Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
To remain in God's love is to obey His commandments and stay surrendered to Christ, while looking expectantly for the mercy of the Lord Jesus that leads to eternal life. It is encouragement to the faithful after the warning about mockers in the last time who follow their own desires, calling them to build themselves up in holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keeping is each person's own active duty, requiring earnest effort, daily self-examination, constant prayer, guarding the heart against temptation, and steadfast trust to the end rather than indolence or unbelief. It means living in unity and genuine love for brethren instead of jealousy, faultfinding and evil-speaking, and from that standing having compassion to save others by pulling them from the fire. It is kept alive through faithful service and witness, for ceasing to work for others leaves love cold, while diligent labor for souls, guiding children, and letting light shine keeps the soul in the channel of light.
Setting and Wording
The charge to stay in God's love while awaiting the mercy of Jesus Christ unto eternal life comes as encouragement to the faithful immediately after the portrayal of ungodly men and mockers in the last time who walk after their own ungodly lusts, and that portrayal matches what is manifested in this period of earth's history.
It belongs together with building oneself up on most holy faith and praying in the Holy Ghost, directing believers to look beyond seductive false teaching toward Christ's promised mercy. When apostasy, ungodliness, murmuring, lust, mocking, and separation are met in the last days, believers are to build themselves up on most holy faith, pray in the Holy Ghost, keep themselves in the love of God, and look for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. This stands in contrast to the mockers in the last time who walk after their own ungodly lusts, separate themselves, are sensual, and have not the Spirit. In light of Christ's coming judgment it calls for self-examination, obedience to God's commandments, and purification of heart and life in preparation for His kingdom. From verse 20 to the close, Jude's instruction makes the work for Christ a complete whole by teaching how to conduct the warfare in His service, requiring balanced, diligent action with no one-sided extravagance and no indolence or shiftlessness, respecting each person's individuality and allowing no cold-hearted criticism or selfish practice. Keeping in the love of God in this setting means thorough consecration in humility, giving body, mind, and soul to God and laboring together with Him, asking earnestly for help and trusting the Lord who knows infirmities to receive believers and strengthen them for service.
From that standing of being built up, praying, kept, and looking for mercy, believers are to have compassion on some and save others with fear, pulling them out of the fire. This keeping is applied through putting away faultfinding, envy, jealousy, suspicion, and evil-speaking, and loving fellow believers in unity, with genuine love and Christ abiding in the heart to be shown to the world. It means living in unity instead of jealousy, suspicion, judging, faultfinding, criticizing, envy and evil-speaking, with healthful heart-beats and true genuine love for brethren, having compassion and making a difference and saving others with fear, pulling them out of the fire and hating the garment spotted by the flesh, trusting Him who is able to keep from falling and present faultless before God's glory. As co-workers with God in saving souls, those addressed are to rescue others with compassion and holy fear. Keeping requires the love and gentleness of Christ abounding in the heart rather than a harsh, domineering spirit, coming close to others to carry them forward in knowledge, and is to be urged directly and feelingly upon students with close and clear application of Scripture that is easily understood.
The letter is addressed to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called, with mercy, peace, and love multiplied, exhorting believers to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. That contending means bringing men back from transgression of the commandments of God, proclaiming the gospel of Christ with earnestness and zeal as light to commandment-breakers to arouse men and women to prepare to meet God, raising the standard of the truth delivered to the saints and magnifying the law and making it honorable because sin is the transgression of the law trampled underfoot by the disloyal. It is Jude's exhortation that believers remain consistent in their profession of faith.
The word is spoken by God to those who obey His commandments and honor Him, who are complete in Him and whom He honors without partiality. It is part of the warnings that must be heeded in preparing for eternity, applying to dishonest dealings so that those involved must recognize their guilt, repent, and make restitution, rather than assume they will be forgiven without a changed heart. Souls who strive to remain in God's love are contrasted with church members who have defiled their garments, like the faithful in Sardis who have kept their garments undefiled and are promised that they will walk with Christ in white, be clothed in white, remain in the book of life, and be confessed by Christ before the Father and the angels.
Looking for Mercy
Believers are to remain in God's love while waiting for Jesus Christ to show mercy that leads to eternal life, and this belongs with building themselves up in the faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, directing the gaze beyond seductive false teaching toward Christ's promised mercy. Keeping in the love of God and looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life is the position that can be occupied with safety in these last days. It is the guard against the seductive influences of false teachers, men who have a form of godliness but are not safe leaders. In that time false teachers arise and become actively zealous, all kinds of theories are presented to divert minds from the very truth, and Satan works with power upon religionists, leading them to make a pretense of being righteous but to fail of placing themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life means awaiting His mercy that leads to eternal life. It means looking for His keeping power and His mercy while expecting salvation through His grace. That looking is done by building up increased purity of faith and Christlikeness of character, increasing in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ who is righteousness and sanctification, letting truth abide in the heart to sanctify, and standing as a distinct people who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. The same verse is applied to the urgent work of turning wandering people back to the path of life and to the Shepherd who gave His life for them.
That hope calls for living faith and a life shaped by God's Word, not merely professing Christianity or agreeing with what one hears. It calls believers to develop characters modeled on Christ and to prepare for the companionship of the holy and pure, for service to God, and for life in God's presence. In light of Christ's coming judgment and kingdom it calls for self-examination, obedience to God's commandments, and purification of heart and life. Each person is to keep the soul in the love of God while preparing for Christ's soon return so as to be saved in God's kingdom, keeping the commandments because this must be done to be saved, centering affections upon God by earnest heart-searching in light of the Lord's soon coming and the perils of the last days, putting every God-given power to use to get ready and to prepare others, laying hold of the exceeding great and precious promises to escape the corruption in the world through lust and share the divine nature, with the solemn work of building one another up in most holy faith to grow into a beautiful temple for God.
Obedience and Holy Character
To keep in the love of God is to hearken diligently to His commandments and live in obedience to His requirements, submitting to Christ's authority and surrendering soul, body, and spirit by turning from sin and bringing the will into harmony with Him. That obedience makes God's law the rule, Christ's life the pattern, and God's glory the chief end, and in it lies freedom in Christ Jesus and the condition of salvation. It is done by building up increased purity of faith and Christlikeness of character, increasing in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ who is righteousness and sanctification, letting truth abide in the heart to sanctify, and standing as a distinct people who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. Looking for mercy unto eternal life belongs with this keeping as looking for Christ's keeping power and mercy while expecting salvation through His grace.
