" . . . to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called,” Jude 1:1

We have been studying the three titles given to the Christian by Jude. He states them, referring to the outward change first and then coming to that work which God did on the inside, their heart, and which gave rise to the outward change. I have been looking with you at these matters in the reverse order that is set down here. We have looked at the inside ‘works’ ‘called’ and ‘preserved’ — those who have been called by the voice of God to faith in Christ and who have then  been ‘sealed’ so that that they are eternally secure and can never perish, even as Christ has told us: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand,” John 10:27-28.

Now those that are ‘called’ and ‘preserved’ will show outwardly in their lives that this has taken place. It will be clear that they “are sanctified by God the Father.” Here is a reference to the ‘Trinity’, for the ‘Three Persons of the Godhead’ are engaged in our salvation.

Just what does “sanctified by God” mean? Paul taught the Ephesians this truth (Ephesians 1:4) 

Here is the meaning of the Greek translated ‘sanctified’. It means ‘To make holy, consecrate, sanctify, to dedicate, separate, set apart for God.’ In a “world (which) lieth in wickedness,” (1 John 5:19) it will not be hard to spot a true Christian.

1. A true Christian is very much a changed person. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” 2 Corinthians 5:17. Of course this is true of a girl or boy who claims to be saved.

2. Being set apart for God, they will be walking in obedience to God’s Word. You cannot drive a car until you obtain a licence by passing a test and part of that test is a knowledge of the ‘Highway Code’! The Bible is God’s ‘Highway Code’ which governs just how a Christian is to live, to walk, to act and to speak!

A Christian then is one who studies the Bible in order to know and obey its commands.

3. If we live in obedience to the Bible, we will be seen to be very different from those who reject it. Peter wrote this: “For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you,” 1 Peter 4:3-4. The word “strange” is linked to ‘lodging’. That is, a  Christian is not considered as one of the ‘family’, but an outsider, a mere ‘lodger’! Being considered an outsider, the Christian discovers that they may be referred to in an evil way. As Peter says, “speaking evil of you.” He had already stated that truth in chapter 2. “Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation,” 1 Peter 2:12. He repeats it again in his second epistle.“But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not,” 2 Peter 2:12.

Jude, later in this epistle we are studying, repeats this truth in almost the exact words of Peter. “But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves,” Jude verse 10.

4. The Christian, being different and being picked on by the world, is but bearing the reproach of Christ. “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach,” Hebrews 13:13. The Saviour had told His disciples of the price they would have to pay in order to be faithful to Him in this world. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you,” John 15:18-20.

It is an honour to be seen to be a friend of Christ. There will be a great reward for those who have been faithful to Christ in their lifetime.

“If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. . . . Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf,” 1 Peter 4:14, 16.