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.
There are three things I stand on as essential beliefs regarding the Bible:
- I firmly believe that God is the author of all Scripture.
- I believe Scripture is written the way God wanted it written.
- I believe that all the hands that have touched the book over the years have been guided by God.
These are my personal beliefs. They are based on a lifetime of searching for God. I see no contradiction between what I believe and the Bible as it has come down to us through the ages.
One consequence of these beliefs is that I see meaning in the order of the Bible as well as in the message of the Bible. Jude comes at the end of the New Testament. Yes, there is The Book of Revelation, but in my mind, that book is in a different category than all the rest. As Genesis illuminates the beginning of mankind’s story on this earth, Revelation tells us about the end of this earth and the beginning of the next. Meanwhile, Jude provides the last words of a love letter from Jesus to his church.
At the beginning of the New Testament, we see the fourfold telling of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. In Acts, we see a history of the birth of the Church. In the rest of the New Testament, excluding Revelation and Jude, we find instructions, counsel, wisdom, guidance, and explanations of what this all means. In short, we find letters about “the salvation we share….”
Now, at the very end of God’s letter to us, we find Jude. Jude wants to write about what the others have written. He wants to talk about the salvation we share; the joy of knowing Jesus, and what that means in this life and the next. Instead, he is compelled by God’s Holy Spirit to write a warning. A warning about something that will dog the church of our Lord Jesus Christ through all history until we come to the time of Revelation.
Nowhere in the Bible that I am aware of does God promise that the church of the New Testament will be without problems. In fact, God tells us that the exact opposite is true. (See Matthew 10: 16; Luke 10: 3) Instead of spiritual bliss, we are called to a kind of battle. But it is a battle unlike any ever seen on this planet before.
Application: Write down or tell someone what you expect the Christian church to be like.
Food for Thought: How is the word “contend” different than the word “fight?” What is the significance of this difference?
Great question, The thoughts below are the result of research, seem appropriate as I found them written.
“Contending earnestly” for the faith simply means that we must defend it and fight for it. The battle is to win hearts and minds for the Lord. The contender for the faith is not contentious, but he does contend. He or she does not allow false teaching to go unanswered. When the mocker comes, the contender does not respond to foolishness with foolishness, allowing himself to be taken down to the mocker’s level. Rather, the response is a scripturally sound one. It is both reasonable and faithful (2 Peter 3:3-5; 1 Peter 3:15; Jude 17,18).
Well said Ron. The first thing I thought of was 1 Peter 3:15-16, which you covered. We must be ready to make a defense, or contend for the faith. It is not a fight as we are to do so with gentleness, respect and keeping a clear conscience.
Ron & Rich, thank you, both!
I deeply appreciate your thoughts.
The thing about the word “contend” that jumped out at me is that there is no pretense about winners and losers. We contend with/against forces that remain in place until our Lord comes. When we fight, we fight to win. That is not the case in our situation. I think it is an important distinction.
Great point Jeff. You hit onto a teaching of God throughout His word. The battle is not ours, but His. Our offensive weapon is the word of God. We contend, God does the fighting.
2 Chronicles 20:15, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
Ephesians 6:17, And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Thank you sir.
Thank you, Ron! 🙂
👍🏻
This has released a burden from me (at least slightly) that I know I will have to be released from again. Growing up Catholic has ingrained a works mentality down into the fibers of my being that I find hard to escape. It is not my fight, but I must contend in the fight…with my heart and faith on Christ, not my own performance…hard to strike that balance of doing, but not getting lost in the doing… I often wonder how the Israelite’s must have felt before battle, where they had to fight, but the victory and battle was God’s, not theirs. You have to move while not placing your faith in your own orchestration over those moves….easy to understand, harder to surrender to…