Remaining requires corresponding obedience to the precious, clear light of truth, high privilege, love, and tender mercy given, with opened understanding and divine illumination searched out in the Word and obeyed, trusting His love and staying near Him, walking in His ways, keeping unity, and holding fast His promises as a peculiar holy people under His law and commandments. God has not forsaken His people, for Jesus has linked them by His own body to the Infinite One and His promises are more sure than the everlasting hills, yet iniquities separate from God and hide His face so He will not hear, and departing from the Fountain of living waters through distrust of His love breaks that remaining. When that love is not met with obedience in love, what would have been a blessing and advantage becomes a curse, and no privilege, warning of messengers, or labor of grace will save without personal faithfulness. Such remaining rejects the deceiver's lie that purity and holiness are impossible, holding that through Christ believers can become a pure, holy, powerful people separate from the world and united in love, accepting no other portion than was given to Christ and meeting Satan's enmity in proportion to wholehearted service.
Keeping is thorough consecration in humility, giving body, mind, and soul to God and laboring together with Him, building up in most holy faith and praying in the Holy Ghost, asking earnestly for help and looking for mercy unto eternal life in trust that the Lord who knows infirmities will receive believers and strengthen them for service. It requires an indwelling Saviour and sacred truth within the soul whose fruits appear in the life, shutting the world out of the heart, with love and sympathy directed toward proper objects and ardent, overflowing love for Jesus in whom all hope of eternal life centers. This keeping belongs with receiving the righteousness of Christ as a free gift without price and being saved by grace, the love of Christ melting and subduing the soul apart from any legal boasting. It builds believers up in most holy faith under Christ as Author and Finisher of faith, producing steady growing in grace and in knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ until reaching the full stature of men and women in spiritual growth in Him.
Keeping means remaining faithful and separate from the world and from its spirit and influence, resisting the world, the flesh, and the devil rather than sharing selfishness, covetousness, and ungodliness, kept by seeking God together in shared religious privileges and living in harmony. Sabbath-keepers do this in response to God's mercy in giving warnings, pointing out dangers, and setting before them the exalted position He would have them occupy. Those who do so receive His special blessings with His light shining round about them, and their light and influence for good are felt to benefit every part of the gospel work and every branch of the gospel field. If they fail to meet the mind of God and continue with little sense of the exalted character of the work, their influence and example prove a terrible curse that does harm and only harm, with the blood of precious souls found upon their garments.
Keeping belongs with a character shaped by Christ and is opposed to lording it over God's people. Those who are in Christ have endured the law's penalty in Him and have fulfilled its righteousness in Him and receive eternal life, and the redeemed bear God's likeness, overcome, and become one with Christ. Keeping the soul takes most earnest effort, done by not trusting in one's own strength but looking to God for guidance and trusting in Him, without sacrificing religion to business plans and schemes. It means cherishing Christ's love, holding to faith and trust, refusing to give expression to doubts or unbelief that dishonor Him, remaining steadfast in the truth and holding firm to confidence to the end by God's grace while looking to Christ for wisdom.
Unity and Love for Others
To keep in the love of God is to live in unity, putting away jealousy, suspicion, judging, faultfinding, criticizing, envy and evil-speaking, and loving fellow believers with healthful heart-beats and true genuine love, with Christ abiding in the heart by faith, a love to be shown to the world. This keeping belongs with building up on most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit while looking ahead to the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and it is joined to having compassion, making a difference, and saving others with fear, pulling them out of the fire while hating the garment spotted by the flesh, trusting Him who is able to keep from falling and present faultless before God's glory. Where Christ is not abiding in the heart by faith, that keeping is not done.
It is the great work of continually guarding the self to overcome hereditary and cultivated tendencies, leaving no time or strength for criticizing one another. It forbids in word or in spirit talking of others' mistakes and errors, gathering up reports to hurt another's influence, and uttering any word to cause another heart pain or sadness, because this grieves the Lord's purchased possession and grieves the Holy Spirit of God. Kept in the love of God, social conversation gives strength and words of courage and hope, increases faith, relieves the soul-burdened, and does not discourage and pull down, for faultfinding is Satan's constant work.
With grave responsibilities resting on God's people, each one helps the one next to him by striving earnestly to keep his own soul in the love of God, so as not to be a hindrance to others, not to cause roots of bitterness to spring up in others' hearts, and not to lead others into strange paths. As a church, members are to bear their own burdens and keep their own souls in the love of God by helping one another to be burden-bearers. That keeping preserves the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace, and through that unity the church makes spiritual advancement, growing in grace and knowledge of the truth as members walk in the light, with wisdom from on high given when decisions must be made.
Remaining in God's love takes earnest, diligent effort, shown in cultivating Christian courtesy and tenderness and love for one another and carefully cherishing love as a plant of heavenly growth that must be watered and cultured with kindly words and good acts, or it will become cold and wither and die. It means keeping the thoughts of the heart under the softening, subduing influence of the Holy Spirit so that Christ speaks and breathes through the person, with the spiritual gaining ascendancy over the temporal, on which present happiness and success and future well-being depend. It is kept by striving for mastery over self, by watching unto prayer with humble, contrite prayer as strength, by making a solemn covenant to govern words so they exert a divine influence, and by thinking no evil so its blessings are not lost.
Keeping oneself in God's love means guarding the heart and living under the full control of God's Spirit, making straight paths, controlling one's own spirit, repenting for hardness of heart and impatient words and wrong acts, refusing to accuse brethren, and talking of Jesus and His love. This remaining brings harmony with heaven and peace with brethren, requires full consecration to God with self under the full control of His Spirit, enables meeting surrounding perils and perplexities aright, and makes sure work for eternity and readiness for eternity. It is done by growing in spirituality, weeding jealous thoughts and feelings from the heart, divesting selfishness, praying much, and standing firmly for right principles.
That keeping shuts out dissension and dissensions and supplies grace as oil that causes united work and business to run smoothly, enabling each one to bear his own burden, lift as much of the common burden as he can, guard the interests of the church, cooperate heartily with burdened leaders, encourage them, and press toward light in faith and harmony instead of murmuring, distrust, jealousy, and prophesying defeat. It is kept by growing in spirituality instead of depending on others to do one's thinking and instead of throwing extra burdens on those who carry heavy responsibility. It is necessary for spiritual discernment and essential to spiritual life, for growth in grace and in knowing Jesus Christ enables distinguishing light from darkness and truth from error, while those judging their brethren bitterly, judgmentally and unsympathetically are not keeping their souls in God's love.
