How Christians Can Build Each Other Up?

20 But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,

21 and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.

22 And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering.

23 Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.

JUDE 1: 20-23 NLT

Introduction:

How do you influence other people?

How comfortable are you in talking to other people about your faith, about their faith and about salvation?

Talking to other people about your faith or about their faith is a challenging aspect in any kind of conversation or relationship because it is too personal or worse, it is a non-existent thing to others. How much more if it is about salvation and eternal life?

God wants us to strengthen/ build each other up so we will all experience His love and mercy leading to eternal life.

The letter of Apostle Jude to the general people, reminds us about God’s love and wrath. It is not addressed to a specific church but for all. So today, make this universal warning and instructions be our guide so we can support each other.

I will present to you, ways on how Christians can build each other up. However, even if we have the responsibility for building each other up in the church community, we must consider our responsibility as well with the lost souls, the people outside the church community, those people outside our circle of faith.

How Christians Can Build Each Other Up?

1. Believing in the Same Faith

(V. 20) "But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith…”

When I searched the word “holy”, I came across 60 plus words synonymous to holy, but I’d like to use the word “different”.

The kind of faith Christians possess makes them different to the rest of the world. We must invest in that and use it productively. Make that strong Christian faith to influence others and make them believe as well. Our faith must bring inspiration to others and help them know, understand, and accept Jesus in their lives.

"To see is to believe” that’s what majority always say, but as Christians, we’d rather say, “to believe is to see” – that is faith, the faith that we must hold on to as we navigate this life.

Hebrews 11: 1 declares, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.”

There is nothing else that can build up the church community other than the faith that we all have and how we believe in it. The fellowship activities we do are there to magnify our faith, to maintain our relationship with each other thereby making us stronger with our relationship to God as well, however, we must be all in the same page. We might have different levels of faith, but it must not be far from each other, and the core principles we believe in must be the same so that there will be no conflict or confusion, so it will foster understanding and confidence in going outside the spiritual community to reach out for others who need it.

2. Praying Together in the Power of The Holy Spirit

(V.20) “…pray in the power of the Holy Spirit…”

John 14: 26 declares, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”

The Holy Spirit was sent to us to be our counsellor, the source of wisdom and strength within us to magnify our faith. And the way for us to experience that is by praying. Pray hard and believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. The more people praying together, the stronger that power becomes and can make wonders and miracles. 

Praying together strengthens us because we get inspiration from the passion and wisdom of others; we can reflect on our intentions, and we gain motivation from the answered prayers, even from unanswered prayers of our brethren.

In Acts 2, people have witnessed how powerful the Holy Spirit was when multitudes were conquered by the Holy Spirit and made them speak in tongues and their lives and the history of the early churches was changed forever.

In our times now, people say those miracles and wonders and works of the Holy Spirit are no longer effective, non- existent. But as Christians, we must continue praying together because we all know that the Holy Spirit is within us and dwells in us, and it will manifest its power in its own way and own time as long as we will believe in it. 

Praying alone is still essential to achieve personal spiritual growth, and we can’t dismiss that. But seize every opportunity when the congregation calls a time for praying together.

3. Being Expectant of Eternal Life with Jesus Christ

(V.21) “…and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.”

Mercy is compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.

Romans 6:23 declares, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Last week, we talked about God’s healing and deliverance through the Holy Spirit, and we all agreed that healing and deliverance is inclusive- it is not exclusive to only Christians or believers but for all, however, we also agreed that in matters of salvation and eternal life, it is exclusive to only those who accepts Jesus Christ as their personal savior.

John 3: 16 declares, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Grace is the basis for the Christian faith. We believe we are saved by faith through grace. God's grace is usually defined as undeserved favor. Grace cannot be earned; it is something that is freely given. 

Together, we must all reflect in these beautiful promises. We must always remind each other as a community of believers and make these as the only truth and inspiration for us and for the people outside the church.

Evangelizing about the beautiful gift of salvation strengthens our faith, makes us joyful and expectant and we want other people to experience the same. The mercy of Jesus Christ and love of God to us defied the punishment that we are supposed to receive- death. It is a gift that we need to share to others.

Holding that gift within us makes us expectant to live each day in a Christ like lifestyle, making us free from any anxiety and fear, because we are secured from God’s love.

Hence, we always close every fellowship we do, citing “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”. (2 Corinthians 13:14)

4. Be Compassionate with one another

(V.22) "And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering.”

The kind of “mercy” that we can give to one another is “compassion”.

Compassion is a social feeling that motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental, or emotional pains of others and themselves.

Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another's suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering. Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related.

What a lovely feeling to be excited and motivated to become the source of relief of someone’s suffering! To be an instrument for resolution of any conflict they are facing. To be inspired and motivated because of you.

How much more if we influence them regarding their faith? Re-igniting other people’s faith by letting them know about Jesus Christ and His lovely promise for all – eternal life through Him.

John 13:34 declares, Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

Being compassionate with each other is feeling concerned about others spiritual growth, being sensitive about the struggles and challenges they are facing and loving them. The aim of our prayer meeting every week is to pray for those brethren who are currently in challenging situations with their health, work, finances, education, personal lives and many more but we must give importance to the faith that is being shaken because of these challenges. Discovering real time resolutions are quite relieving, but having the eternal source of strength and wisdom is the most important one.

5. Rebuking Sin, not the Sinner

(V.22) "Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.”

John 8:7 declares, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Everybody has sinned and no one is worthy of God’s mercy, but God has loved us even when we are still sinners.

Romans 5:8 declares, “"But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The act of God for our salvation can never be replicated by anyone, however, as Christians today, what we can do is to understand, accept and love those that are sinning, but with caution - not tolerating their acts of sins. By knowing that these sinners have a place where they can go, that there is a loving arm that will embrace them and will build them up as they find their way towards righteousness, then they will be able to rebuild their relationship to God.

During the ancient times, there were priests and prophets who prayed and fasted for people’s sins. During Jesus’ times, He embraced and strengthened those sinners, He encouraged them to go, live a life and sin no more. And the greatest of all was that He died for those sins, up to the cross in Calvary, He even showed His love to the sinner who was crucified with Him.

As Christians today, building each other up with the knowledge of God’s love, letting them know about the reality of God’s judgement and punishment but the beauty of eternal with Jesus Christ must be a motivating factor for us.

CONCLUSION:

We need each other. “No man is an island” as they say. As Christians, we must build each other up, strengthen each other, protect the spiritual community, however, we have a greater responsibility for those who are lost, for those outside of our circle of faith. Grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ is for everybody however, salvation is for those who accepts Jesus Christ, so it is a challenge for every Christian believer to make this universal truth be known.

Apostle Jude, in his letter to the general believers highlighted the events that made the people become separated to God during the olden times. The events and circumstances leading people to commit sins before, are far too great in comparison to our circumstances today, however, his advices and inspiration for each and every one of us in our present time are all applicable and achievable: building each other up, strengthening each other’s faith through prayers, believing in the mercy of Jesus Christ and love of God, and being compassionate to one another leading to hate the sin and not the sinner are all universal and timeless.

It is only when Christians build each other up that Christians can build others up, and together, we will be able to build a stronger church of faith.