Firefighter Labeled Jesus Carrying a Child From a Fireby Joel
1:23Jude 1:23
And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Others are to be treated with tender compassion, and still others are to be seized urgently out of impending ruin while the defilement clinging to them is hated and shunned. The fire is destruction, death and moral pollution threatening the soul, and saving with fear is earnest, reverent, wary haste that rescues as from immediate burning without becoming stained. The spotted garment is sin's stain upon character, including lust, sinful pleasure, discordant words and sensual fanaticism joined to worship, which must be rejected even while the sinner is loved and drawn toward safety. The work is not all done one way but calls for wisdom to discern temperaments and needs, joining firm, plain warning and reproof with kindness, pity, patience and compassion, since harsh severity repels while careless tolerance leaves wrong uncorrected. Christ Himself snatches sinners as a brand from the burning by bearing their guilt and pleading His merits against the accuser, and those who join Him must be consecrated, prayerful, humble, undefiled and kept in God's love, laboring urgently with hands stretched to the sinner and to Christ because judgment is near and souls are daily deciding between life and death.
Epistle Setting in Last Days
The verse is encouragement spoken to God's faithful people after exposing the character of ungodly men and mockers in the last time who walk after their own ungodly lusts. Those mockers in the last times separate themselves, are sensual, and have not the Spirit, in contrast to those who build themselves up in 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, whose rescuing work is to have compassion making a difference and to save others with fear pulling them out of the fire while hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. That portrayal of evildoers in the epistle is manifested in this period of earth's history, when conditions include people departing from the faith and needing to heed warnings about them. Making the Lord their helper and trusting in Him as sufficiency for success belongs to this faithful response.
The verse belongs to the closing instruction from verse 20 to the end that makes work for Christ a complete whole by teaching how to conduct warfare in His service. That warfare requires all entrusted human qualifications to be yielded to divine influence and brought into subjection to Christ, with self hid in Christ and Christ in God. It calls for 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. This saving work joins discerning compassion toward some with urgent rescue of others from destructive danger with godly fear, together with utter hatred of sin so that even its defiling contact with character is rejected, and those who claim great light and spiritual knowledge must keep themselves undefiled while doing it.
The verse guards against the seductive influences of false teachers in the last days, men who have a form of godliness but are not safe leaders. In that time false teachers arise and become actively zealous, presenting all kinds of theories to divert minds from the very truth that defines the position that can be occupied with safety. Satan then works with power upon religionists, leading them to make a pretense of being righteous while failing to place themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The verse is part of a set of warnings that people are failing to heed. Its warning applies to those involved in dishonest dealings and to those who support wrongdoing: unless they repent and make restitution, they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
The verse charges those who profess to believe in the soon coming of Christ to judge the earth to be thoroughly aroused to their situation. They are to examine their own hearts and lives to see if they stand in the position to which Jude the servant of Christ calls them. Physicians and ministers especially are to be assured that they themselves are keeping the commandments of God, because keeping the commandments must be done to be saved in His kingdom.
Fire, Fear, and Garment
The fire is destruction and ruin and death, and moral pollution from which perishing souls in sin must be pulled to be saved from death, even as a brand plucked from the burning. Rescue from the fire is urgent fearful deliverance from destruction, and the one deeply corrupted must seek his own salvation as one rescued from the burning. The same pulling from fire and from water is also applied to opposite dangers in appetite and health, where some are suffering and diseased through indulgence of appetite and putting anything into the stomach, while others are suffering, sick and dying for want of nutritious, well-cooked, healthful food through strained economy and a starvation plan. Saving with fear means urgent earnest seriousness and reverent wary caution, rescuing some as if from immediate burning while remaining on guard against moral defilement. It is a charge to workers to save those who have wandered from the right way by earnest effort, without becoming contaminated by their sin. The rescuer remains wary, careful and distinct from sin while hating the sin that stains those rescued.
The garment spotted by the flesh is the stain and contamination and defiling contact of sin upon character, which must be hated, shunned and rejected even while the sinner is saved. Hatred is directed at the stain of sin rather than the sinner, and at sin itself even while seeking to save the sinner. The work must be done with vigorous effort likened to pulling from a fire, yet with care to avoid being defiled by the corrupting practices from which souls are rescued. Discerning compassion treats different cases differently, with urgent rescue of those in danger of destruction done with reverent fear.