Keeping the soul in the love of God means refusing to become a channel for Satan through evil surmisings and false accusations, especially against church-school teachers. Instead it rallies to the support of the teacher by commending the good rather than censuring mistakes.
Prayerful Devotion and Growth
Keeping oneself in divine love is each person's own active work for the soul, requiring diligence, watchfulness, earnest prayer, strict self-discipline and daily attention rather than carelessness, recklessness or neglect. It calls for self-examination whether one is in God's love, placing oneself in the channel of light, cultivating Christian graces, living in reverence, keeping the Lord continually before the soul and refusing cooperation with Satan. A daily record of opportunities to do good, mistakes, repentance, forgiveness, victories over temptation, and joy and peace in Christ helps to live faithfully and to face the record of life without shame, while neglect leaves time for Satan's wedges, suggestions and attempts to turn the mind from God's work. Neglect is itself sin, since God does nothing without human cooperation, and keeping the mind clean from fictitious stories, love ditties, rubbish and trash belongs to being true to present spiritual interest and to the soul's best and highest interest.
Keeping requires feeling need of Jesus at every step and making time for prayer, religious meetings, meditation, study and waiting upon God, with a living connection and discipline under the Holy Spirit showing patience and Christlike forbearance as part of practical religion. Quiet meditation, study and waiting bring blessing and the refreshing of the Holy Spirit, and knowing that Jesus loves can make the believer cheerful. Being too busy to care for the soul, neglecting prayer and meetings, leaves emptiness and room for Satan to create vain imaginations and vain thoughts, leading to planning and acting without Christ. It is done by constant prayer, including silent petitions darted up to heaven at any moment, refusing to descend to cheap and frivolous talk among the frivolous, careless and inconsiderate, but asking the God of all grace to keep the soul in the love of Christ. This continual connection is the only safe course for workers in churches and among people in cities and villages, keeping them day by day, hour by hour in the channel of light, diffusing light received from Christ, and bringing continual growth to every church blessed with such labor. Ministers especially must guard small points that would close the door to larger evils, taking time to meditate and pray rather than preaching so much in busy seasons that they are left tired with no vitality, preaching not from a mechanical heart but from a heart full of God's love and subdued and softened by grace so that Christ makes the impression; overwork in preaching without meditation and prayer strains vital organs and brain, leaves ministers sapped, feeling separated from God, doubting that prayer is heard, passing over seasons of prayer and sliding into backsliding.
Keeping is done by keeping the door of the heart closed against temptation and open to Jesus as heavenly Guest, with the peace and love of God resting in the heart, and now is the time for this work. It is done by firm determination joined with thankfulness for God's care, by faith laying hold of God's promises and claiming them as one's own, for Christ's words strengthen faith and courage and keep the soul. Hearts are kept daily only through Christ's power, and He receives all who come sincerely but accepts no pretense or hypocrisy, being the only hope and the source of wisdom, sanctification and righteousness. It means keeping fast hold on Jesus whatever happens, looking up to the haven of rest and the home of the blest, growing spiritually strong because Jesus as loving friend takes the hand and helps over every hard and trying place. This keeping rests on grateful, trustful, habitual recognition of God, which lies at the foundation of all right conduct and true character, requires never losing confidence, and means loving and serving God in sincerity and fidelity without fear or shame at being known as servant of the Most High, since to forget God is more sinful and unreasonable than to forget every human friend. It means trusting Jesus in faith and confidence rather than dwelling on painful or disagreeable experiences, looking heavenward and filling the mind with uplifting truths, because what is continually beheld shapes character and words.
Keeping means surrender of self and dependence on the Lord rather than trusting own power, receiving the Holy Spirit who reshapes the heart, casts out the old temperament, and enables continually receiving and imparting spiritual life; holding to self brings misery, while humility, trust in His keeping power and trust in the Lord bring heavenly joy. It means guarding the heart in truth and keeping the soul spiritually alive, remaining unwavering in truth while the Spirit shapes the heart. Remaining in God's love in one's own soul makes a person a living monument of grace and a help to God's work where he is, shown in walking softly and in refined, elevated, ennobling words, with Christ manifesting Himself. This course brings peace and becomes a means of helping a spouse accept truth and become a blessing in return. Remaining opens precious, essential truth and honors the Redeemer so His suffering and death are not in vain, by appreciating and improving every spiritual and temporal endowment to glorify His name, cultivating talents and working with tact, ingenuity and heavenly wisdom, and communicating that love to all encountered with travail of soul and heart-yearning for poor souls for whom Christ paid an infinite price. It melts the heart once frozen by icy selfishness by the Spirit's influence, so human beings once scarcely looked at become precious, uniting those who remain with Christ and binding them in love with His heritage in joy that poor souls are accepted in the Beloved, making duty and sacrifice precious because of love for those purchased by Christ's blood.
Keeping means staying alive to God through living union with Christ, trusting His promises and gaining constantly greater strength by beholding Jesus, which changes the heart into Christ's likeness. It is for young as well as old, done by faith in the blood of Christ while working together with God against evil, by fastening the mind on precious promises, by morning resolve to live for Jesus that day, to love and think of Him and refuse to be led by the tempter into any wrong action, and by asking God to show what to avoid and encourage; victory gained today fortifies against tomorrow's temptations and enables giving help to associates. It applies in sickness and recovery by remembering Jesus as helper who loves and sympathizes as a friend, trusting Him and using returning strength carefully to avoid unnecessary taxation of the body and keep a reserve fund of strength, for health of body and health of soul. It means refusing to contract debts and not presuming too much on mental and physical strength to carry overloaded responsibilities. It requires living simply with daily self-denial, binding about wants, eating to live rather than living to eat, and giving complete consecration of soul, body and spirit to God's service, wasting neither time nor strength and overtaxing no family member by unnecessary labor, since such overwork disqualifies for serving God and for keeping the soul.
