DAILY REMINDER – Today, December 25’s Bible reading is 2 John-Jude.
NEXT DAY REMINDER – Tomorrow, December 26’s Bible reading is Revelation
1-3. May God bless you with the reading of His WORD.
2 JOHN Introduction
The gospel was taken to the world by traveling evangelists and
missionaries during the first two centuries. Christians frequently invited them
into their homes and gave them hospitality as well as supplied them with needed
items for their journey. The false teachers also followed the same practice, so
John warned the church as to who they were and were not to help.
In this second letter, John encourages the church to be loving towards
one another in keeping with the Lord’s commandment. John also admonished them
to stay away from those teachers who taught that Jesus was not the Son of God. This
letter is believed to have been written around the same time that the first
letter was written in 90 A.D.
3 JOHN Introduction
Diotrephes, a dictatorial leader in the church, rejected the teachers of
John and went as far as to excommunicate members who were hospitable to them
and spread lies about John. Therefore, John wrote to his friend and leader of
the church, Gaius, to give him a word of encouragement. He also rebukes
Diotrephes and dealt with him personally during a later visit. This letter is
believed to have been written around the same time as the other letters – 90 A.D.
JUDE Introduction
Jude, also known as Judah in Hebrew, is believed to have been one of
Jesus’ siblings and the brother of James. His letter was written to the churches
dispersed in the Roman empire to warn them of the heretics who distorted the
faith. There were those who were going around perverting the message of grace
as if it gave them a license to sin. Jude corrected them by letting them know
that this was erroneous teaching and that they were not to live like heathens.
JUDE MOMENT – (25DEC19) “For
certain individuals whose condemnation was written about
long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who
pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus
Christ our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude vs. 4). Jude addressed
an issue that is still prominent in today’s time. There were those false
teachers who taught that Christians could live and do anything that they wanted
because they were under grace. They thought that they would not be held
accountable for their sins because after all, they were SAVED. Jude urged the
Christians to not believe such lies and to contend for the faith. He went
further to say that those who taught and practiced such things were already
condemned and were ungodly. Jude reminded them that even though God had rescued
their ancestors out of Egypt, He destroyed the unbelieving in the wilderness as
He will do with the angels who abandoned their positions in Heaven. Jude also
reminded them that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of their sexual
perversion and wickedness, so God will do the same thing again in the end to
those who willfully live in sin and follow the ways of Cain and Balaam.
Jesus is coming back, and He is the Righteous Judge.
There will be no sin entering into Heaven and all who wants to abuse the grace
that we have been given will find themselves being destroyed by fire in the
end. Therefore, we are to act in accordance to the faith that we claim to
possess and not abuse the grace that the Lord Jesus has made possible for us to
have by His blood. Something to ponder….
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