The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 358: From Rebellion to Faithfulness (2025)
24 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 358. We are reading from the letter of Jude. We're reading also the beginning of the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy, chapters 1 and 2. I knew that.
And we're also reading Proverbs chapter 31, verses 1 through 7. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, because why not? Better late than never. You can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year.
You can also subscribe to this podcast, but I invite you not to. I want you just to not. Just forget about it. It's too late. Too late for you. Just kidding. You can always subscribe. It's day 358. We're reading the letter of Jude. We are also reading second letter of Paul to Timothy chapters one and two, as well as Proverbs chapter 31 verses one through seven. The letter of Jude. Salutation.
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you Occasion of the Letter Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Judgment on the Ungodly
Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully formed, that he who saved a people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels that did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, have been kept by him in eternal chains in the deepest darkness until the judgment of the great day.
Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner, these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones.
but when the archangel michael contending with the devil disputed about the body of moses he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him but said the lord rebuke you but these men revile whatever they do not understand and by those things that they know by instinct as irrational animals do they are destroyed Woe to them!
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of Jude's message in the Bible?
As I remember your tears, I long night and day to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now, I am sure, dwells in you. For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands."
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power and love and self-control. Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord nor of me, his prisoner, but take your share of suffering for the gospel in the power of God who saved us and called us with a holy calling.
not in virtue of our works, but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago, and is now manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel, I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, and therefore I suffer as I do.
But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, and among them Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Anesiphorus, for he often refreshed me. He was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me eagerly and found me.
May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day, and you will know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. 2. A Good Soldier of Christ You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me before many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in everything.
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from David, as preached in my gospel, the gospel for which I am suffering and wearing chains like a criminal. but the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain the salvation in which Christ Jesus goes with eternal glory. The saying is sure.
If we have died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. A Workman Approved by God Remind them of this, and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.
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Chapter 3: How does Jude address rebellion and faithfulness?
"'It is not for kings, O Lemuel, "'it is not for kings to drink wine, "'or for rulers to desire strong drink.' lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to him who is perishing and wine to those in bitter distress.
Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory.
We thank you so much for this opportunity to hear your word, to be shaped by your will, and to find ourselves in your plan, find ourselves in the palm of your hand. Lord God, we just thank you. Help us to walk as faithful people, not as faithless people. You are faithful, even when we are not. Help us to cast our cares upon you because you care for us. In Jesus' name we pray.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So we have the letter of Jude today. And so it's really brief. Jude is known as one of the relatives of Jesus, right? So Adelphoi is the proper term. Jude is the brother of James. And one of the things that we recognize about Jude in this letter of Jude is we don't necessarily know who he's writing to exactly.
It's like, you know, St. Paul writing to Timothy. We know exactly who he's writing to. St. Paul writing to the Ephesians. We know exactly who he's writing to. But what he's identified, he's identified a number of behaviors that people are not living according to the call they've received in Christ Jesus. There's a lot of immorality happening in their lives.
And so one of the things we know about Jude is Jude knows the Old Testament pretty well. And he knows the Jewish writings really well because he gives examples that we are familiar with right now. He gives the examples of Israel's wilderness rebellion. He gives examples of the rebellious angels from Genesis chapter six, right?
He gives the example of the men of Sodom at the end of the book of Genesis, as well as he even uses some stories that are not actually from the Hebrew Old Testament, but from other stories. For example, he talks about Michael the archangel. And that's from a book, a Hebrew writing called The Testament of Moses. It's just really interesting.
But all those stories are all about people rebelling against God's authority. It's all stories as well about sexual immorality and rejection of God's messengers. Jude goes on to talk about those people who not only rebelled themselves, but who caused other people to rebel. So how Cain, after he had killed Abel, that he went in the line of people that he...
I guess the cities of Cain were cities of violence. You have a Balaam who, again, tried to curse God, wanted to curse God, but was unable. We have Korah who led people in rebellion against Moses. So one of those things we recognize is that sometimes our own sins end with us. Well, sorry, we think they end with us. We've talked about this before, but many times our behavior changes.
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