But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”  These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.  Jude 17 – 21

Having exposed the self-centered heresy, Jude turns to his dear friends with comfort, wisdom and instruction.   That heresies have appeared among the believers should not shock us, or them.  So what shall we do?  Jude has just encouraged them to recognize that the self-seeking desire is the door to heresy. This needs to be faced and exposed for what it is, a Christ-diminishing heresy. If it goes on unchallenged, the entire group of sincere believers suffers.  Therefore, it is imperative that blatant heresies among them must be exposed and condemned.

Now he turns to the positives.  Build yourselves up in your most holy faith.  Jude does not suggest that they redo their foundations because the foundation stands firm forever – the Lord Jesus Christ.  Rather, build on Him.

Never, ever leave that foundation, ever.  That is sure – Jesus Christ is Lord.  If our relationship with Jesus Christ is secure then we can go on to build on that unshakable foundation. That is what Jude calls your most holy faith.

Then he encourages them to pray in the Holy Spirit. What does that mean?  It means to pray, of course, and to continue to pray and to always submit your spirit as you pray to the counsel and wisdom of the Holy Spirit of God. That is sure defense for heresy that places self at the center and not the Spirit of the Lord.  So we must guard our prayer life that we submit to Jesus Christ and not to our self-centered demands.

Then Jude uses an expression that I have tried to comprehend and embrace fully, keep yourself in God’s love.  What does that mean?   For me it means remembering always that I am saved by grace, by the enduring love of God.  I have no other plea.  I must beware of the temptation, then, as life goes on, to forget all about that and seek freedom or some gift that is contrary to the love of God that received me in the first place. I must learn, daily, to wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, not to rush ahead with questionable motives, but to rest on Him, as I first knew him and received him into my life as Lord and Savior. He will work in my life to bring me to eternal life.