The spotting of the garment includes censorious discordant words that stain and defile Christian character. It also means fleeing lust and sinful pleasure and guarding against temptation that can harden the heart and endanger eternal life. In its fullest form the spotted garment is sensual fanaticism joined to worship and sacred truth, with excited bodily exercises, rolling bodies, nudity, talk of holy flesh and being beyond temptation, claims of supernatural power and of the dead raised and ascended to heaven, and singing, shouting, dancing, jumping and noisy demonstrations molded by Satan. Such excited noisy meetings claimed as the power of God and the Holy Spirit's work, with sensuality molding the work, dishonor the cause of God and level sacred truth in the dust.
When civil and law authorities jail and restrain the leaders for such indecency and the offenders call it persecution for truth's sake, sacred truth itself is clothed with garments spotted with the flesh. That clothing dishonors truth, levels it in the dust, makes it objectionable and disgusting and stigmatized to the community, and makes it of none effect, though truth itself remains unchanged and the defilement requires reproof. Hating even the spotted garment therefore means keeping sacred truth free from sensual fanatical defilement. It also means that praying men guard themselves pure from sin's defilement, hating even the stained garment, so that God can use them.
Discerning Compassionate Rescue
The verse sets forth a twofold treatment in soul-saving: on some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Not all are to be treated in the same way, for helping souls requires discernment to know who needs tender compassion and who must be rescued urgently as from burning danger. That rescue is grave and urgent, and the work is no light or easy work. Rough, indiscreet handling fails to make the needed difference and can harm rather than save, while the rescuer hates the staining sin yet labors to save the person. It demands the compassion and sympathy of Christ for human wants and woes, constant watchfulness over thoughts, plans, habits and natural inclinations, and watchfulness over souls purchased with blood with a readiness to do them good. Like Mary there must be sitting at the feet of Jesus to learn in choosing the better part, and like Martha an ever abounding in the work of the Lord with hands, heart and whole being devoted, reached only by much sincere prayer on the knees until every fiber of selfishness is removed lest many be defiled.
Different methods must be employed to save different ones, for temperaments and minds differ. This applies to missionary enterprises in fields where people know nothing of the truth and to work in the cities for those ready to die, requiring workers of varied gifts linked together rather than all taking hold of the same lever, receiving the holy oil and going forth to save. Rigid discipline cannot be laid on all alike, since all cannot be brought to another's ideas of duty, and efforts must be varied rather than following rigid rules or standing aloof from those most in need. Bearing with one another while remembering personal failings, uniting to be mutual strength and help, laboring with erring brethren and bearing with them long, never rejecting a brother without sufficient cause, catching him in his words, or lording over the heritage, belongs to this varied rescue. The call to rescue with fear does not justify harshness, for patience, forbearance and care are needed so that zeal does not push people away.
Stern, fearful duty toward the erring in danger of ruin must be joined with kindness and tender love, acting with tenderness, truth and compassion while abhorring even the stain of sin. Severity without kindness can do harm and provoke resistance instead of leading to good, for harshness repels while kindness wins. Correcting those gone astray requires faithful reproof joined with love and tender compassion rather than needless severity. Those in danger from sin are to be rescued with earnest concern and pity, tenderness, patience and love, without becoming so severe that compassion is lost or so tolerant that the wrongdoer sees no need for reproof.
The work requires wisdom, discernment and divine intuition to know how to treat tenderly compassionate cases versus those to be plucked from the fire. Most earnest work is to be done for souls ready to perish, and workers must learn in the school of Christ His method of saving souls which He has given. Dependence on God is essential because the results of efforts are uncertain.
Discrimination must be joined with zeal, so that ministers overcome reluctance to approach unbelieving neighbors, show concern for their souls, warn and plead with them, pray for them, and make every effort to win them. Those who teach are to urge learners to surrender themselves to God, using the gospel net with close meshes so the application of Scripture is easily discerned, coming right to the point and making the most of drawing in the net. Knowledge must be made useful by communicating it so others grasp it, spoken with deep feeling and pathos that impresses hearts, drawing near to God and then to learners to carry them over the ground of knowledge with the love and gentleness of Christ rather than a harsh, domineering spirit.
