“And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.”
Jude 1:22-23 NLT
These two verses are powerful for the Christian ethic. While not being nearly as long winded as Paul in 1 Corinthians, with his “noisy gong,” passage, Jude manages to bring a roper orientation of mercy and love to the art of apologizing our faith. Here we see that our motivation should be that of mercy. For many Christians, the opposite is true. The position of power afforded by right facts about who God is, can be easily drained of his heart-set to create a monstrous machine that ridicules and overlords and values being right rather than being righteous. This should not be so. Christian’s are to view our humanity as a field of dying souls to be saved, as we were saved. Thankfully Jude adds a necessary caution. This rescue involves an easy descent back into perdition. Sin is like a siren song that can hypnotize us and lull us back out of our discipleship. We must be aware and cautious when we try to help others. These two verses are very needed in today’s inward focused climate. We must always remember to be vigilant in actively adopting the active mindset of Christ. He managed to embody the balance of acting with justice against the right, but not righteous, with being famed among his dissenters, to this day, as merciful and compassionate.
JOSH McGARY. COM 