Monday 1 June 2015

Making a difference

And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. – Jude 1.22-23

Despite all of the opposition that is going to come and despite the attempt by the false teachers to corrupt the church and pervert the grace of God we still have a task ahead of us. While we are building up our faith and such we also must be trying to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are told here that the very best way to to earnestly contend for the faith is to share our faith with others. This is the only way we have to try and fix the broken world.

While love is our motivation Jude tells us here that we approach different people different ways. By the way, I like that he still got to write a little bit about salvation like he wanted to do at the start.

Some folks need compassion. There are some who are loved to Christ. Many folks, from my experience the vast majority, are reached by showing them the love of Christ. The love of Christ makes a difference in their lives because it is not the norm. People are looking for love – and we have all the love the world needs.

But sometimes people need to see the awfulness of sin and the terrible consequences of sin. God’s hatred for sin is all they will listen to. These needs to pulled out of their sin. They need to fear the wrath of God.

There is no one way to make a difference. That is why we need to preach the full word of God. We need to preach the love of God and the wrath of God in order to make a difference.

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