'yourselves'.  Grace does not make for slackness or indifference.  Build up

yourselves, keep yourselves.  This pronoun occurs seven times in Jude, the

first occurrence being in striking contrast with the last.

First occurrence of heauton, 'yourself':

'The angels which kept not their first estate' (6).

Last occurrence of heauton, 'yourself':

'Keep yourselves in the love of God' (21).

In both these passages the verb tereo, 'keep' and a compound of oikos

are used, in Jude 6 'habitation' is oiketerion, in Jude 20 'building up' is

epoikodomeo.  There is, therefore, a double lesson here.  Avoid the awful

failure of the fallen angels; keep yourselves in the love of God.  And

furthermore, in this context which it is well nigh impossible for any

believer, however strong his faith and desire may be, 'to keep himself', the

precious truth recorded by Jude is not fully expressed until we understand

his opening reference to tereo, which is translated 'preserved':

'Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that

are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and

called' (1).

The believer who 'keeps' himself is but working out that which is

already his by grace in Christ.  The believer is exhorted to live 'looking'

for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (21).  This means an eager, expectant

looking, the Greek word is translated 'wait' (Mark 15:43).  In Titus 2:12,13

he is exhorted to 'live ... looking for that blessed hope' -- a parallel

truth with that of Jude.

The relation of mercy with the believer's practical outworking of grace

and its association with the Second Coming cannot be pursued here, but we

observe that when we have done all, builded, prayed, kept, we shall still

need 'mercy' in that day.

To anyone with a modicum of grace or appreciation of truth, it is not

possible to close a study of the Epistle of Jude with the exhortations,

'build up yourselves' and 'keep yourselves', for these express but half a

truth, which the poet says, 'is ever the blackest of lies'.

The Epistle opens with a statement of fact.  The believer is

'preserved' in Jesus Christ (Jude 1), a standing in grace, a position

entirely dissociated from effort or will.  The bulk of what follows is

devoted to an exposure of surrounding evil, and exhortations to defensive

action on the believer's part:

'Contend earnestly', 'remember', 'build', 'pray', 'keep', 'look', 'hate

the garments spotted by the flesh'.

In closing, Jude turns from exhorting the saints, to praising the Lord,

and ends with a doxology.  In that doxology, those who were exhorted to 'keep

themselves' are found to be 'kept'; those who were to hate garments spotted

by the flesh, are to be presented 'faultless'.  It may truly be said that a