Keeping means keeping close communion with God with communication with heaven open and clear and the atmosphere of heaven surrounding the soul, so there is room for heavenly intelligences to work and plans and works harmonize with heaven rather than being earthly in every project. It means not filling the soul with earthly things, clearing the channel to heaven and living surrounded by a heavenly atmosphere, so the connection is not cut off and Satan cannot accompany and manipulate thoughts and plans. This is required while still on probation, still fighting the earthly battle and building character by God's great standard of righteousness, and especially before entering counsel over God's cause. Representative men who plan and devise for God's cause and come into the room for counsel, when thus remaining, are quick to discern and respond to signals from heaven. Keeping brings an influence that gives life and requires fervent piety and careful care of souls being prepared for the heavenly kingdom, without imposing one's own character on others; impatient or passionate conduct is to be repented of, and neglect of piety fails to work with God. It means making straight paths for the feet lest the lame be turned out of the way, keeping the taper kindled from the divine altar and letting light shine to others, placing confidence wholly in the Lord, learning meekness and lowliness of heart for rest, putting entire trust in Jesus Christ as the only safe Teacher, treating salvation of the soul as the great question, continuing to trust and walk with Him in communion, and walking with Christ to learn wisdom by communion as Enoch did.
Faithful Work and Witness
Keeping in divine love is cultivated by active religious service and testimony, by continuing faithfully in assigned work and duties with available means and cheerful sacrifice, for such labor builds useful experience, grows love for sacred things and grace, while ceasing to work for others leaves love cold and zeal weak and neglect leaves the soul weakened and stunted. Keeping the heart is fully consistent with faithfully laboring to bring others to Christ through personal conversation, earnest prayer, prayer meetings, and sharing religious reading, by which even those of little talent and limited education may win many souls, with conversions standing as evidence of grace rather than personal merit. Messengers who serve in this love and work together with Christ receive grace, truth, and deep constant love for the work, are sanctified by the truth they receive, and see fruit from their efforts. Keeping calls for reaching a higher standard in soul-saving rather than striking too low, leaving smaller tasks for those needing experience while teaching all to reach ever higher, broadening effort to those who know not truth and to the cities, trusting God to open the work before those striving to save the perishing, uniting varied lines of work in perfect harmony as safety, wisdom, and strength, and turning wanderers back to the path of life and to the Shepherd who gave His life.
Ministers and teachers must first keep their own souls in experimental religion rather than mere theory, with Christ enshrined in the heart and His Spirit controlling the affections, then press individual consecration and personal conversion upon others, for without this inward life profession is worthless and leaves one worse than before. Such keeping requires being faithful, humble, and teachable, not seeking own will and way, not neglecting responsibility for personal pleasure or profit, and not putting personal honor first, lest a teacher prove unsafe and impress students and church members as an unfaithful shepherd. Keeping is done by exercising all entrusted powers and abilities, killing indolence, carrying responsibility, practicing self-denial, and doing personal labor to seek and save the lost by precept and example instead of leaving the work to ministers of word and doctrine, bearing witness to the power of truth and grace upon the heart. Students share in this by earnestly seeking to know God's will and way for service, obeying His commandments, loving Him with all heart, mind, soul, and strength, practicing strict economy in eating, drinking, and dressing, cultivating sobriety of mind and sound character, correcting extravagance, and putting away false ideas and sickly sentimentalism, since neglect dims spiritual life while diligent use keeps it alive and growing.
Keeping makes duty and sacrifice precious and is practiced through diligent labor for others' salvation, staying where placed with holy boldness, bringing Christlike love and helpfulness into work and preaching, overlooking disagreeable things without hurt, keeping praise on the lips with cheerfulness under every circumstance, and speaking plainly with brethren when hindered in influence until God indicates a move. It includes faithfully teaching and guiding children in the fear of the Lord, since their salvation depends greatly on childhood education, with parents patiently disciplining under the Spirit's control and guiding toward eternal life, and neglect of this duty is failure to remain in divine love. For a minister's wife, keeping her own soul enables her to lighten her husband's burden, teach the word to her children, manage the household with economy and discretion, and unite with her husband in training children in economical habits and restraint of wants. Keeping means refusing to study and plan for self-interest and instead keeping the soul pure, cultured, and principled, sanctifying self after Christ's example so others also are sanctified, leaving a bright heavenward track, blocking the path to debasing sins, faithfully rebuking and expelling dishonesty, licentiousness, and deception lest evil spread contagiously, setting the example for youth and associates to raise the moral tone, and putting away selfishness that eats out pure principles through resolute honesty, in recognition of accountability for souls Christ died to save through the web of humanity.
Keeping includes contentment to labor faithfully on a smaller scale rather than restless ambition for larger ventures or removal for advancement, which helps support families and keep faith while ambition may weaken churches and cost property, health, and truth itself. It also means keeping the heart amid unkind words by looking to Jesus, who endured unkind speech without fault, and working for His glory rather than expecting better treatment or letting words hurt and discourage. Keeping requires working in God's lines in dependence on His power rather than independently, trusting instead of fretting, looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith, refusing hurry and overtaxation of physical, mental, and moral powers, taking only sustainable cares and burdens, cooperating with heavenly agencies, giving the enemy no partnership, receiving orders from God, accepting finite service without discouragement, and letting the Infinite give efficiency. A physician applies this by practicing health reform personally, teaching it to others, and giving correct counsel against meat and butter whose use brings patients more suffering than relief.
Each must keep the soul in order to teach faith and form a Godlike character, making Jesus the heavenly Guide rather than trusting personal ability or following fallible men, consecrating self to follow God's will with assurance of sustaining grace, approval, and light, searching Scripture for clear truth to become a help and blessing, drinking anew from the heavenly fountain with love rekindled, rejoicing in a living Saviour as center of affections and hopes, and testifying and praying in faith so the Spirit helps the church without dependence on ministerial labor alone. Keeping means centering affections on God by earnest heart-searching in light of His soon coming and last-day perils, employing every God-given power to get ready and prepare others, laying hold of exceeding great promises to escape worldly corruption through lust and share the divine nature, and building one another in most holy faith into a beautiful temple for God. Even those with homes and business who feel fully occupied do this individual work by keeping in working order, exercising God-given ability within the family when unable to go elsewhere, setting all in order there so it stands as a representative family in truth. Those who keep should be a blessing to others, for keeping requires deep genuine experience and daily accountability, without which none will be prepared for coming trials or for the holy family in heaven. It means remaining faithful and not neglecting duty because of suspicion or jealousy from others.
