Contend for the Faith

Jude 3-7 (NIV): Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

    Jude was Jesus’ little brother (Matthew 13:55). He was not a believer until after he saw Jesus resurrected from the dead. But, after seeing Jesus back alive, he and his brother, James, believed that Jesus was who he said he was, and both became leaders in the church.

    He wanted to write this letter to celebrate the salvation that Jesus offers. That is what he was excited about. He was eager to discuss it, but felt compelled, instead, to encourage the readers to contend for the faith. To contend for the faith is to fight for it – to stand up for and defend it.

    False teaching was already creeping into the church, and Jude knew it had to be nipped in the bud. The Gnostics were teaching that all flesh was bad and so it didn’t matter if they used their bodies for illicit sexual pleasure because of this. Others may have been teaching that, since we are saved, it doesn’t matter how we behave. Jude knew that type of teaching could ruin Christianity in its infancy. He knew it would be up to the church to stand against such bad teaching. And it still is. God is holy and demands holiness from his children. Yes, we can be forgiven of any sin, but we must never teach that sin is okay with God.

    And Jesus must be preached as God in the flesh, the Messiah, the only way to heaven. Anything short of this is heresy.

    God destroyed whole cities for sexual perversion, and God is punishing angels who disobeyed him. We must understand that God takes sin seriously and does not leave it unpunished.

    Jude reminds us that, even though God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, he let them die in the desert because they didn’t trust him. The majority of Israelites (except for Joshua and Caleb…) stated that God could not see them through to the Promised Land. God could see unbelief in their hearts and he let them die because of it. Only belief in Jesus for salvation saves us, and the church must continue to teach this until he returns.