Verse 20-21 “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Significantly, Jude does not tell us to attack the certain men who are a danger to the church. Instead, he tells us to focus on our walk with the Lord, help others affected by the certain men, and to focus on God. We simply are to pay the certain men no attention, except for what is necessary for our warning. God will take care of them. From this we see that we are responsible for our development in Christ. He saves us, but that is not the end, we have a work to do and are responsible for “building up yourselves on your most holy faith”. 2 Peter 1; 5-7 gives us 8 steps of development. “Praying in the Holy Ghost” The battle against wrong living and wrong teaching is a spiritual battle. Many of our prayers can be directed by our own needs, by our own intellects, or by our own wishes and desires. The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, Romans 8:26-27.
“Such is our sloth, and that such is the coldness of our flesh, that no one can pray aright except he be roused by the Spirit of God… no one can pray as he ought without having the Spirit as his guide.” (Calvin)
So by these previous ways we are encouraged that we are able to keep walking with God and receive His love and fellowship, as we build ourselves up and commune with Him. And as John Wesley said, we have “the confident expectation of that eternal life which is purchased for you, and conferred upon you, through the mere mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Verse 22, 23
“And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”
So Jude has warned us of apostates, what to look for, and he has shown us the ways to build up our faith and now he is showing what our response to this should be.
Our duty is to be a faithful witness. He gives us advise to this end.
He draws to our attention to the fact that all men cannot be dealt with the same, some we will have to show compassion to, others give a strong warning to. We have to use wisdom when dealing with people. Peter points this out also in 1 Peter 3;15
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”
The first way mentioned is “compassion”, so we have to show love to them, no matter what the sin is that they have done, or, are involved in. We are not to hate them, but can hate the sin. We are to show concern for them and their salvation. Wesley said “Meantime watch over others as well as yourselves; and give them such help as their various needs require”.
The second way is “fear”. This second group of people must be confronted more strongly. They have not accepted salvation through our examples of love, so must be warned of what awaits them - eternal punishment by “fire”.
Of course we have to remember that it is not us that saves them, but we are only witnesses and are dependant on the Holy Spirit moving on people in conviction.
The spotted garment refers to the sin that covers the people, that garment needs to be removed so the person can be clean of sin - we see a reference to this in Zechariah 3, where the high priest, Joshua, has his filthy garments removed. Note that it is the garments (sin) that we are to hate, not the person.
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