Jude 1:20–23
King James Version
“And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” — Jude 1:23
New American Standard Bible 1995
“save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.” — Jude 1:23
English Standard Version
“save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.” — Jude 1:23
Years ago I was abusing drugs, and prison stopped me from destroying myself further. It was there, on my knees in Changi, that I came back to God. Years later, for reasons I still cannot fully account for, I fell again. Whatever justification I offered myself at the time, the fact stands: I fell. Prison had to step into the picture a second time. And a second time I knelt, repented, and started again.
Temptation is real. It is not a tidy character flaw that better people simply do not have. With most addictions, when you fall you clean up the mess and begin again. With drugs, falling means breaking the law, and prison becomes an inevitability. I wish it were not so. But the truth I live with is this: in this realm I will be on guard for the rest of my life.
That is not defeat. That is Jude.
Jude meant to write a warm letter about our common salvation. He never got to. Something urgent had happened — people had slipped quietly into the church who twisted grace into permission (v. 4). So he wrote the letter they needed instead. That distortion has not aged. It still whispers to anyone in recovery: grace has you covered, so one more time will not matter.
His answer is verse 21 — keep yourselves in the love of God. Build, pray, wait. None of it dramatic. All of it habit. Then hold that beside verse 24, where God is the One able to keep us from falling. We keep ourselves; He keeps us. Both are true. My watchfulness does not save me, and His keeping does not excuse me from watching.
Then verse 23. Snatch them out of the fire — Zechariah’s burning stick pulled from the flames. But hate the garment stained by the flesh. That is the inner tunic, the one worn next to the skin. Read as a recovering man, it is not obscure at all: the old number, the old estate, the friend still using who still calls you brother. Jude is not telling me to hate the man. He is warning me that the rescuer can be pulled in.
This is the work — in the yards with Crossroads, and behind the bar at the café. Our Restarters do not need someone who has never fallen. They need someone who was snatched out and is still standing. Still watchful. Still building.
Prayer
Father, You rescued me, and more than once. Thank You that Your mercy did not run out when I did. Keep me in Your love, and teach me to keep myself there. Give me hands quick enough to pull someone from the fire and eyes clear enough to see where it could still catch me. Let me not go back to what You carried me out of. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” — Jude 1:24, King James Version
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