Jude

Beloved, remember the words spoken beforehand
by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit.
Keep yourselves in the love of God
and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
that leads to eternal life.
On those who waver, have mercy; 
save others by snatching them out of the fire;
on others have mercy with fear,
abhorring even the outer garment stained by the flesh.

Today's reading comes to us from the pen of Jude who styles himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James. Both of these would signify to the Hebrew readers at the time that the writer was an apostle and the James that is referred to would have been James, the bishop of Jerusalem who was identified by Paul as "the brother of the Lord."   This would have made Jude one of the Twelve Apostles.  Apart from this, there is little more that is known of the writer of this epistle except he was honored for his relationship with Jesus.  This makes what he tells us in his very short letter that much more important.  He exhorts us to build up our faith through prayer, to keep ourselves in the love of God and to wait for that which will bring us to eternal life.  He tells us to have mercy on those who waver and to do what we can to save those who are heading the wrong way and to stay away from even the outward appearance of sin.  

All of the things he is asking us to do are good things and things that the other writers in the New Testament have exhorted us to do as well.  I think that the most important part of this letter, for me, are the words calling me to have mercy on those who waver.  It is not for me to be the one to reset someone's moral compass for I am not walking in the brother's shoes and do not have any idea of what currents in life have propelled him down, which to me, appears to be the wrong road.  On the other hand, it is my business to see that these people are not lost to the fire.  I must be ready to snatch them back from the brink.  For this service, I might be thanked or I might be told to mind my own business by the one in trouble.  Either way, I must be there to help if I can and show the one that is on the wrong path to show them that they are loved and that the community would miss them if they continued on the path that they are on. 

So, let us stay awake and alert as we await the return of Jesus either at His second coming at the end of the world or when He calls us home.