KEEP YOURSELVES IN THE LOVE OF GOD
JUDE 20-22

―Keep yourselves in the love of God―

What are we keeping?;
1 JOHN 4:10
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 JOHN 4:19
19 We love because he first loved us.

ROMANS 8:35
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?…

Who is keeping?;
1 PETER 1:5
5 …who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

2 TIMOTHY 1:12
12 … I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

What does it mean to ‘keep ourselves in the love of God?’;
LUKE 15:11–13
11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

JOHN 15:9–10
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 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.


―Building yourselves up in your most holy faith―

Faith: subjective or objective?;
JUDE 3
3 …contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Who is doing this building?;
EPHESIANS 2:22
22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

1 PETER 2:4–5
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

PHILIPPIANS 2:12–13
12 …work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:10
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

How are we to do this building?;
ROMANS 10:17
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

JOHN 17:17
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Applying ourselves to the Word with a view towards obedience;
JAMES 1:25
25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

MATTHEW 7:24
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

ACTS 20:32
32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

1 PETER 2:1–2
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

Hearing the Word while failing to obey produces hardness;
HEBREWS 3:15–17
15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

This building up takes places primarily in the corporate setting of the Church;
EPHESIANS 2:19–22
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

ACTS 2:42
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

―Praying in the Holy Spirit―

The contrast;
JUDE 19
19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

Praying in submission and dependance;
EPHESIANS 6:18
18 …praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication…

ROMANS 8:26–28
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

―Waiting on the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ―

Living all of life in expectation and longing for Christ’s return;
LUKE 2:25
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

LUKE 23:51
51 [Joseph of Arimathea] had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God.

TITUS 2:13
13 …waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 TIMOTHY 4:8
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.


6/29/2025