I, Jude, am a slave to Jesus Christ and brother to James, writ­ing to those loved by God the Father, called and kept safe by Jesus Christ. Relax, everything’s going to be all right; rest, everything’s com­ing together; open your hearts, love is on the way!
Mes­sage

What does it mean when Jude says “slave to Christ”? Jude’s life was so given over to the per­son and work of Christ, that he con­sid­ered him­self a slave to Jesus. He was a dou­los, one who will­ingly gave up his life for the ser­vice of his mas­ter. May we grow in the real­ity of Christ as our Mas­ter, and that our lives are com­pletely under Him.

As Chris­tians, as those who fol­low Jesus, we are (1) loved by God, (2) called by Christ into rela­tion­ship, and (3) kept safe in the beauty of that rela­tion­ship by His power. As Chris­tians, it is not our power, our sheer force of will, or our schem­ing that we are being saved. God’s restor­ing grace and power is work­ing in our lives. The Holy Spirit is reveal­ing Christ in our lives. Jesus holds it all together for us. Our lives are found com­plete in sub­mis­sion to Jesus.

In our fol­low­ing and sub­mit­ting to God, in our accep­tance of the Father’s love, in our will­ing­ness to fol­low Jesus in kingdom-​​living, in our daily sub­mit­ting to the Spirit, we find mean­ing and pur­pose. There is no moun­tain, no val­ley, no obsta­cle, no prob­lem, no cir­cum­stance that can sup­plant the supremacy of rela­tion­ship with God. In that inter­ac­tion of life lived sim­ply in beau­ti­ful rela­tion­ship with God, we find that all of life comes under His Lordship.

There is an increase of kind­ness and gen­tle­ness in our lives, where we reveal God’s good­ness. There is an increase of hope which leads us to live at peace, know­ing that God is work­ing all things together for our good. There is an increase of love, know­ing that God’s love is work­ing in our lives and we can but only love more.

Ques­tions To Consider

1. Jude reminds us of the beauty of a grow­ing, thriv­ing rela­tion­ship with God. He reminds us that we can live in the real­ity of God at work in our lives. How is the real­ity of Jesus grow­ing in your life?
2. Jude speaks of us being loved, called, and kept by God. How does the love of God affect how you view your­self and the world around you? How does know­ing that you are called and kept by God, affect your circumstances?
3. Jude pro­claims that every­thing is going to work out. How is it pos­si­ble that we can trust God in the midst of our bro­ken­ness or suf­fer­ing or hard­ship? How do we hold fast to the hope we have in Christ?

It was Mar­tin Luther King Jr. day yes­ter­day. Dr. King was a true hero, in the same breath as oth­ers we con­sider great and mighty in our Chris­t­ian tra­di­tion. Intrigue and admi­ra­tion would be what I think of, when­ever I’ve thought of this great man.

As a Chris­t­ian, Dr. King grace­fully and duti­fully held on to the impli­ca­tions of com­pas­sion, jus­tice, and truth. It was never just about black equal­ity or anti-​​war sen­ti­ments. He appro­pri­ately responded to what he saw around him in soci­ety and culture.

Dr. King was not tempted by the ease of the ‘unex­am­ined life’. He did not wait for soci­ety to change or adjust. He saw a sit­u­a­tion, spoke up, and did some­thing about it. He tried to mir­ror Jesus in his words, actions, and lifestyle. He was will­ing to stand up for what was right regard­less of the obsta­cles he faced.

As Chris­tians, we would honor the mem­ory of Dr. King, not by our adu­la­tion of the man him­self, but by instead look­ing to the bedrock of Dr. King’s faith and action in the per­son of Jesus. As a Christ-​​follower, Jesus would ask me to bear out the impli­ca­tions of fol­low­ing Him.

