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

¹⁸ While walk­ing by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two broth­ers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, cast­ing a net into the sea, for they were fish­er­men. ¹⁹And he said to them, “Fol­low me, and I will make you fish­ers of men.” ²⁰Imme­di­ately they left their nets and fol­lowed him. ²¹And going on from there he saw two other broth­ers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mend­ing their nets, and he called them.²²Imme­di­ately they left the boat and their father and fol­lowed him.
MATTHEW 4:18–22 ESV

Jesus is call­ing out and ask­ing us to leave behind the ways of the world. He is ask­ing these young, enter­pris­ing, fish­er­men to walk in a dif­fer­ent kind of inher­i­tance. He is ask­ing them to leave behind all they know and are accus­tomed to. He is call­ing them to a new kind of life.

The call of Christ remains as true as it was heard by these fish­er­men two thou­sand years ago. It remains as true as it was heard by the Body of Christ, the Church, through the voice of the Spirit in the book of Acts. Now it calls out to all who would hear the Spirit’s voice, echo­ing Jesus’ call to these unas­sum­ing fishermen.

The call of Christ implies our leav­ing behind of our old lives. This is both an inter­nal, spir­i­tual belief and an exter­nal, prac­ti­cal out­work­ing. The call of Christ demands of us not a men­tal ascent but sim­ple obe­di­ence to the invitation.

Christ’s call leads us into a life of fol­low­ing Him to what­ever end. A life set apart for the sake of Christ is one clear of all other alle­giances. These men will­ingly gave up busi­ness, money, and earthly pos­ses­sions. They were part of a spe­cial, rag­tag group that Jesus chose to be His clos­est con­fi­dants dur­ing His earthly ministry.

The life that is set apart for the sake of Christ is the life of dis­ci­ple­ship. This sort of a life is not lived for itself; it is a life that does not pur­sue plea­sure, hap­pi­ness, a name, or any­thing of sig­nif­i­cance. It is a life lived in view of Christ, for Christ, and through Christ. These men will­ingly gave up all and now fol­lowed Jesus to what­ever end He would ask of them.

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