While we are battling the enemy and keeping false teachers out, we are to be building each other up. It is not sufficient just to focus on heresy and false teaching and to nitpick theology if we are not building up the saints all the while. There are men that I think thrive on ministries that just point out false teaching. There is indeed a lot of good in these ministries. And there are men that God raises up to be great defenders of the faith like that. But I think there is a danger. Some people get so consumed with trying to find heresy, in pointing out doctrine, that they are not consumed with building up the saints.
The first thing Jude tells us in knowing ourselves and what we are to do in regard to one another, is that we are to build ourselves up in our most holy faith. What does that look like? I think that looks like opening the Bible to one another and sharing with one another something you read in the Word in the morning. I think it means that if a brother or sister is going through a hard time, or if they are not spiritually walking closely with Jesus, we come alongside them gently and we ask: how can I be praying for you? And then we pray for them. Maybe we can encourage them in sympathy and compassion, knowing that we all have struggles and we all have difficulties. If there is sin in their life, we are going to see how we are to handle this at the end of this book [Jude]. There are these very specific marks that we are to look for in people, different categories—understanding where people are, and building them up in Jesus Christ.1
Nick Batzig
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,