Two Bookends : Fear of the Lord & Being Kept in His Love.

Scriptures: 1 Peter 2:9-10, Matthew 5:13-16

PART 1 

INTRODUCTION 

Bookends are a pair of supports that hold a row of books upright by placing one at each end of the row of books. 

As Christ’s followers, it is good to remind ourselves of some truths that help us walk close to Jesus. I am convinced that the church is the Hope for the world. For the church to be the answer, we must retain our distinctiveness. 

Before we dive into our topic here are some points to ponder and reflect upon. 

·How salty are we or our church?

Salt can only lose its saltiness when it’s adulterated with something. 

·Have we allowed other beliefs and lifestyle choices to cut our saltiness? 

·How bright is our light?

·Do we let truth prevail when tempted to compromise? 

·Have we grown tolerant of sins in our lives and the church? 

We are not called to judge the world. That is Jesus’ job. We need to have compassion for the world and be salt and light. The world cannot be that because they do not know Jesus. 

So, what will keep us on the straight and narrow?

Let us first remind ourselves of who we are. 

1Pet 2:9-10 tell us that we are the chosen people. We are image bearers who are meant to show off His glory to the world. We are betrothed to Jesus. We are the beloved of Jesus. We are betrothed to Him. The marriage is going to take place at the end of time. But in the meantime, we can flirt with our old boyfriends/girlfriends. We would not tolerate it in our marriage. But we do that with Jesus so often. 

Let’s pause and reflect.

What are some of those things that I need to put cut off from my life that I am flirting with which if I continue to allow in my life, can trip me up in my walk with God? 

·Is there a need to keep up appearances at all costs? That means pride in my heart will choke humility and I will struggle to admit I am wrong. I will cover up, lie, pretend, and masquerade. 

·I will struggle with hidden sins because I need to show myself as strong. 

·Because I see the need to present myself as perfect, I will be intolerant of other people’s imperfections and be unloving and ungracious towards them. 

·Has ministry become an idol in my life? 

·To be in control of people, circumstances and the outcome do I manipulate the truth? 

What will keep us strong till the end? Let us look at that tomorrow.

Scriptures: Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 8:13, Job 28:28, Luke 1:50

Let us look at the first bookend in this devotional. Some people are preaching another gospel where sin and repentance are not mentioned. You cannot come to Jesus without repentance. Repentance is turning away from old loves, and idols, to worship the only true and living God. 

Repentance makes us realize that we need to change. What will motivate me to change and keep on changing to wanting to become more like Jesus? There are several things but one of the things is the right reverence and awe of God. So let us look at that. 

THE FEAR OF THE LORD 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Prov. 1:7 

If I want to be wise the Bible tells me that I need to fear God! Fear is an old English word that is not used in today’s language when describing how we need to relate to God. 

What does it mean? The Hebrew word for fear – yirah means reverence The Hebrew verb yare can mean “to fear, to respect, to reverence” and the Hebrew noun “yirah” usually refers to the fear of God and is viewed as a positive quality. (Warren Baker and Eugene Carpenter, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament). 

The Greek noun phobos can mean “reverential fear” of God, “not a mere ‘fear’ of His power and righteous retribution, but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1985, “Fear, Fearful, Fearfulness”) 

Fear is not the same as being afraid. Afraid is to do with shame. 

Why is reverent awe or the fear of the Lord important? 

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death. Prov. 14:27

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. Psalm 111:10

Also, important to note is that the fear of God which is reverent awe is not just an Old Testament value to be ignored today. 

Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matt 10:28

Philippians 2:12-13 

“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” 

The fear of God will keep us from sin. 

REFLECTION 

·When was the last time you felt a reverential fear of God? 

·What did you do about it? 

Scriptures: Titus 2:12-14, Isaiah 5:20

One may ask how the fear of God and the grace of God co-exist. Remember that Truth found in God’s word is multi-dimensional and sometimes needs to be held in the right tension. 

Today there has been an unbalanced approach to the Grace of God. This word has been so misused, misunderstood, and weaponized to rationalize wrong. The Grace of God gives us what we do not deserve after we have understood mercy which is NOT giving us what we deserve. 

Grace is God’s enabling and empowering within us to do what is right and not to excuse what is wrong. 

The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell.” ―William Booth 

“When we give people unsanctified mercy, we short-circuit the process of repentance and set people up for judgement!”- Bill Johnson. So do not ever tell a Christ follower “It is ok, you are only human, you could not help yourself”. 