Rescuer's Life and Preparation
Rescue belongs to those who build themselves up on most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep themselves in the love of God, and look for the mercy of Jesus Christ unto eternal life. They make the Lord their helper and trust Him as their sufficiency for success, trusting Him who is able to keep from falling and to present faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. This is the work of encouragement given to faithful people in contrast to mockers in the last time who walk after ungodly lusts, separate themselves, are sensual, and have not the Spirit. It calls for compassion toward people in danger of sin and destruction, with discernment toward some and rescue of others with fear as if pulled from a fire, while hating the stain of sin rather than the sinner.
The work requires thorough consecration of body, mind, and soul in humility, earnestly asking God for help, for He knows human infirmities and receives and strengthens for service those who give themselves to Him. Those who would draw others to God must feel the power of the truth in their own hearts, keep before them the worth of souls and the depth of the Saviour's love, and be filled with anxiety for souls bought at infinite price who day by day decide between eternal life and death. Then their work can move hearts, awakening zeal to reach others with earnest, untiring labor. It demands the compassion and sympathy of Christ for human wants and woes, constant watchfulness over thoughts, plans, habits and natural inclinations, and watching over souls purchased with His blood for opportunities to do them good. Like Mary there must be sitting at the feet of Jesus to learn in choosing the better part, and like Martha an ever abounding in the work of the Lord with hands and heart and whole being devoted, reached only by being much on the knees in sincere prayer until every fiber of the root of selfishness is removed lest many be defiled.
Workers are to be laborers together with God, with all entrusted human qualifications yielded to divine influence and brought into subjection to Christ, with self hid in Christ and Christ in God. The closing instruction from verse 20 to the end makes work for Christ a complete whole by teaching how to conduct warfare in His service. It calls for 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. Saving work joins aggressive effort with utter hatred of sin so that even its defiling contact with character is rejected.
It requires putting away jealousy, suspicion, judging one another, faultfinding, criticizing, envy, evil-surmising and evil-speaking, being reconciled and living in complete unity with healthful heart-beats for each other, so true genuine love is expressed, prayers are offered in the spirit and power of God, and God is revealed to the world. Rigid discipline cannot be laid on all alike, because temperaments and minds differ and all cannot be brought to another's ideas of duty. It requires bearing with one another while remembering personal failings, uniting to be mutual strength and help, laboring with erring brethren and bearing with them as long as Jesus has borne with them. A brother is never to be rejected without sufficient cause, caught in his words, or lorded over as God's heritage.
Those who claim great light and spiritual knowledge must keep themselves undefiled while doing this saving work. They are to hate sin itself even while seeking to save the sinner, rejecting the sin that stains while holding firmly to faith and persistently drawing toward safety. They remain separate from the sin that endangers souls, unstained by it, through urgent, active evangelistic labor that devotes abilities to pulling souls from the fire. Christlike character helps move the hearts of those seeking truth.
Christ's Saving Intervention
Jude 1:23 shows Christ snatching the race as a brand from the fire when Satan seeks to cover God's people with blackness and ruin them. Although they have sinned, He takes the guilt of their sins upon Himself and pleads the merits of the Redeemer and the mighty argument of the cross to silence accusations and bring hostile devices to nothing, so that God can be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. By human nature He is linked with man while through divine nature He is one with the infinite God, so help is brought within reach of perishing souls. In answer to their cry for justice against the adversary, the adversary is rebuked.
God saves a person in spiritual danger by plucking him as a brand from the burning. Earnest prayer pleads with God for that saving blessing upon a named individual. Such prayer trusts God's presence, guidance, and help while clinging to Him in faith.
Saving people from sin calls for urgent, compassionate effort: they are to be pulled from danger while their sin is firmly rejected. The work is to be done by laying hold of fellow men by living faith to rescue them from destruction, acting with fear while hating even the defilement of sin. It does not cover up the transgressor's sins but makes the most determined effort to bring the sinner to a sense of the sinfulness of sin. Christ's righteousness and hatred of sin bring salvation without excusing wrong, leading the sinner through personal integrity and righteousness to recognize sin's evil.
Urgent Practical Mission
Rescue is urgent, energetic, zealous work like pulling souls from fire with no time to lose and no moment to delay. Time is not to be lost in prolonged self-justifications over minor difficulties but spent showing transgressors their errors and correcting those who do wrong. There are no hours or moments to devote to selfish pleasure, because many precious opportunities to save souls have been unheeded and lost, so now every effort must be made to save as many as possible. Christians are to devote their hands to active work and all God-given capabilities to labor as for life itself, opening the heart to the Holy Spirit and staying in the channel of light where there is more direct communication from heaven to earth. Serving others in this way helps prepare workers for the better life, with a heaven to win and a hell to shun.
