Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hey there, nice people.

You’re supposed to be nice, you know.

Uh oh…I see some NOT NICE starlings out there again…raiding the swallow nest in a bird house on a post. I can only imagine that they go in and eat eggs or babies. Of course the swallows try to dissuade the starlings by dive-bombing and heckling…but the starlings don’t really seem to mind…and go right in anyway. Hmmm…there’s a striking parallel there with our current governmental trends.

Keep looking up and have a wonderful day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

It seems to me that Jude’s primary objective in writing this letter was to warn the HELL out of his readers (that which disqualifies one for salvation) and to encourage them in practical holiness that most assuredly qualifies one for heaven (eternal life). He provides several cases of wrong responses to God’s grace and states, “They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire” (v. 7). That can mean nothing but HELL.

I’d like to give some attention to the idea of a license—say a driver’s license. It is an important document (or used to be) to hold if one is going to participate in the modern privilege of owning or operating a motorized vehicle on public roads. For good reason, the laws of every government impose rules and regulations to protect that right and prevent it from damaging the rights of others. So the possession of a driver’s license is not authorization to make one’s own roads through the fences and back yards of the neighborhood. It does not give one the right to drive into stores or on sidewalks or through all the landscaping of the city park. It is not a provision for disregarding red lights, speed limits, or right of ways. The license only grants permission to operate a vehicle within the parameters of the laws governing that permission. That makes sense to me.

Now consider carefully Jude’s words as he presents his primary concern in verses 3 and 4. Perhaps I will insert some of my own parenthetical comments along with the text. “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation (God’s ultimate objective in issuing the license of His grace) we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith (the proper and appropriate use of the license of salvation/God’s grace) that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men (though they claim to hold the same license as the saints), WHO CHANGE THE GRACE OF OUR GOD INTO A LICENSE FOR IMMORALITY and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord (failure to live in proper submission to the government and giver of the license).”

The grace of God has been issued to us ONLY as a license for holiness unto heaven. Any use of it outside those parameters is unauthorized, unacceptable, and punishable.