Going to Jesus

Daily Thoughts

 Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:

• Collection

  Thoughts for the Morning Thoughts for the Evening Random Thoughts

• Month

  January February March April May June July August September October November December

• Day

  05-01 Separating Yourself 05-02 Keeping the Law, Part 1 05-03 Keeping the Law, Part 2 05-04 Forsaking Christ 05-05 Going to Mount Sinai 05-06 Going to Mount Sinai, Response 1 05-07 Going to Mount Sinai, Response 2 05-08 Accursed 05-09 “I Make Myself the Transgressor” 05-10 “I Am Not Lying!” 05-11 Titus 05-12 Free From Law 05-13 The Spirit of Law 05-14 The Best State of Man 05-15 What Is God Always Doing? 05-16 Convincing The Jews 05-17 Convincing The Jews, Response 1 05-18 Convincing The Jews, Response 2 05-19 “Showing forth the Lord’s Death” 05-20 How Did The Spirit Come? 05-21 In A World Without God, Part 1 05-22 In A World Without God, Part 2 05-23 In A World Without God, Part 3 05-24 In A World Without God, Part 4 05-25 The Only True Thing 05-26 The Gospel Cannot Be Forced 05-27 Two Gospels 05-28 Doubt Leads to Damnation 05-29 What A Cult Is 05-30 Not Much of a Christian 05-31 God, Plus Zero

 

Thought for the Morning
5-01

Separating Yourself

Hi John,

I have a question. I was reading in the book of Jude and came to verse 18 and 19 where Jude said, “How that they told you there should be mockers in the last times, who should walk after their own ungodly lust. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit.” I read in verse 4 where Jude said, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.” John, do these men have the holy ghost and just have a different spirit? Or is Jude saying like he did in the end of 19, they have not the spirit? That they do not have the holy ghost?

Thanks

Stuart

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Hi Stuart:

The people referred to in Jude 18-19 are the same men referred to in verse 4. In verses 18-19, Jude is using the phrase “having not the Spirit” the same way that Paul used it in 1Corinthians 7:40 when giving advice to young women: “But she is happier if she so abide [unmarried], after my judgment, and I think also that I have the Spirit of God.” Now, Paul knew he had received the Spirit, but he meant that he thought he was being led in his judgment by the Spirit. The men to whom Jude refers also had received the Spirit, but they did not “have the Spirit” in the way they had chosen to live and worship God.

In verse 18, Jude said that these men “separate themselves”. This refers to the mentality of Christians, who voluntarily divide themselves from each other by joining and supporting different sects, with their conflicting doctrines and traditions. If we are divided from any of God’s children because of anything other than what God has done to us, we are sinners and the greatest hypocrites of all because we know better. But if obeying the truth separates us from the saints, then so be it and praise God for it. Jesus and Paul warned us that there must come divisions in the body of Christ. But God forbid that we should of our own will separate ourselves from the children of God.

Pastor John

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Pastor John:

It is quite odd, how Christians very often accuse us of separating ourselves when they hear us proclaim the “coming out” message.

Gary

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Yes, that is how it must appear to anyone who has not heard and understood the call of God to “come out of her my people.” Thank God that, as the old hymn says, “I have heard the call of Jesus, and I’m on my journey home.”

Pastor John