Urgency is driven by Jesus coming and the coming judgment, requiring earnest labor to snatch the lost from fire before destruction. Presenting the truth should bring people to a decision because the matter is life or death. Worldly concerns can blunt that appeal, for possessions and earthly plans may speak more loudly than words and make people act as though this world were their home. At the coming last test and arraignment before the judgment seat, those convicted by the word will decide for Christ and range themselves under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel, proclaiming in word and deed that the end is at hand. Then believers will recognize missed opportunities to seek and save the lost and understand as never before that they have not labored as zealously as they should. Souls perishing in sin have been bought at an infinite price measured by the death of the Son of God on Calvary's cross and day by day are deciding between eternal life and eternal death, which fills Christians with anxiety and calls for consecrated missionary service with every hand engaged at its post of duty.
The verse calls for proclaiming the gospel of Christ with earnestness and zeal to wake commandment-breakers up to get ready to meet God. This means holding up the truth once delivered to the saints and magnifying the trampled law to make it honorable, which is the special medical missionary work for this time and the church's work of saving people as brands pulled from fire. All canvassing is evangelistic work in which workers together with God labor with all interest and earnest energy to rescue souls from destruction while hating sin, with grace given to all who seek it in humility and ways opened to drop seeds of truth into good soil. Believers should make earnest efforts to rescue people from sin and bring outsiders to hear the truth in order to save souls who are outside of Christ. Overcoming as Christ overcame means using access to His power and His promised presence to the end of the world to do the commanded work of preaching the gospel to all nations and saving a world, requiring moral courage to labor for people who appear to have no hope of God or heaven while laying up treasure above and spending the short remaining time preparing for the higher life, which is the reason for schools.
Practical rescue waters and cultivates souls ready to perish in moral pollution like caring for plants, giving time and delight to close, interested efforts with words and a stretched-out helping hand, and the one who does this work will save his own soul in the kingdom and have the pleasure of seeing those precious souls saved. It speaks with them, prays with them, and points them to Jesus, a duty belonging to both ministers and physicians for those struggling with temptation and in danger of being overcome. One hand reaches for the perishing soul while the other grasps Christ, the throne of God and heaven, drawing people away from destruction to the Saviour through humble, broken-hearted intercession and earnest, purified words from lips touched by a live coal from the divine altar. That effort is made a light to others by a consistent religious life, holy speech, godly example, benevolence, and faithful performance of duty, with every worker receiving directions from Christ, carrying the prayers and sympathies of an awakened church, and having the Spirit of the Redeemer abiding in the heart so that works of righteousness are wrought. Saving with fear also means giving a plain, close, earnest testimony of reproof and warning to save the soul of one in danger of giving up the truth, even one who is influential, done calmly and in the spirit of Jesus yet firmly and decidedly, in love and pleading at great strain and personal cost, bringing thankfulness when the heart opens to receive it.
At a crisis where there is no halting between two opinions, a person must go decidedly forward with God or backward to Egyptian darkness. Pulling such a one out of the fire means thorough, unsparing dealing that calls for repentance and proving of character at home where failure occurred. It redeems the very field where Satan conquered through demoralizing, unprincipled influence, gaining moral courage to stand where duty required years ago. The rescued one goes down into the valley of humiliation through grievous trial until faith comes forth as pure gold fit for God to use. Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh means cutting loose from the power and influence of corrupting companionship and sacrificing unworthy society rather than sacrificing everything valuable.
The image belongs to the urgent work of turning wandering people back to the path of life and leading them to the Shepherd who gave His life for them. It is laboring zealously with urgent earnestness and perseverance to save perishing souls and bring them to present truth, while hating the contamination of sin. This work is driven by Christ's love for perishing people, shown in giving His life as a sacrifice and bearing sin's curse. Among those degraded by intemperance and deeply given to evil, some may be pulled from danger and from the fire, but few who have given themselves to evil learn to represent Christ. People are to work to save those who are perishing by urgently rescuing them from destruction as brands snatched from burning, including some who sincerely mistook human suppositions for Scripture and mixed them into God's work.