Be biblical when you empathize with someone. You can say that we have all made mistakes, we have all sinned and given into temptation in different ways and we need to come back to God in humility and repentance. You can say but for the grace of God, I could have done the same thing, so I am no one to condemn you. You point them to Jesus. 

REFLECTIONS 

·Can you recall times in your life when you experienced the empowering grace of God? 

·Can you recall times when you were tempted to excuse your sin? 

Scriptures: Proverbs 29:25, Acts 5:1-11, Proverbs 14:27

What happens when we do not have a holy reverence for God? Something else will take over our hearts and it will dull, sear, or kill our conscience. 

Reflect on the point below:

·The fear of man or the need to please is inversely proportional to the fear of God. i.e., the more you want to please others or be seen as a nice guy the less you will fear God. 

·The more you want to be right rather than uphold truth the less you will fear God. 

·The more you value your thoughts, opinions, self-will, and need for pleasure, the less you will fear God. 

Some may argue that we ought to focus on the love of God rather than the fear of God. We need both. Jesus said IF you love me, you will obey my commandments!

One famous evangelist who fell into adultery was asked by another pastor, John Bevere when did he lose his love for Jesus. He replied that he never lost his love for Jesus, he lost his fear of God. Sobering, isn’t it? 

Fear of God, therefore, is reverence, honour, and deep respect that results in obedience to His Word. 

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.”

Isaiah11:2-3

Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord!! How much more do we? 

REFLECTION 

Symptoms that you have lost the fear of God: 

·You can rationalize your mistakes very easily. 

·You are more afraid of people than God. 

·“What will people say?”, Is it something you are more concerned with? 

·You want to be in everybody’s good books. 

·You twist scripture to suit your ends. 

·You keep the peace rather than make peace. 

·You are unable to confess your weakness and admit a fault. 

·Self-preservation is more important than repentance and restoration. 

Nothing said here is about losing our salvation. This is about finishing well and strong. Let us run in such a way as to win the prize and hear our Saviour saying well done good and faithful servant. I pray that you will walk in the fear of the Lord which is a fountain of life. 

Let us look at the next bookend in Part 2, which is “Being Kept in His Love”.

Scriptures: Revelation 2:7, Revelation 2:11, Revelation 2:17, Revelation 3:5, 1 Peter 5:8, John 15:9

PART 2 

KEPT IN THE LOVE OF GOD

In the first part of this devotional, we looked at one bookend that helps us run strong till the end, the Fear of reverence for God. 

Over the next few days, we will look at the other bookend i.e., being kept in the Love of God: who does this and how? 

We are going to meditate on the doxology found at the end of Jude. But before we do that let us look at Jude 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

Jude is Jesus’ brother. Jude encourages the Christians to contend for their faith amidst ungodliness and faithlessness. People were drifting away from the truth. He is writing to them to contend for the faith that was in danger of getting diluted by other teachings and philosophies. 

The greatest battle you may fight is the fight of perseverance. Jesus says many times in Revelations that crowns await those who overcome. 

What is a doxology?

A Doxology is a short hymn of praise written to remind us to lift our eyes to God. Jude ends his message to the church with this. 

Let us look at verse 21 before we dive into doxology. 

Keep – the Greek word tērēsate means to watch over, to guard. 

Keep is an active verb. We must do something. Keep and keep on keeping yourself in the love of God. 

Keep: to stand guard, to be vigilant over. Why and what? Because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. So be alert and always pray. 

What kind of love should we keep ourselves in? 

Agape love: not any other love. Not any other affections or your old boyfriends. Keep yourself ‘in’ agape, the unconditional, never-ending, never-failing love of God. It is the only reliable true love. This love sent Jesus to the cross. Jesus says in John 15, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you”. You must engage with God actively and intentionally. Jesus asks us to “Remain in me as I remain in you”. 

We need to cultivate steadfastness in the way Jesus is steadfast in loving us. 

We must keep ourselves because it is easy to get distracted by other loves. What can we lose? We can lose the joy and fruit of abiding in Jesus which is a terrible thing. It is terrible for a Christ follower to live like a pauper when they have access to every blessing in Christ. 

REFLECTIONS 

·What do you do to keep yourself in the love of God? 

·How can you overcome being distracted by other loves?

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 1:18, Romans 2:4, 1 John 1:9, John 7:37, Romans 10:9

Though the Christian life is amazing with opportunities to lay hold of the promises of God, there is something we must do. You must exercise faith. You must flee from evil. Is that a work-based gospel? 

You may say therefore it is my effort that keeps me in God’s love. Not at all. The only reason you are standing is that HE has kept you from falling. We are kept by His grace. He will keep you strong till the end. His power is made perfect in our weakness. It is His loving kindness that draws us to repentance. 

