FROM TODAY’S READING (7/23/2020)...
Jude 1:1-2 (NKJV) Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
“Like his brother James, Jude was too modest to exploit his natural relationship (half-brother) to the Savior. After all, it is spiritual relationship to the Lord Jesus that counts. Did Christ not say, ‘Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother (Matt. 12:50)?’ On another occasion He taught that it was more blessed to hear the word of God and do it than to be a close blood-relative of His ( Luke 11:27-28 ). Like James, Jude took the place of ‘a bondservant.’ Since both brothers disbelieved in their divine Half-brother until after the resurrection, this was a suitable spirit to show.”
Wm. MacDonald (Believer’s Bible Commentary/Jude)
Matthew 13:55-56 (NLT) Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?”
1 John 3:1-3 (NLT) See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
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