Others are to be treated with tender compassion, and still others are to be seized urgently out of impending ruin while the defilement clinging to them is hated and shunned. The fire is destruction, death and moral pollution threatening the soul, and saving with fear is earnest, reverent, wary haste that rescues as from immediate burning without becoming stained. The spotted garment is sin's stain upon character, including lust, sinful pleasure, discordant words and sensual fanaticism joined to worship, which must be rejected even while the sinner is loved and drawn toward safety. The work is not all done one way but calls for wisdom to discern temperaments and needs, joining firm, plain warning and reproof with kindness, pity, patience and compassion, since harsh severity repels while careless tolerance leaves wrong uncorrected. Christ Himself snatches sinners as a brand from the burning by bearing their guilt and pleading His merits against the accuser, and those who join Him must be consecrated, prayerful, humble, undefiled and kept in God's love, laboring urgently with hands stretched to the sinner and to Christ because judgment is near and souls are daily deciding between life and death.
Epistle Setting in Last Days
The verse is encouragement spoken to God's faithful people after exposing the character of ungodly men and mockers in the last time who walk after their own ungodly lusts. Those mockers in the last times separate themselves, are sensual, and have not the Spirit, in contrast to those who build themselves up in 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, whose rescuing work is to have compassion making a difference and to save others with fear pulling them out of the fire while hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. That portrayal of evildoers in the epistle is manifested in this period of earth's history, when conditions include people departing from the faith and needing to heed warnings about them. Making the Lord their helper and trusting in Him as sufficiency for success belongs to this faithful response.
The verse belongs to the closing instruction from verse 20 to the end that makes work for Christ a complete whole by teaching how to conduct warfare in His service. That warfare requires all entrusted human qualifications to be yielded to divine influence and brought into subjection to Christ, with self hid in Christ and Christ in God. It calls for 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. This saving work joins discerning compassion toward some with urgent rescue of others from destructive danger with godly fear, together with utter hatred of sin so that even its defiling contact with character is rejected, and those who claim great light and spiritual knowledge must keep themselves undefiled while doing it.
The verse guards against the seductive influences of false teachers in the last days, men who have a form of godliness but are not safe leaders. In that time false teachers arise and become actively zealous, presenting all kinds of theories to divert minds from the very truth that defines the position that can be occupied with safety. Satan then works with power upon religionists, leading them to make a pretense of being righteous while failing to place themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The verse is part of a set of warnings that people are failing to heed. Its warning applies to those involved in dishonest dealings and to those who support wrongdoing: unless they repent and make restitution, they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
The verse charges those who profess to believe in the soon coming of Christ to judge the earth to be thoroughly aroused to their situation. They are to examine their own hearts and lives to see if they stand in the position to which Jude the servant of Christ calls them. Physicians and ministers especially are to be assured that they themselves are keeping the commandments of God, because keeping the commandments must be done to be saved in His kingdom.
Fire, Fear, and Garment
The fire is destruction and ruin and death, and moral pollution from which perishing souls in sin must be pulled to be saved from death, even as a brand plucked from the burning. Rescue from the fire is urgent fearful deliverance from destruction, and the one deeply corrupted must seek his own salvation as one rescued from the burning. The same pulling from fire and from water is also applied to opposite dangers in appetite and health, where some are suffering and diseased through indulgence of appetite and putting anything into the stomach, while others are suffering, sick and dying for want of nutritious, well-cooked, healthful food through strained economy and a starvation plan.
Saving with fear means urgent earnest seriousness and reverent wary caution, rescuing some as if from immediate burning while remaining on guard against moral defilement. It is a charge to workers to save those who have wandered from the right way by earnest effort, without becoming contaminated by their sin. The rescuer remains wary, careful and distinct from sin while hating the sin that stains those rescued.
The garment spotted by the flesh is the stain and contamination and defiling contact of sin upon character, which must be hated, shunned and rejected even while the sinner is saved. Hatred is directed at the stain of sin rather than the sinner, and at sin itself even while seeking to save the sinner. The work must be done with vigorous effort likened to pulling from a fire, yet with care to avoid being defiled by the corrupting practices from which souls are rescued. Discerning compassion treats different cases differently, with urgent rescue of those in danger of destruction done with reverent fear.