All the promises in Jesus are YES and AMEN BUT a lot of the promises are conditional. If you abide by His word the promises will prove true in your life. You might argue with that and says it’s not fair!!! What is fair is that we pay for our sins.

Everything we have and enjoy is the sheer MERCY & GRACE of God. There are conditional promises in the Old Testament and the New Testament (a total of over 8000). God said if you keep my commandments all will go well with you (Joshua 1:8), and there will be blessings for 1000 generations, but if we fail to keep them, we will come under a curse. 

Now Jesus took every curse upon Himself and broke its power over us and has set the captive free, by the blood He shed on the Cross. However, even Jesus says If you love me, you will obey my commandments. If any man will take up his cross and come after me. There are many such “Ifs” in the Bible. The curse is self-inflicted. God is not going to violate His character for your sake or mine. If you live in disobedience, you will reap the fruit of that which is not a blessing. 

Two thousand years ago Jude was warning the people against false gospels, the gospel being mixed with worldly philosophies, etc. that even denied the deity of Jesus! Isn’t that happening today as well? Let us look at the Doxology closely tomorrow. 

REFLECTIONS 

·Thank God for the many promises we have in Jesus. 

·Are there some things going wrong in your life because of wrong choices you have made? Repent and set it right and enjoy the favour that comes from walking in obedience.

Scriptures: Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Isaiah 61:10, 1 Corinthians 1:30

Jude 1:24-25 

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!

Let us meditate on the beautiful doxology so filled with hope and confidence. Important to note is that Hebrew thought is not linear but multi-dimensional. Many truths all work in tandem with each other. 

“Now unto to him who is able to keep you from falling.”

The Greek word for ‘keep’ here means to guard, watch, be vigilant, to keep an eye on. 

This passage also tells us who is worthy of praise and what qualifies Him for the praise that follows in the second half of the sentence. 

It is like saying I have put Mr. X in charge of your protection. Now, why should you trust Mr X. When you know Mr X’s credentials you will gain confidence to trust him. If I told you he is part of the elite Black cats, the best hand-to-hand combatant, and marksman, you will have full confidence in his ability to protect you. 

He is able.

Why is He able? Jesus is able because He himself overcame falling short of the glory of God. He overcome temptation and therefore conquered sin and death. 

“…present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy…”

Without fault or Blameless i.e., without blemish. Anyone born after Adam was automatically blemished. We have all fallen short of the glory of God therefore how can we be presented to God? We have fallen short of the glorious image bearers were meant to be. Jesus the ultimate sacrifice, the unblemished lamb died in the place of blemished people. He shed His blood so that you could be presented faultless. Not because of your righteousness. You are clothed in His righteousness. God did a prophetic act with Adam and Eve, A symbolic act with the Levitical priest’s clothing and the animal sacrifices to finally the actual act of Jesus shedding His blood and covering us with His righteousness. That is why we can enter the throne room of God boldly and Jesus can present us before the Father as blameless because He took our blame upon Himself. 

We are the apple of His eye. God delights over us. Jesus is waiting to present His bride with great joy, exceeding joy. This is how much He loves you!!! 

REFLECT 

·Rejoice in the fact that Jesus is well-able. 

·Once you are a new creation, you get back what Adam and Eve lost and fell short of. Thank Jesus for making a way for you to be restored to your original standing in Christ.

Scriptures: Jude 1:25, Romans 6:1, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:13, Isaiah 43:11, Acts 4:12

To the only god our saviour.

To what kind of God are we being presented? The ONLY GOD!! At the time Jude was writing his letter to Jews that had come to faith there were two dangers that the church was facing. 

The first danger was the grace of God was being changed into a license for immorality (v4). License or liberalism says you are free to sin because Jesus has forgiven all your sins. 

On the other hand, the Galatian church needed to be reminded of the freedom for which Christ had set them free: they were in danger of legalism which says, “You should not…” 

Freedom in Christ or Grace says you are free not to sin anymore because you are no longer a slave to sin, it shall not have dominion over you. 

The second danger that was already doing the rounds at that time is the thought that Jesus is not the only way. Jude is reaffirming the creed that comes through in all of Paul’s letters which Jude may have also read. God is our Father who sent Jesus His son to die for our sins. He is the only perfect spotless Lamb who could take away our sins. And Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to now dwell in us and empower our life. This incarnation and deity of Jesus were already being challenged. And Jude is telling his readers to contend for the faith. 

Only God – there is none like Him.

No one can be compared to Him. Unbelief makes you believe that He is one of the many gods out there. Idolatry is when you value or give something other than God all the affection that He alone deserves. 

