An Indispensable Doxology, Pt. 1

You know those verses at the end of most of the New Testament letters? The ones where the author sends greetings to particular people or writes a short doxology? Do you ever just skim them and move on?

An Indispensable Doxology, Pt. 1

This week's devotions are written by my friend Jessica Hermann, former director of our college ministry at Great Hills Baptist Church.

- Pastor Danny

Let's be brutally honest for a moment: You know those verses at the end of most of the New Testament letters? The ones where the author sends greetings to particular people or writes a short doxology? Do you ever just kinda skim them and move on? I know that I've been guilty of this in the past. Perhaps you have too. I used to just blow past these verses and move on to whatever was next as if the meat of the letter is behind me and these verses are just closing formalities. I might think those verses are nice, but maybe there isn't so much important stuff to really study in them. So, I read them quickly and move on. By doing so, I have overlooked some of the wonderful truths in these verses. A few years ago, the Lord really impressed on me to stop reading the Bible to get through it but rather to read to get to know Him better. This slowed me down and is something I have to remind myself of often. Don't read to finish. We'll never be finished reading God's word. It is alive and active, and we have the pleasure of diving into it to get to know our great God for the rest of our lives.

So, this week, I'd like to take a look at one of these passages. In the very short New Testament book of Jude, there is a beautiful doxology at the end. A "doxology" is just an expression of praise to the Lord. The one in Jude is one of those passages that I would skim, think, "Well, that sounds very nice," and move on. But there are some really beautiful and deep theological truths for us to learn in these two verses. Let's slow down and study them this week together.

The book of Jude is a short but jam-packed letter from Jude written to a largely Jewish-Christian audience who are facing an onslaught of false teaching. Jude quotes many others books to build a case for "contending for the faith" of true Christianity. The book then concludes with this wonderful expression of praise:

"Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."

It is important that we understand the context of the doxology. Even though it is meaningful and beautiful on its own, knowing the context only illuminates the beauty and gravity of what Jude is saying. Let's look to summarize the message of Jude today before we dig into the doxology starting tomorrow.

Jude, brother of Jesus and early church leader, tells his audience that he wanted to write to them about the theme of salvation, but he heard of a crisis among them and had to write this short letter addressing it instead (3-4). False teachers who are perverting the grace of God and using it as a license to sin have snuck in among them. So Jude goes on to give various examples of rebellion and bad leadership throughout Jewish history and well known stories (5-13). Following these examples, the reader is reminded that these people, straying from the truth and leading others astray, have been prophesied about and warned of all throughout the Old and New Testament (14-19). Jude then contrasts these divisive people with the people of God and encourages them to cling to the love of God and to have mercy on others (20-23). The book then concludes with the doxology that we will spend the rest of the week studying.

Give the book of Jude a read today. The whole book is only 25 verses and shouldn't take you but a few minutes to read. Tomorrow we will start looking at the various clauses within these final two verses, one idea at a time.