The spotting of the garment includes censorious discordant words that stain and defile Christian character. It also means fleeing lust and sinful pleasure and guarding against temptation that can harden the heart and endanger eternal life. In its fullest form the spotted garment is sensual fanaticism joined to worship and sacred truth, with excited bodily exercises, rolling bodies, nudity, talk of holy flesh and being beyond temptation, claims of supernatural power and of the dead raised and ascended to heaven, and singing, shouting, dancing, jumping and noisy demonstrations molded by Satan. Such excited noisy meetings claimed as the power of God and the Holy Spirit's work, with sensuality molding the work, dishonor the cause of God and level sacred truth in the dust.
When civil and law authorities jail and restrain the leaders for such indecency and the offenders call it persecution for truth's sake, sacred truth itself is clothed with garments spotted with the flesh. That clothing dishonors truth, levels it in the dust, makes it objectionable and disgusting and stigmatized to the community, and makes it of none effect, though truth itself remains unchanged and the defilement requires reproof. Hating even the spotted garment therefore means keeping sacred truth free from sensual fanatical defilement. It also means that praying men guard themselves pure from sin's defilement, hating even the stained garment, so that God can use them.
Discerning Compassionate Rescue
The verse sets forth a twofold treatment in soul-saving: on some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Not all are to be treated in the same way, for helping souls requires discernment to know who needs tender compassion and who must be rescued urgently as from burning danger. That rescue is grave and urgent, and the work is no light or easy work. Rough, indiscreet handling fails to make the needed difference and can harm rather than save, while the rescuer hates the staining sin yet labors to save the person. It demands the compassion and sympathy of Christ for human wants and woes, constant watchfulness over thoughts, plans, habits and natural inclinations, and watchfulness over souls purchased with blood with a readiness to do them good. Like Mary there must be sitting at the feet of Jesus to learn in choosing the better part, and like Martha an ever abounding in the work of the Lord with hands, heart and whole being devoted, reached only by much sincere prayer on the knees until every fiber of selfishness is removed lest many be defiled.
Different methods must be employed to save different ones, for temperaments and minds differ. This applies to missionary enterprises in fields where people know nothing of the truth and to work in the cities for those ready to die, requiring workers of varied gifts linked together rather than all taking hold of the same lever, receiving the holy oil and going forth to save. Rigid discipline cannot be laid on all alike, since all cannot be brought to another's ideas of duty, and efforts must be varied rather than following rigid rules or standing aloof from those most in need. Bearing with one another while remembering personal failings, uniting to be mutual strength and help, laboring with erring brethren and bearing with them long, never rejecting a brother without sufficient cause, catching him in his words, or lording over the heritage, belongs to this varied rescue. The call to rescue with fear does not justify harshness, for patience, forbearance and care are needed so that zeal does not push people away.
Stern, fearful duty toward the erring in danger of ruin must be joined with kindness and tender love, acting with tenderness, truth and compassion while abhorring even the stain of sin. Severity without kindness can do harm and provoke resistance instead of leading to good, for harshness repels while kindness wins. Correcting those gone astray requires faithful reproof joined with love and tender compassion rather than needless severity. Those in danger from sin are to be rescued with earnest concern and pity, tenderness, patience and love, without becoming so severe that compassion is lost or so tolerant that the wrongdoer sees no need for reproof.
The work requires wisdom, discernment and divine intuition to know how to treat tenderly compassionate cases versus those to be plucked from the fire. Most earnest work is to be done for souls ready to perish, and workers must learn in the school of Christ His method of saving souls which He has given. Dependence on God is essential because the results of efforts are uncertain.
Discrimination must be joined with zeal, so that ministers overcome reluctance to approach unbelieving neighbors, show concern for their souls, warn and plead with them, pray for them, and make every effort to win them. Those who teach are to urge learners to surrender themselves to God, using the gospel net with close meshes so the application of Scripture is easily discerned, coming right to the point and making the most of drawing in the net. Knowledge must be made useful by communicating it so others grasp it, spoken with deep feeling and pathos that impresses hearts, drawing near to God and then to learners to carry them over the ground of knowledge with the love and gentleness of Christ rather than a harsh, domineering spirit.
