Keep yourselves in the love of God

"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God..." (Jude 20-21).

Paul wrote, that nothing shall separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:35). Jude exhorts believers to "Keep yourselves in the love of God." If nothing can separate a believer from God's love why does Jude exhort believers to keep themselves in the love of God? My 4 sons live in my home and I love them very much. But there have been times when they have interpreted my loving parenting as restricting them from having fun, when in fact my love for them, which compels me to set rules for them, is looking out for their best interest. Jesus said, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10).

God's love is constant and unchanging. If you're saved there's noting that you can do to make God love you more and there's nothing that you can do to make God love you less. But even as believers we can foolishly be deceived into thinking that we know better than God. We can choose to rebel against God's loving will for our lives and go after our sinful desires. When we do we are choosing to come out from the protection of God's loving will for our lives. God will warn us and woo us to follow his ways but he will not force us. It's been said, "We have the freedom to choose. But we don't have the freedom to choose the consequence of our choices. Once we choose the choice chooses for us." God forbid that one of my teenage sons would think that that the rules that I set in our home are restricting them to such a degree that they can't wait till they turn 18 so that they can move out and be free. But the fact is that many teenagers have felt that way and when they turned 18 they moved out only to find out later that mom and dad's rules were not restriction but expressions of their love for them. Someone said that freedom without boundaries leads to bondage and many have found that out the hard way.

Jude exhorted believer to build themselves up in the faith--to pray in the Spirit. When we do so we will know more of God's love. We will know that he's looking out for our best interest and we will not want to do anything that falls outside of his loving will for our lives. Keep yourselves in the love of God. How? The hymn writer said it better than I can: "Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.