When I encounter the bro­ken­ness of the world around me
When I see my brother or sis­ter in need
When evil and injus­tice have trans­planted right­eous­ness and truth
When it is eas­ier for me to live in Christianity’s cocoon of reli­gios­ity
When my beliefs and ideals do not agree with my prac­tice and lifestyle

As I look at the life of Dr. King I am con­vinced more than ever, that if we incar­nate Jesus to the world around us, we will make a mas­sive dif­fer­ence. Stones might be thrown our way, our words might be mis­con­strued, our actions might be mis­rep­re­sented, and we might even have to give up our lives for a greater cause.

It wouldn’t be easy or fun, but it would be ful­fill­ing and sac­ri­fi­cial. Our first and per­fect exam­ple in all of this is Jesus…

I some­times won­der what life would be like in Amer­ica for me, a non-​​white immi­grant, if nobody fought for Civil Rights…

Dr. King lived true to what Jesus would asked of him, in the face of seem­ingly insur­mount­able obstacles.

I know I can too…

Jesus went through­out Galilee, teach­ing in their syn­a­gogues, pro­claim­ing the good news of the king­dom, and heal­ing every dis­ease and sick­ness among the peo­ple. News about him spread all over Syria, and peo­ple brought to him all who were ill with var­i­ous dis­eases, those suf­fer­ing severe pain, the demon-​​possessed, those hav­ing seizures, and the par­a­lyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapo­lis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jor­dan fol­lowed him. Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a moun­tain­side and sat down. His dis­ci­ples came to him, and he began to teach them.
Matthew 4:23–5:2 ESV

Jesus begins His earthly min­istry with His dis­ci­ples in tow. They were fol­low­ing their rabbi going where He went, doing what He did, say­ing what He said, but they real­ized some­thing alto­gether dif­fer­ent about this rabbi from the oth­ers they were aware of.

It was com­mon­place for a rabbi to travel through­out Judea, speak­ing in syn­a­gogues and teach­ing in vil­lages. The dif­fer­ence was Jesus’ announce­ment and procla­ma­tion of some­thing. His mes­sage was not a rehash­ing of ancient sto­ries and reli­gious tra­di­tion. He was not redefin­ing some nuance of the Jew­ish scrip­tures in His teach­ing. There was some­thing dif­fer­ent about this rabbi.

More than just the ‘announce­ment’ of a new king­dom, Jesus was heal­ing, cast­ing out demons, and gath­er­ing a large fol­low­ing. The peo­ple were amazed at this man. Who was he? Where did he come from? How was he able to do all this?

These dis­ci­ples were wit­nesses to Christ’s teach­ing, mir­a­cles, and grow­ing fol­low­ing. They were prob­a­bly ask­ing the same ques­tions the crowd was ask­ing. Their fol­low­ing of Jesus was excit­ing, new, and fresh. It was an adven­ture, and they were part of some­thing special.

As we begin fol­low­ing Christ, we expe­ri­ence the won­der and mys­tery of this new life. We are like these dis­ci­ples, tak­ing in Christ and His mir­a­cles. We are thank­ful to be a part of the jour­ney. We are receiv­ing and wit­ness­ing some­thing alto­gether new and sur­real. It is an adventure.

In this adven­ture, Jesus gath­ers His dis­ci­ples unto Him­self. The dis­ci­ples require a foun­da­tion to their dis­ci­ple­ship. What does it mean to fol­low Him? What are the impli­ca­tions of the Christ-​​life? Jesus begins teach­ing His dis­ci­ples of a life that fol­lows Him.

In our fol­low­ing of Jesus, we can­not be sat­is­fied with the adven­ture and won­der of the miracle-​​working Jesus. We must sit at the rabbi’s feet and glean from His teach­ing. His mes­sage must travel deep into our minds and heart. It must be grap­pled with and applied in our lives. We must, like these dis­ci­ples, be gath­ered unto Christ, ready and wait­ing for His words to pen­e­trate our souls.

small sec­tion of a man­u­script I’m cur­rently work­ing on, going through Matthew 5–7, Jesus’ Ser­mon on the Mount