Rescuer's Life and Preparation
Rescue belongs to those who build themselves up on most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep themselves in the love of God, and look for the mercy of Jesus Christ unto eternal life. They make the Lord their helper and trust Him as their sufficiency for success, trusting Him who is able to keep from falling and to present faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. This is the work of encouragement given to faithful people in contrast to mockers in the last time who walk after ungodly lusts, separate themselves, are sensual, and have not the Spirit. It calls for compassion toward people in danger of sin and destruction, with discernment toward some and rescue of others with fear as if pulled from a fire, while hating the stain of sin rather than the sinner.
The work requires thorough consecration of body, mind, and soul in humility, earnestly asking God for help, for He knows human infirmities and receives and strengthens for service those who give themselves to Him. Those who would draw others to God must feel the power of the truth in their own hearts, keep before them the worth of souls and the depth of the Saviour's love, and be filled with anxiety for souls bought at infinite price who day by day decide between eternal life and death. Then their work can move hearts, awakening zeal to reach others with earnest, untiring labor. It demands the compassion and sympathy of Christ for human wants and woes, constant watchfulness over thoughts, plans, habits and natural inclinations, and watching over souls purchased with His blood for opportunities to do them good. Like Mary there must be sitting at the feet of Jesus to learn in choosing the better part, and like Martha an ever abounding in the work of the Lord with hands and heart and whole being devoted, reached only by being much on the knees in sincere prayer until every fiber of the root of selfishness is removed lest many be defiled.
Workers are to be laborers together with God, with all entrusted human qualifications yielded to divine influence and brought into subjection to Christ, with self hid in Christ and Christ in God. The closing instruction from verse 20 to the end makes work for Christ a complete whole by teaching how to conduct warfare in His service. It calls for 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. Saving work joins aggressive effort with utter hatred of sin so that even its defiling contact with character is rejected.
It requires putting away jealousy, suspicion, judging one another, faultfinding, criticizing, envy, evil-surmising and evil-speaking, being reconciled and living in complete unity with healthful heart-beats for each other, so true genuine love is expressed, prayers are offered in the spirit and power of God, and God is revealed to the world. Rigid discipline cannot be laid on all alike, because temperaments and minds differ and all cannot be brought to another's ideas of duty. It requires bearing with one another while remembering personal failings, uniting to be mutual strength and help, laboring with erring brethren and bearing with them as long as Jesus has borne with them. A brother is never to be rejected without sufficient cause, caught in his words, or lorded over as God's heritage.
Those who claim great light and spiritual knowledge must keep themselves undefiled while doing this saving work. They are to hate sin itself even while seeking to save the sinner, rejecting the sin that stains while holding firmly to faith and persistently drawing toward safety. They remain separate from the sin that endangers souls, unstained by it, through urgent, active evangelistic labor that devotes abilities to pulling souls from the fire. Christlike character helps move the hearts of those seeking truth.
Christ's Saving Intervention
Jude 1:23 shows Christ snatching the race as a brand from the fire when Satan seeks to cover God's people with blackness and ruin them. Although they have sinned, He takes the guilt of their sins upon Himself and pleads the merits of the Redeemer and the mighty argument of the cross to silence accusations and bring hostile devices to nothing, so that God can be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. By human nature He is linked with man while through divine nature He is one with the infinite God, so help is brought within reach of perishing souls. In answer to their cry for justice against the adversary, the adversary is rebuked.
God saves a person in spiritual danger by plucking him as a brand from the burning. Earnest prayer pleads with God for that saving blessing upon a named individual. Such prayer trusts God's presence, guidance, and help while clinging to Him in faith.
Saving people from sin calls for urgent, compassionate effort: they are to be pulled from danger while their sin is firmly rejected. The work is to be done by laying hold of fellow men by living faith to rescue them from destruction, acting with fear while hating even the defilement of sin. It does not cover up the transgressor's sins but makes the most determined effort to bring the sinner to a sense of the sinfulness of sin. Christ's righteousness and hatred of sin bring salvation without excusing wrong, leading the sinner through personal integrity and righteousness to recognize sin's evil.
Urgent Practical Mission
Rescue is urgent, energetic, zealous work like pulling souls from fire with no time to lose and no moment to delay. Time is not to be lost in prolonged self-justifications over minor difficulties but spent showing transgressors their errors and correcting those who do wrong. There are no hours or moments to devote to selfish pleasure, because many precious opportunities to save souls have been unheeded and lost, so now every effort must be made to save as many as possible. Christians are to devote their hands to active work and all God-given capabilities to labor as for life itself, opening the heart to the Holy Spirit and staying in the channel of light where there is more direct communication from heaven to earth. Serving others in this way helps prepare workers for the better life, with a heaven to win and a hell to shun.