To remain in God's love is to obey His commandments and stay surrendered to Christ, while looking expectantly for the mercy of the Lord Jesus that leads to eternal life. It is encouragement to the faithful after the warning about mockers in the last time who follow their own desires, calling them to build themselves up in holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keeping is each person's own active duty, requiring earnest effort, daily self-examination, constant prayer, guarding the heart against temptation, and steadfast trust to the end rather than indolence or unbelief. It means living in unity and genuine love for brethren instead of jealousy, faultfinding and evil-speaking, and from that standing having compassion to save others by pulling them from the fire. It is kept alive through faithful service and witness, for ceasing to work for others leaves love cold, while diligent labor for souls, guiding children, and letting light shine keeps the soul in the channel of light.
Setting and Wording
The charge to stay in God's love while awaiting the mercy of Jesus Christ unto eternal life comes as encouragement to the faithful immediately after the portrayal of ungodly men and mockers in the last time who walk after their own ungodly lusts, and that portrayal matches what is manifested in this period of earth's history.
It belongs together with building oneself up on most holy faith and praying in the Holy Ghost, directing believers to look beyond seductive false teaching toward Christ's promised mercy. When apostasy, ungodliness, murmuring, lust, mocking, and separation are met in the last days, believers are to build themselves up on most holy faith, pray in the Holy Ghost, keep themselves in the love of God, and look for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. This stands in contrast to the mockers in the last time who walk after their own ungodly lusts, separate themselves, are sensual, and have not the Spirit. In light of Christ's coming judgment it calls for self-examination, obedience to God's commandments, and purification of heart and life in preparation for His kingdom. From verse 20 to the close, Jude's instruction makes the work for Christ a complete whole by teaching how to conduct the warfare in His service, requiring balanced, diligent action with no one-sided extravagance and no indolence or shiftlessness, respecting each person's individuality and allowing no cold-hearted criticism or selfish practice. Keeping in the love of God in this setting means thorough consecration in humility, giving body, mind, and soul to God and laboring together with Him, asking earnestly for help and trusting the Lord who knows infirmities to receive believers and strengthen them for service.
From that standing of being built up, praying, kept, and looking for mercy, believers are to have compassion on some and save others with fear, pulling them out of the fire. This keeping is applied through putting away faultfinding, envy, jealousy, suspicion, and evil-speaking, and loving fellow believers in unity, with genuine love and Christ abiding in the heart to be shown to the world. It means living in unity instead of jealousy, suspicion, judging, faultfinding, criticizing, envy and evil-speaking, with healthful heart-beats and true genuine love for brethren, having compassion and making a difference and saving others with fear, pulling them out of the fire and hating the garment spotted by the flesh, trusting Him who is able to keep from falling and present faultless before God's glory. As co-workers with God in saving souls, those addressed are to rescue others with compassion and holy fear. Keeping requires the love and gentleness of Christ abounding in the heart rather than a harsh, domineering spirit, coming close to others to carry them forward in knowledge, and is to be urged directly and feelingly upon students with close and clear application of Scripture that is easily understood.
The letter is addressed to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called, with mercy, peace, and love multiplied, exhorting believers to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. That contending means bringing men back from transgression of the commandments of God, proclaiming the gospel of Christ with earnestness and zeal as light to commandment-breakers to arouse men and women to prepare to meet God, raising the standard of the truth delivered to the saints and magnifying the law and making it honorable because sin is the transgression of the law trampled underfoot by the disloyal. It is Jude's exhortation that believers remain consistent in their profession of faith.
The word is spoken by God to those who obey His commandments and honor Him, who are complete in Him and whom He honors without partiality. It is part of the warnings that must be heeded in preparing for eternity, applying to dishonest dealings so that those involved must recognize their guilt, repent, and make restitution, rather than assume they will be forgiven without a changed heart. Souls who strive to remain in God's love are contrasted with church members who have defiled their garments, like the faithful in Sardis who have kept their garments undefiled and are promised that they will walk with Christ in white, be clothed in white, remain in the book of life, and be confessed by Christ before the Father and the angels.
Looking for Mercy
Believers are to remain in God's love while waiting for Jesus Christ to show mercy that leads to eternal life, and this belongs with building themselves up in the faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, directing the gaze beyond seductive false teaching toward Christ's promised mercy. Keeping in the love of God and looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life is the position that can be occupied with safety in these last days. It is the guard against the seductive influences of false teachers, men who have a form of godliness but are not safe leaders. In that time false teachers arise and become actively zealous, all kinds of theories are presented to divert minds from the very truth, and Satan works with power upon religionists, leading them to make a pretense of being righteous but to fail of placing themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life means awaiting His mercy that leads to eternal life. It means looking for His keeping power and His mercy while expecting salvation through His grace. That looking is done by building up increased purity of faith and Christlikeness of character, increasing in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ who is righteousness and sanctification, letting truth abide in the heart to sanctify, and standing as a distinct people who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. The same verse is applied to the urgent work of turning wandering people back to the path of life and to the Shepherd who gave His life for them.
That hope calls for living faith and a life shaped by God's Word, not merely professing Christianity or agreeing with what one hears. It calls believers to develop characters modeled on Christ and to prepare for the companionship of the holy and pure, for service to God, and for life in God's presence. In light of Christ's coming judgment and kingdom it calls for self-examination, obedience to God's commandments, and purification of heart and life. Each person is to keep the soul in the love of God while preparing for Christ's soon return so as to be saved in God's kingdom, keeping the commandments because this must be done to be saved, centering affections upon God by earnest heart-searching in light of the Lord's soon coming and the perils of the last days, putting every God-given power to use to get ready and to prepare others, laying hold of the exceeding great and precious promises to escape the corruption in the world through lust and share the divine nature, with the solemn work of building one another up in most holy faith to grow into a beautiful temple for God.
Obedience and Holy Character
To keep in the love of God is to hearken diligently to His commandments and live in obedience to His requirements, submitting to Christ's authority and surrendering soul, body, and spirit by turning from sin and bringing the will into harmony with Him. That obedience makes God's law the rule, Christ's life the pattern, and God's glory the chief end, and in it lies freedom in Christ Jesus and the condition of salvation. It is done by building up increased purity of faith and Christlikeness of character, increasing in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ who is righteousness and sanctification, letting truth abide in the heart to sanctify, and standing as a distinct people who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. Looking for mercy unto eternal life belongs with this keeping as looking for Christ's keeping power and mercy while expecting salvation through His grace.
