Book of Jude, verse 20

NASB

(New American Standard Bible)

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

NLT

(New Living Translation)

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

We've been given all these worrisome descriptions of wormy people who have infiltrated our Church, been told to be on the lookout for them, and now Jude writes to tell us how we are going to deal with apostasy. Here is what stands out to me.

Dig in and draw your own conclusions

by reading some commentaries

at Biblegateway.com or BlueLetterBible.org.

• building yourselves up - This thing called faith...it's gonna take some work to strengthen it. ἐποικοδομέω epoikodoméō,  is the Greek word for to build or establish. Jude is using it metaphorically to mean promote growth in Christian wisdom, affection grace virtue, holiness, blessedness. 

• on your most holy faith - ἅγιος hágios is Greek for holy, and is used here by Jude to convey faith which comes from God and is therefore to be heeded most sacredly.  

Richard Bennett's commentary expounds on how to know whether or not you are living by faith:  

Anything in your life apart from God’s love that gives you a sense of security or significance—be it your money, or your education, or your friends, or your power, or your job, or even your physical appearance—is an indication that you are not living by faith. 

• praying in the Holy Spirit - Take note of the preposition Jude uses. He tells us to pray in  the Holy Spirit. We have to be in the Spirit in order to pray. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us what to pray for, as well as how to pray. (see Romans 8:26)

We, my friends, must keep growing in our faith. We do this by reading His Word, so we understand His message to us. We do this by connecting with other believers, listening to their faith walks, keeping them lifted in prayer when the world pushes back at them. We do this mostly by praying. Prayer is such a gift He's given us. Even when we don't know what to pray, we can simply cry out to Him. His Holy Spirit will convey our prayers to Him. 

Faith is ever-evolving. 

He uses our faith-moments to refresh our souls, 

so we might point others to Him. 

Renew your spirit & share your faith today.

What stood out most to you in this verse?