Urgency is driven by Jesus coming and the coming judgment, requiring earnest labor to snatch the lost from fire before destruction. Presenting the truth should bring people to a decision because the matter is life or death. Worldly concerns can blunt that appeal, for possessions and earthly plans may speak more loudly than words and make people act as though this world were their home. At the coming last test and arraignment before the judgment seat, those convicted by the word will decide for Christ and range themselves under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel, proclaiming in word and deed that the end is at hand. Then believers will recognize missed opportunities to seek and save the lost and understand as never before that they have not labored as zealously as they should. Souls perishing in sin have been bought at an infinite price measured by the death of the Son of God on Calvary's cross and day by day are deciding between eternal life and eternal death, which fills Christians with anxiety and calls for consecrated missionary service with every hand engaged at its post of duty.
The verse calls for proclaiming the gospel of Christ with earnestness and zeal to wake commandment-breakers up to get ready to meet God. This means holding up the truth once delivered to the saints and magnifying the trampled law to make it honorable, which is the special medical missionary work for this time and the church's work of saving people as brands pulled from fire. All canvassing is evangelistic work in which workers together with God labor with all interest and earnest energy to rescue souls from destruction while hating sin, with grace given to all who seek it in humility and ways opened to drop seeds of truth into good soil. Believers should make earnest efforts to rescue people from sin and bring outsiders to hear the truth in order to save souls who are outside of Christ. Overcoming as Christ overcame means using access to His power and His promised presence to the end of the world to do the commanded work of preaching the gospel to all nations and saving a world, requiring moral courage to labor for people who appear to have no hope of God or heaven while laying up treasure above and spending the short remaining time preparing for the higher life, which is the reason for schools.
Practical rescue waters and cultivates souls ready to perish in moral pollution like caring for plants, giving time and delight to close, interested efforts with words and a stretched-out helping hand, and the one who does this work will save his own soul in the kingdom and have the pleasure of seeing those precious souls saved. It speaks with them, prays with them, and points them to Jesus, a duty belonging to both ministers and physicians for those struggling with temptation and in danger of being overcome. One hand reaches for the perishing soul while the other grasps Christ, the throne of God and heaven, drawing people away from destruction to the Saviour through humble, broken-hearted intercession and earnest, purified words from lips touched by a live coal from the divine altar. That effort is made a light to others by a consistent religious life, holy speech, godly example, benevolence, and faithful performance of duty, with every worker receiving directions from Christ, carrying the prayers and sympathies of an awakened church, and having the Spirit of the Redeemer abiding in the heart so that works of righteousness are wrought. Saving with fear also means giving a plain, close, earnest testimony of reproof and warning to save the soul of one in danger of giving up the truth, even one who is influential, done calmly and in the spirit of Jesus yet firmly and decidedly, in love and pleading at great strain and personal cost, bringing thankfulness when the heart opens to receive it.
At a crisis where there is no halting between two opinions, a person must go decidedly forward with God or backward to Egyptian darkness. Pulling such a one out of the fire means thorough, unsparing dealing that calls for repentance and proving of character at home where failure occurred. It redeems the very field where Satan conquered through demoralizing, unprincipled influence, gaining moral courage to stand where duty required years ago. The rescued one goes down into the valley of humiliation through grievous trial until faith comes forth as pure gold fit for God to use. Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh means cutting loose from the power and influence of corrupting companionship and sacrificing unworthy society rather than sacrificing everything valuable.
The image belongs to the urgent work of turning wandering people back to the path of life and leading them to the Shepherd who gave His life for them. It is laboring zealously with urgent earnestness and perseverance to save perishing souls and bring them to present truth, while hating the contamination of sin. This work is driven by Christ's love for perishing people, shown in giving His life as a sacrifice and bearing sin's curse. Among those degraded by intemperance and deeply given to evil, some may be pulled from danger and from the fire, but few who have given themselves to evil learn to represent Christ. People are to work to save those who are perishing by urgently rescuing them from destruction as brands snatched from burning, including some who sincerely mistook human suppositions for Scripture and mixed them into God's work.