Remaining requires corresponding obedience to the precious, clear light of truth, high privilege, love, and tender mercy given, with opened understanding and divine illumination searched out in the Word and obeyed, trusting His love and staying near Him, walking in His ways, keeping unity, and holding fast His promises as a peculiar holy people under His law and commandments. God has not forsaken His people, for Jesus has linked them by His own body to the Infinite One and His promises are more sure than the everlasting hills, yet iniquities separate from God and hide His face so He will not hear, and departing from the Fountain of living waters through distrust of His love breaks that remaining. When that love is not met with obedience in love, what would have been a blessing and advantage becomes a curse, and no privilege, warning of messengers, or labor of grace will save without personal faithfulness. Such remaining rejects the deceiver's lie that purity and holiness are impossible, holding that through Christ believers can become a pure, holy, powerful people separate from the world and united in love, accepting no other portion than was given to Christ and meeting Satan's enmity in proportion to wholehearted service.
Keeping is thorough consecration in humility, giving body, mind, and soul to God and laboring together with Him, building up in most holy faith and praying in the Holy Ghost, asking earnestly for help and looking for mercy unto eternal life in trust that the Lord who knows infirmities will receive believers and strengthen them for service. It requires an indwelling Saviour and sacred truth within the soul whose fruits appear in the life, shutting the world out of the heart, with love and sympathy directed toward proper objects and ardent, overflowing love for Jesus in whom all hope of eternal life centers. This keeping belongs with receiving the righteousness of Christ as a free gift without price and being saved by grace, the love of Christ melting and subduing the soul apart from any legal boasting. It builds believers up in most holy faith under Christ as Author and Finisher of faith, producing steady growing in grace and in knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ until reaching the full stature of men and women in spiritual growth in Him.
Keeping means remaining faithful and separate from the world and from its spirit and influence, resisting the world, the flesh, and the devil rather than sharing selfishness, covetousness, and ungodliness, kept by seeking God together in shared religious privileges and living in harmony. Sabbath-keepers do this in response to God's mercy in giving warnings, pointing out dangers, and setting before them the exalted position He would have them occupy. Those who do so receive His special blessings with His light shining round about them, and their light and influence for good are felt to benefit every part of the gospel work and every branch of the gospel field. If they fail to meet the mind of God and continue with little sense of the exalted character of the work, their influence and example prove a terrible curse that does harm and only harm, with the blood of precious souls found upon their garments.
Keeping belongs with a character shaped by Christ and is opposed to lording it over God's people. Those who are in Christ have endured the law's penalty in Him and have fulfilled its righteousness in Him and receive eternal life, and the redeemed bear God's likeness, overcome, and become one with Christ. Keeping the soul takes most earnest effort, done by not trusting in one's own strength but looking to God for guidance and trusting in Him, without sacrificing religion to business plans and schemes. It means cherishing Christ's love, holding to faith and trust, refusing to give expression to doubts or unbelief that dishonor Him, remaining steadfast in the truth and holding firm to confidence to the end by God's grace while looking to Christ for wisdom.
Unity and Love for Others
To keep in the love of God is to live in unity, putting away jealousy, suspicion, judging, faultfinding, criticizing, envy and evil-speaking, and loving fellow believers with healthful heart-beats and true genuine love, with Christ abiding in the heart by faith, a love to be shown to the world. This keeping belongs with building up on most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit while looking ahead to the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and it is joined to having compassion, making a difference, and saving others with fear, pulling them out of the fire while hating the garment spotted by the flesh, trusting Him who is able to keep from falling and present faultless before God's glory. Where Christ is not abiding in the heart by faith, that keeping is not done.
It is the great work of continually guarding the self to overcome hereditary and cultivated tendencies, leaving no time or strength for criticizing one another. It forbids in word or in spirit talking of others' mistakes and errors, gathering up reports to hurt another's influence, and uttering any word to cause another heart pain or sadness, because this grieves the Lord's purchased possession and grieves the Holy Spirit of God. Kept in the love of God, social conversation gives strength and words of courage and hope, increases faith, relieves the soul-burdened, and does not discourage and pull down, for faultfinding is Satan's constant work.
With grave responsibilities resting on God's people, each one helps the one next to him by striving earnestly to keep his own soul in the love of God, so as not to be a hindrance to others, not to cause roots of bitterness to spring up in others' hearts, and not to lead others into strange paths. As a church, members are to bear their own burdens and keep their own souls in the love of God by helping one another to be burden-bearers. That keeping preserves the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace, and through that unity the church makes spiritual advancement, growing in grace and knowledge of the truth as members walk in the light, with wisdom from on high given when decisions must be made.
Remaining in God's love takes earnest, diligent effort, shown in cultivating Christian courtesy and tenderness and love for one another and carefully cherishing love as a plant of heavenly growth that must be watered and cultured with kindly words and good acts, or it will become cold and wither and die. It means keeping the thoughts of the heart under the softening, subduing influence of the Holy Spirit so that Christ speaks and breathes through the person, with the spiritual gaining ascendancy over the temporal, on which present happiness and success and future well-being depend. It is kept by striving for mastery over self, by watching unto prayer with humble, contrite prayer as strength, by making a solemn covenant to govern words so they exert a divine influence, and by thinking no evil so its blessings are not lost.
Keeping oneself in God's love means guarding the heart and living under the full control of God's Spirit, making straight paths, controlling one's own spirit, repenting for hardness of heart and impatient words and wrong acts, refusing to accuse brethren, and talking of Jesus and His love. This remaining brings harmony with heaven and peace with brethren, requires full consecration to God with self under the full control of His Spirit, enables meeting surrounding perils and perplexities aright, and makes sure work for eternity and readiness for eternity. It is done by growing in spirituality, weeding jealous thoughts and feelings from the heart, divesting selfishness, praying much, and standing firmly for right principles.
That keeping shuts out dissension and dissensions and supplies grace as oil that causes united work and business to run smoothly, enabling each one to bear his own burden, lift as much of the common burden as he can, guard the interests of the church, cooperate heartily with burdened leaders, encourage them, and press toward light in faith and harmony instead of murmuring, distrust, jealousy, and prophesying defeat. It is kept by growing in spirituality instead of depending on others to do one's thinking and instead of throwing extra burdens on those who carry heavy responsibility. It is necessary for spiritual discernment and essential to spiritual life, for growth in grace and in knowing Jesus Christ enables distinguishing light from darkness and truth from error, while those judging their brethren bitterly, judgmentally and unsympathetically are not keeping their souls in God's love.
