To Contend Earnestly

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Jude 1:3

Jude exhorts his readers to ‘contend earnestly for the faith.’  The word he uses reflects a contestant or a combatant.  This is how seriously Jude takes the truth and the necessity for believers to insist upon it.  If we believe the truth, we will of necessity, have to stand for it in the face of error.  This will put us at variance with the majority of society, religious or irreligious.  We can contend for the faith without belligerence, pugnaciousness, or obnoxiousness.  In His earthly ministry, Christ contended for the faith, yet exhibited none of those undesirable characteristics.  He continually proclaimed the truth and ‘went about doing good.’  He has become the great pattern for our own earnest contending for the faith.  Having said that, we should expect the same reception, as He received.  It is not that we seek it or desire it, but He has predicted it in such statements as, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’  Thus, we accept the logical and inevitable consequences of our contending for the faith.  Our consolation is that by these things, we are better able to identify with Christ, and to become more like Him.  We continue to proclaim the ancient message and to contend for the faith ‘once for all delivered to the saints.’

Our Holy and Wise God,
we rejoice that You have delivered unto us this faith.
We praise You that we have the privilege
to contend for it in our own day and generation.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning