the salvation that we all share

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Jude 1:1-25. That's the entire book of Jude. Tomorrow begins Revelation (as it should be.)

Jude tells us that he was eager to write to "all who have been called by God the Father" to talk to them about "the salvation that we all share." And that's an interesting and corporate way to talk about salvation.

We, here in the west, tend to think of salvation as being PERSONAL. MY relationship with Jesus is what saves me, and if you don't have a PERSONAL relationship with Jesus then you're not saved. While it IS important that each of us know Him, and not just know about Him or expect that being part of a Christian family will save us, neither is it correct to say that we're in this relationship with God alone. We come to Him as a church, with our faith in common. And what happens to one of us affects all of us.

That doesn't ONLY have to do with us Christians, either. The world is a small place these days. There were times in the past when things could happen to a group of people on the other side of the world and it would have little or no affect on people on this side of the world. But now the world is so small because of how connected we all are through instant communication, that what happens to people anywhere on Earth affects us too.

That's why it's not a good plan to shut people out and expect them to deal with their own problems themselves. We can't ignore injustice or evil anywhere in the world and think that it'll never find us. Just as our salvation is something we share, so our lives on this planet are something we share with everyone else on the planet. We need to take care of each other, not just because Jesus told us to and it's the right thing to do... but because it will affect us, too.

God, thanks for teaching us how much we are one big family. Help us take care of each other.