“When we idolize other stuff, it does not mean we have lost our faith – we have just misplaced it in something or someone else.” Jackie Hill Perry. 

So sexual sin is not just based on lust but because people want comfort, and they believe this sin will give them the comfort they desire. But God is the source of all comfort. 2Cor 1:4 God, not sex, not pornography, not alcohol, money, ministry. Only God!!

Our Saviour

Why do we need a Saviour and what do we need to be saved from? We are powerless to save ourselves from the consequences of our sins. We have been saved from the wrath of God. Salvation is found in no other name other than the name Jesus. This is a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith. You are free to believe in anything else but that would not be the Christian faith. And this is what Jude reminds his readers. 

Our

Yes, Jesus saved you, but he also saved Us. Don’t forget the communal nature of our faith. So, part of working out your salvation is to guard yourself against isolation and continue to press into the community. Remember you are a ‘chosen people’. God is a triune God. When you isolate yourself from people you do not represent Trinity well. 

REFLECT 

·Have you been tempted to take matters into your hands and not wait for God to work in your life? 

·Have you desired something or someone more than Jesus? 

·This is a good time to acknowledge it, repent, and take steps to replace those things by surrendering to Jesus and obeying Him.

Scriptures: Exodus 33:18, Ephesians 3:8-10

Be glory.

Moses sees God’s glory i.e., God allowed His glory to pass him by which means that God’s glory is perceivable. It often manifests as light. God’s glory is also revealed when sons and daughters of God walk in the light and reflect His light and Christlikeness. The Church is the manifold(multifaceted) wisdom of God and has the mandate to make Jesus known and to put His glory on display. 

We can also give God glory in the way we show Him honour. God deserves all of it. Look at what He has done for us! He is keeping us and is going to present us blameless. What else is there to do but to give Him glory? Our natural tendency is to take glory for ourselves. But we now want to give God glory because of a changed heart. We give Him glory when we testify of His goodness in our lives and resist the temptation of taking the credit but rather lay our crowns down at His feet. 

Majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

V25 – God is majestic and, ruler and king over everything. He has always been on His throne from eternity past and will continue to be into eternity to come. This gives us confidence and peace because He is always reigning. 

Dominion/power– speaks of the extent of His power which is over everything. 

The authority speaks of His sovereign rule over all things and legitimate power. Because all power and authority belong to Jesus, we are kept from falling. John 17 Jesus prayed that non would be plucked from His hand. He has already prayed for you. While we are the Royal Priest, He is the great High Priest who ever intercedes before the Father. Do you think Jesus’ prayers will not be answered? 

REFLECTION 

How can Christ be glorified in your life today? 

Take every opportunity to testify to God’s goodness in your life whether at church, small groups, or with your friends.

Scriptures: Proverbs 3:7, 1 Peter 2:9-10, James 4:8, Hebrews 13:5

We have seen that it is He who will keep us from falling and we need to keep ourselves in the love of God. 

We will do well to submit to His Majesty, dominion, and power. Many people in the church do not want to live under His authority. We are often ruled by the idols of the heart which are the need to be in control and self-will. They come from the belief that God is not all that good and we need to control our lives and the choices we make. 

Now and Forever

For how long can Jesus keep us from falling? Forever and ever!!! He is the one deserving of praise now and forever. 

Amen – yes or so be it. It means that we can be certain it will happen.

CONCLUSION

We said you need two things in your life to keep you from falling back into old ways of doing things: The Fear of the Lord and the Love of God. Two sides of the coin or bookends if you like – that keep us together and strong till the end. 

Ask God to give you a reverential fear of Him because it will lead you into wisdom and abundant life. 

Keep yourself in His agape love. Don’t go to any other watering hole to quench that thirst because only He can give you living water by which you will be satisfied. Draw close to God and He will draw close to you. Remain in His love because Jude 24-25 also reminds us of an eternity perspective. One day we will see Him face to face. It will be a glorious day and truly awesome day. We will have to give an account of all that we have done and how we have lived here on Earth. 

When we keep ourselves in His love, we have nothing to fear. Jesus will present us faultless before the Father. He “is able” to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before God. 

Remember you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a Holy nation, belonging to God. We are different, we are not common. Praying that you will run your race well and finish strong. 

REFLECTION 

·Thank Jesus for His agape love that never leaves us nor forsakes us. 

·How will you remind yourself of these two book ends? 

·Remember we are kept by Jesus so do not fall into the trap of striving. 

·How can you cultivate a holy reverence of Jesus that will keep you from willful sin?