2 Peter, Jude

Today's passage: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20peter%201-3;%20jude&version=NIV

Jude and Peter are calling Christians to fight in the midst of intense spiritual warfare. The attack is coming through apostates – those who abandon true biblical faith, teaching lies, twisting scripture and denying Christ as Savior.

It’s interesting that both authors give us a detailed description of the apostates, rather than a description of their false teachings. The lies and false teachings have changed over the years, but the character of the false teacher remains the same. We will often be able to tell an apostate by their character. They are ungodly, morally perverted, rebellious and corrupt. They are self seeking, arrogant speakers who deny Christ as Savior. They are flatterers, mockers, ignorant, fault finders who cause division.

These apostates teach lies and the only way to know that they are lies is to know truth. Peter and Jude both motivate us to continue to build our knowledge of true doctrine as a defense against false teaching. Satan twisted scripture in order to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, but Jesus’ knowledge of true doctrine allowed him to defend against his lies.

Jude also encourages us to defend ourselves from the apostates:
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. (Jude 20-21).

We are to keep ourselves in the love of God. In order to keep ourselves in the love of God, we must know God. We must know who he is and what he has done and what he will do. We must build our faith and build our relationship with God. We must know that we have the promise of eternal life because of His grace, through our faith. We must know truth and defend ourselves against lies.

Do you know any apostates? We are surrounded by them – talk show hosts, authors, radio hosts, motivational speakers, movie producers, professors, and even pastors will have us believe that we that we should seek to satisfy our fleshly desires and that we don’t need a Savior or that there are multiple saviors. Like Jesus, we must arm ourselves with the knowledge of His love and saving grace in order to defend ourselves and fight the good fight.

Friends, our time of reading the Bible together is drawing near its end. I encourage you to earnestly pray for God to build your desire to continue reading his Word. Pray that you will continue seeking knowledge of Him and his love. Pray that He will guide you in your next step in studying his word. I will pray these things for each of you as well. We must remain steadfast in our defense against lies so that we do not fall prey to them.

Today's post submitted by Kelly Coxe