Building Faith Straight and True

Jude 1:20-23 

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 
22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

What are we exhorted to do with Jude’s pleading and concern?  We are to to build on the foundation of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10-13, Acts 20:32), becoming what we are called to in Him.  This is a matter of both personal accountability for growth as well as corporate, as we see in Ephesians 4 and other places in scripture.  This is not done in our own effort apart from God’s working, for we are called to pray in His Spirit to build upon His working in us as Philippians 2:12-13 reminds us.  This is how we keep ourselves in the love of God, doing what pleases Him by holding to and teaching the truth about the one we trust in according to His word.  This very word points us to the faith we build on by the mercy of His great grace, encouraged by the certainty of eternal life together with Him forevermore.  We will stand in His presence at last (Job 19:25-27) because of His mercy to call us to Himself, so how can we live anymore for sin and not for Him in truth, spirit, and love?  Therefore we show compassion to each other who need encouragement to salvation or for sanctification; this does not mean we indiscriminately pray and show compassion for those set against our God and His Christ, but do what we can to rescue the perishing and pulling wayward believers back to following Christ in holiness and in truth.  Keeping false teachers out of the congregation is the first step to guarding the flock (Acts 20:28-31).  Warning and pleading with them to avoid the sin that they teach is the next step.  We need to know and teach His word, cutting it straight and true. This means we need to build our faith together straight and true on sound teaching while keeping the wolves at bay.