Keeping the soul in the love of God means refusing to become a channel for Satan through evil surmisings and false accusations, especially against church-school teachers. Instead it rallies to the support of the teacher by commending the good rather than censuring mistakes.
Prayerful Devotion and Growth
Keeping oneself in divine love is each person's own active work for the soul, requiring diligence, watchfulness, earnest prayer, strict self-discipline and daily attention rather than carelessness, recklessness or neglect. It calls for self-examination whether one is in God's love, placing oneself in the channel of light, cultivating Christian graces, living in reverence, keeping the Lord continually before the soul and refusing cooperation with Satan. A daily record of opportunities to do good, mistakes, repentance, forgiveness, victories over temptation, and joy and peace in Christ helps to live faithfully and to face the record of life without shame, while neglect leaves time for Satan's wedges, suggestions and attempts to turn the mind from God's work. Neglect is itself sin, since God does nothing without human cooperation, and keeping the mind clean from fictitious stories, love ditties, rubbish and trash belongs to being true to present spiritual interest and to the soul's best and highest interest.
Keeping requires feeling need of Jesus at every step and making time for prayer, religious meetings, meditation, study and waiting upon God, with a living connection and discipline under the Holy Spirit showing patience and Christlike forbearance as part of practical religion. Quiet meditation, study and waiting bring blessing and the refreshing of the Holy Spirit, and knowing that Jesus loves can make the believer cheerful. Being too busy to care for the soul, neglecting prayer and meetings, leaves emptiness and room for Satan to create vain imaginations and vain thoughts, leading to planning and acting without Christ. It is done by constant prayer, including silent petitions darted up to heaven at any moment, refusing to descend to cheap and frivolous talk among the frivolous, careless and inconsiderate, but asking the God of all grace to keep the soul in the love of Christ. This continual connection is the only safe course for workers in churches and among people in cities and villages, keeping them day by day, hour by hour in the channel of light, diffusing light received from Christ, and bringing continual growth to every church blessed with such labor. Ministers especially must guard small points that would close the door to larger evils, taking time to meditate and pray rather than preaching so much in busy seasons that they are left tired with no vitality, preaching not from a mechanical heart but from a heart full of God's love and subdued and softened by grace so that Christ makes the impression; overwork in preaching without meditation and prayer strains vital organs and brain, leaves ministers sapped, feeling separated from God, doubting that prayer is heard, passing over seasons of prayer and sliding into backsliding.
Keeping is done by keeping the door of the heart closed against temptation and open to Jesus as heavenly Guest, with the peace and love of God resting in the heart, and now is the time for this work. It is done by firm determination joined with thankfulness for God's care, by faith laying hold of God's promises and claiming them as one's own, for Christ's words strengthen faith and courage and keep the soul. Hearts are kept daily only through Christ's power, and He receives all who come sincerely but accepts no pretense or hypocrisy, being the only hope and the source of wisdom, sanctification and righteousness. It means keeping fast hold on Jesus whatever happens, looking up to the haven of rest and the home of the blest, growing spiritually strong because Jesus as loving friend takes the hand and helps over every hard and trying place. This keeping rests on grateful, trustful, habitual recognition of God, which lies at the foundation of all right conduct and true character, requires never losing confidence, and means loving and serving God in sincerity and fidelity without fear or shame at being known as servant of the Most High, since to forget God is more sinful and unreasonable than to forget every human friend. It means trusting Jesus in faith and confidence rather than dwelling on painful or disagreeable experiences, looking heavenward and filling the mind with uplifting truths, because what is continually beheld shapes character and words.
Keeping means surrender of self and dependence on the Lord rather than trusting own power, receiving the Holy Spirit who reshapes the heart, casts out the old temperament, and enables continually receiving and imparting spiritual life; holding to self brings misery, while humility, trust in His keeping power and trust in the Lord bring heavenly joy. It means guarding the heart in truth and keeping the soul spiritually alive, remaining unwavering in truth while the Spirit shapes the heart. Remaining in God's love in one's own soul makes a person a living monument of grace and a help to God's work where he is, shown in walking softly and in refined, elevated, ennobling words, with Christ manifesting Himself. This course brings peace and becomes a means of helping a spouse accept truth and become a blessing in return. Remaining opens precious, essential truth and honors the Redeemer so His suffering and death are not in vain, by appreciating and improving every spiritual and temporal endowment to glorify His name, cultivating talents and working with tact, ingenuity and heavenly wisdom, and communicating that love to all encountered with travail of soul and heart-yearning for poor souls for whom Christ paid an infinite price. It melts the heart once frozen by icy selfishness by the Spirit's influence, so human beings once scarcely looked at become precious, uniting those who remain with Christ and binding them in love with His heritage in joy that poor souls are accepted in the Beloved, making duty and sacrifice precious because of love for those purchased by Christ's blood.
Keeping means staying alive to God through living union with Christ, trusting His promises and gaining constantly greater strength by beholding Jesus, which changes the heart into Christ's likeness. It is for young as well as old, done by faith in the blood of Christ while working together with God against evil, by fastening the mind on precious promises, by morning resolve to live for Jesus that day, to love and think of Him and refuse to be led by the tempter into any wrong action, and by asking God to show what to avoid and encourage; victory gained today fortifies against tomorrow's temptations and enables giving help to associates. It applies in sickness and recovery by remembering Jesus as helper who loves and sympathizes as a friend, trusting Him and using returning strength carefully to avoid unnecessary taxation of the body and keep a reserve fund of strength, for health of body and health of soul. It means refusing to contract debts and not presuming too much on mental and physical strength to carry overloaded responsibilities. It requires living simply with daily self-denial, binding about wants, eating to live rather than living to eat, and giving complete consecration of soul, body and spirit to God's service, wasting neither time nor strength and overtaxing no family member by unnecessary labor, since such overwork disqualifies for serving God and for keeping the soul.
