind and fuel our hearts to act in ways that benefit our brothers and sisters spiritually. This is discipleship 101!
Family, if you are not yourself growing in your knowledge and understanding of God and His Word you won’t be successful in caring for your brothers and sisters in this way. As you grow in your understanding of God and his ways you become more aware of your unholiness which leads to a deeper appreciation and love for God’s love and grace and mercy and kindness and justice and glory and majesty and dominion and authority, and it makes you want to know him more! It’s a never-ending cycle! Saints, if you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good doesn’t it only makes sense that you would want more?
Saints, seek to build one another up in our most holy faith.