Jude 20b-The Recipients of Jude Were to Pray By the Power of the Holy Spirit (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday November 6, 2022

Jude Series: Jude 20b-The Recipients of Jude Were to Pray By the Power of the Holy Spirit

Lesson # 35

Jude 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. 20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (NIV)

As we noted, the second means by which the recipients of the epistle of Jude were to obey the command in Jude 21 to make it their top priority of keeping themselves in the state of loving God because of God’s love for them and continue doing so appears in Jude 20.

It asserts that they were to obey this command by making it their habit of occupying themselves with praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

This omnipotence is manifested in the body of doctrine, which the Spirit communicated to them through the apostles and now appears in written form in the Greek New Testament.

The noun pneuma (πνεῦμα), “the Spirit” refers of course to the Holy Spirit and this word contains the figure of metonymy which means that the Spirit is put for His divine omnipotence.

This interpretation is supported by two factors.

The first is that the Christian is taught in Scripture to pray according to the will of the Father, which is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, which He has inspired (cf. 2 Pet. 1:20-21; 2 Tim. 3:16) and the second is that Hebrews 4:12 asserts that the Word of God is alive and powerful.

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is the divine author of their “most holy faith,” which is a reference to the apostolic teaching, which was to be the means by which they were to build themselves up with spirituality.

The noun pneuma (πνεῦμα), “the Spirit” is modified by the adjective hagios (ἅγιος), “holy” which denotes the state of being holy and thus refers to the holiness of the Spirit.

The noun pneuma (πνεῦμα), “the Spirit” is the object of the preposition en (ἐν), which is a marker of means indicating that the means by which the recipients of this epistle were to pray was the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, the Christian community in Judaea was required to pray according to what the Spirit is communicating to them in the Scriptures, and which communication reveals the Father’s will for their lives.

It also manifests the omnipotence of God when the child of God exercises faith in the Spirit inspired Scriptures because faith appropriates the omnipotence of God.

The verb proseuchomai (προσεύχομαι), “praying” refers to prayer in a general sense without reference to what type of prayer is being offered and without reference to its content.

Thus it pertains to the simple act of making a prayer to the Father without reference to its content or what type of prayer is being offered.

Thus, this would indicate that this word refers to both intercessory prayer for others, petition for oneself and thanksgiving to God.

The participle form of this verb proseuchomai (προσεύχομαι), “praying” is functioning as a participle of means indicating that the recipients of this epistle were to obey command to keep themselves in the love of God “by means of” making it their habit of praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, they were to obey this command by making it their habit of praying according to what the Spirit revealed to them through the teaching of the apostles, which revealed the Father’s will for their lives and now resides in the Greek New Testament.

The present tense of the verb is a customary present, which would indicate that the recipients of this epistle were to keep themselves in the state of loving God because of His love for them by “making it their habit of” praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, it was to be their customary or regular activity to pray by means of the omnipotence of the Spirit, i.e. by means of the Spirit inspired apostolic teaching and gospel.

The middle voice of this verb is an indirect middle which is expressing the idea of each member of the Christian community in Judaea making it their habit of “occupying themselves” with praying to the Father.

Thus, it is expressing the idea of prayer being a regular or customary activity or we can say that they were to be people who are characterized by devotion to prayer.

Paul teaches this principle in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Each and every one of you must continue to make it your habit of not ceasing to be occupied with praying. (Lecturer’s translation)