Jude 1b (Part IV) ..... the servant ...... (cont....)

So it has been several years since I laid down my cyber pen about the incredible book of Jude..... It is time to take it back up, at least for a little while. I do hope to finish at least a deep overview of Jude, but I keep being humbled by a growing awareness that any little things that I can delve into are only an slight sliver of the vast infinity of the living truths which our Heavenly Father has actually made available to us in each word of His love letter. It is truly filled with kind hearted guidance, which He has given to us....... word by word, book by book, season by season..... May we take time to "cease striving"... and look at Him long enough to recognize more of who He is, who we are, and from that see our immense need for more and more of Him in our lives.

Ode to letting time slip by..... While it was not improper to set aside the pen, I delayed too long in picking it back up..... May God help me to be more faithful.....

Indeed, I have been in the Word often through these years, but in the meantime, my heart has been drawn back towards Jude often, but wanderlust, even sometimes while studying God's Word, drew me in other directions.....

Certainly, I wish to become more and more focused on the fact that the end of a thing is better than the beginning of it..... (Eccl. 7:8a)..... and thereby become more steady in my progress towards some ends..... Though, of course, only our Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate beginning and the ultimate end..... I  can only manage to explore portions of just some of His trails..... trails which He blazed for us in the midst of His eternal designs.....

And so, it is time to pick up where I left off.....

.....with Jude's embrace of being "the servant".....

Indeed, the greatest servant of all was Jeshua ha'Meshiach! He served His Father by doing His Father's will (John 4:34).  He proved to the world the holy nature of His love for the Father by doing exactly what the Father asked of Him (John 14:31)..... in patience, understanding that our flesh is weak, so weak that even at the end of His earthly ministry with them, His disciples still did not understand the honor in serving others, .... so He served them yet again by washing their feet (John 13:1-17), and from that last and lowly place, He allowed Himself to be brought even lower to utter scorn, and beatings, and a horribly painful death ...... for us..... serving us through His very suffering and death (Matt 20:28). And yes, from that place..... from the lowliest place of all.....  He was vaulted to being the most exalted of all and for all eternity (Phil 2:9)!

But our Lord Jesus was not silent in His service. He didn't wish the worst upon Himself..... He dared to ask His Father if the worst of it all could somehow pass Him by..... (Mattt 26:39).

But after He asked to be spared, He was faithful even when He was not spared. Not even one part of His life was spared. But He pressed on to finish His service on earth for us anyway.......    all just to turn us from our wicked ways so that we could have life..... with Him, and that more and more abundantly......... to take our empty days of walking in death.... and change our days into days of overflowing life!!!! (Acts 3:26, 2Corinthians 9:8)

But our Lord's confidence in serving His Father fully and in utter faithfulness was service given with a promise known - a promise of being lifted up..... (Isaiah 52:13).  A promise that all who received Him as Lord would love lifting Him up..... and rejoice in Him as Lord!!! (Phil. 2:9)

So, Jude, knowing all of this about his.... brother..... came to understand that he should live like Jesus: Since Jesus was a servant, Jude should be a servant. As should we all... (I John 2:6).  After all, Jesus even said as much (John 13:14)

More to the point, Paul clarified that even our attitude must be one of compassion and love and concern for others, just like our precious Jesus has for us.... (Phil 2:3-5)..... and didn't that love bring Jesus low, sacrificing everything for us and serving us as an example to us?

Even if we are we are called upon to suffer..... (I Peter 2:21)

But is that all we can see even from a brief meditation on the words "the servant"?

Odd to Jude calling himself "the" servant!!! What could that mean to us today?

While pondering that question, one particular rendering of Romans 12:10b from the ESV came to mind. It says,  "Outdo one another in brotherly affection." I wondered if that might be a clue about being a biblical servant, especially since the CEV  speaks of being devoted to and honoring others more than ourselves.

However, the Greek seems to lean in another direction.... that we should be an example to each other.....   Is that not a part of what Jesus did when He was serving us? On the one hand, that seems to be an over simplification. On the other hand, Jesus Himself said that if we love Him and each other with all of our being, we fulfill the whole law and the prophets.....

Does that lead us towards being a doormat? Well, Jesus died for us, but He wants us to reciprocate and lay down our lives for Him in service to Him and to each other. Galatians 6:2, in the Greek, tells us that when we "mutually" and "reciprocally " take up and bear each other's burdens, that then we fulfill the law. Is that not being a servant?

But..... Jude went further than calling himself a servant. Jude called himself "the" servant. He bowed himself down before his earthly older brother and his Savior.... before Jeshua Ha Meshiach, and must have considered himself not only unworthy to loose the ties of his brother's sandals, but also, too low to expect to be served by others.....