Jude 1:1-2 - Homiletics

"Called, beloved in God the Father, preserved for Jesus Christ."

Three designations expressing the three great facts of grace which make the honour of God's saints. There is the call— the act of God which takes us out of the world of evil and brings us into the kingdom of Christ. But this call implies that we are the subjects of an eternal love which holds us within its unfailing arms, and of a protective power which keeps us for Christ whose possession we are designed to be. To these three facts of grace we owe the good which enriches our life. In virtue of these the three great blessings of mercy, peace, and love are ours by right, and form the proper subjects of prayer in our behalf. This selecting and separating operation of the Spirit, that infallible purpose of the Father's love, these rights which the Son has in us and in consequence of which we are destined to be his servants and his possession,—these are the immovable foundations of our security. But the same high facts of grace are likewise the measure of our responsibility, and the irresistible argument for a life which should be superior to whatever evil may threaten or tempt it.