Keeping means keeping close communion with God with communication with heaven open and clear and the atmosphere of heaven surrounding the soul, so there is room for heavenly intelligences to work and plans and works harmonize with heaven rather than being earthly in every project. It means not filling the soul with earthly things, clearing the channel to heaven and living surrounded by a heavenly atmosphere, so the connection is not cut off and Satan cannot accompany and manipulate thoughts and plans. This is required while still on probation, still fighting the earthly battle and building character by God's great standard of righteousness, and especially before entering counsel over God's cause. Representative men who plan and devise for God's cause and come into the room for counsel, when thus remaining, are quick to discern and respond to signals from heaven. Keeping brings an influence that gives life and requires fervent piety and careful care of souls being prepared for the heavenly kingdom, without imposing one's own character on others; impatient or passionate conduct is to be repented of, and neglect of piety fails to work with God. It means making straight paths for the feet lest the lame be turned out of the way, keeping the taper kindled from the divine altar and letting light shine to others, placing confidence wholly in the Lord, learning meekness and lowliness of heart for rest, putting entire trust in Jesus Christ as the only safe Teacher, treating salvation of the soul as the great question, continuing to trust and walk with Him in communion, and walking with Christ to learn wisdom by communion as Enoch did.
Faithful Work and Witness
Keeping in divine love is cultivated by active religious service and testimony, by continuing faithfully in assigned work and duties with available means and cheerful sacrifice, for such labor builds useful experience, grows love for sacred things and grace, while ceasing to work for others leaves love cold and zeal weak and neglect leaves the soul weakened and stunted. Keeping the heart is fully consistent with faithfully laboring to bring others to Christ through personal conversation, earnest prayer, prayer meetings, and sharing religious reading, by which even those of little talent and limited education may win many souls, with conversions standing as evidence of grace rather than personal merit. Messengers who serve in this love and work together with Christ receive grace, truth, and deep constant love for the work, are sanctified by the truth they receive, and see fruit from their efforts. Keeping calls for reaching a higher standard in soul-saving rather than striking too low, leaving smaller tasks for those needing experience while teaching all to reach ever higher, broadening effort to those who know not truth and to the cities, trusting God to open the work before those striving to save the perishing, uniting varied lines of work in perfect harmony as safety, wisdom, and strength, and turning wanderers back to the path of life and to the Shepherd who gave His life.
Ministers and teachers must first keep their own souls in experimental religion rather than mere theory, with Christ enshrined in the heart and His Spirit controlling the affections, then press individual consecration and personal conversion upon others, for without this inward life profession is worthless and leaves one worse than before. Such keeping requires being faithful, humble, and teachable, not seeking own will and way, not neglecting responsibility for personal pleasure or profit, and not putting personal honor first, lest a teacher prove unsafe and impress students and church members as an unfaithful shepherd. Keeping is done by exercising all entrusted powers and abilities, killing indolence, carrying responsibility, practicing self-denial, and doing personal labor to seek and save the lost by precept and example instead of leaving the work to ministers of word and doctrine, bearing witness to the power of truth and grace upon the heart. Students share in this by earnestly seeking to know God's will and way for service, obeying His commandments, loving Him with all heart, mind, soul, and strength, practicing strict economy in eating, drinking, and dressing, cultivating sobriety of mind and sound character, correcting extravagance, and putting away false ideas and sickly sentimentalism, since neglect dims spiritual life while diligent use keeps it alive and growing.
Keeping makes duty and sacrifice precious and is practiced through diligent labor for others' salvation, staying where placed with holy boldness, bringing Christlike love and helpfulness into work and preaching, overlooking disagreeable things without hurt, keeping praise on the lips with cheerfulness under every circumstance, and speaking plainly with brethren when hindered in influence until God indicates a move. It includes faithfully teaching and guiding children in the fear of the Lord, since their salvation depends greatly on childhood education, with parents patiently disciplining under the Spirit's control and guiding toward eternal life, and neglect of this duty is failure to remain in divine love. For a minister's wife, keeping her own soul enables her to lighten her husband's burden, teach the word to her children, manage the household with economy and discretion, and unite with her husband in training children in economical habits and restraint of wants. Keeping means refusing to study and plan for self-interest and instead keeping the soul pure, cultured, and principled, sanctifying self after Christ's example so others also are sanctified, leaving a bright heavenward track, blocking the path to debasing sins, faithfully rebuking and expelling dishonesty, licentiousness, and deception lest evil spread contagiously, setting the example for youth and associates to raise the moral tone, and putting away selfishness that eats out pure principles through resolute honesty, in recognition of accountability for souls Christ died to save through the web of humanity.
Keeping includes contentment to labor faithfully on a smaller scale rather than restless ambition for larger ventures or removal for advancement, which helps support families and keep faith while ambition may weaken churches and cost property, health, and truth itself. It also means keeping the heart amid unkind words by looking to Jesus, who endured unkind speech without fault, and working for His glory rather than expecting better treatment or letting words hurt and discourage. Keeping requires working in God's lines in dependence on His power rather than independently, trusting instead of fretting, looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith, refusing hurry and overtaxation of physical, mental, and moral powers, taking only sustainable cares and burdens, cooperating with heavenly agencies, giving the enemy no partnership, receiving orders from God, accepting finite service without discouragement, and letting the Infinite give efficiency. A physician applies this by practicing health reform personally, teaching it to others, and giving correct counsel against meat and butter whose use brings patients more suffering than relief.
Each must keep the soul in order to teach faith and form a Godlike character, making Jesus the heavenly Guide rather than trusting personal ability or following fallible men, consecrating self to follow God's will with assurance of sustaining grace, approval, and light, searching Scripture for clear truth to become a help and blessing, drinking anew from the heavenly fountain with love rekindled, rejoicing in a living Saviour as center of affections and hopes, and testifying and praying in faith so the Spirit helps the church without dependence on ministerial labor alone. Keeping means centering affections on God by earnest heart-searching in light of His soon coming and last-day perils, employing every God-given power to get ready and prepare others, laying hold of exceeding great promises to escape worldly corruption through lust and share the divine nature, and building one another in most holy faith into a beautiful temple for God. Even those with homes and business who feel fully occupied do this individual work by keeping in working order, exercising God-given ability within the family when unable to go elsewhere, setting all in order there so it stands as a representative family in truth. Those who keep should be a blessing to others, for keeping requires deep genuine experience and daily accountability, without which none will be prepared for coming trials or for the holy family in heaven. It means remaining faithful and not neglecting duty because of suspicion or jealousy from others.