Contending for the Faith
The book of Jude is the second last book of the Bible, but why is it that we hear so little about its message? The writer makes a strong point of saying that we should be very much in earnest about our faith and stand up for it vigorously all the while keeping ourselves. Thus is seems the epistle must be very important,. His concern is meant to provoke us to do something. What are we supposed to do?The one part of the book that we do hear very often is the benediction of the last two verses, which are
“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, {be} glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”,
but we need also to hear and heed the message of the rest of the book. Actually, the message is very short in comparison to the illustrations that give it force. Let us examine carefully why the prophet Jude writes the way he does.
Jude writes in his short letter of only 25 verses with a lot of assumptions about his audience. He is addressing it to believers who already have a good Bible knowledge of basic doctrinal things, therefore many things do not need to be said again, however other practical things do need to be stressed. He writes to those who are sanctified and preserved and called, but not to the unsaved or to unstable new-born believers. To these people there is no rebuke at all for what they know and believe.
The audience is genuine well-taught and grounded Christians.
In verse 22 we see that they were seeking to save others and rescue them from the everlasting fire of being lost. They were evangelical. So with that background. what prompted Jude to lay aside his general epistle that he had no doubt started and to pen this specific warning and exhortation?, for that is what he says he has done in verse 3; “since I am eager to begin a letter to you on the subject of our common salvation, I find myself constrained to write and cheer you on to the vigorous defence of the faith”.
Defence is a strong word, and the word ‘contend’ in the Authorized version is just as strong. It is an action word, a defensive word and considering the (assumed) faith and experience of the readers, it immediately provokes our interest. And next he immediately, without saying why he does it, goes off to quote familiar illustrations from the Bible of deliberate and sinful disobedience so gross that they seem out of place in addressing this audience. In fact they are so gross that we might resent anyone using these as illustrations in speaking to us.
Why are they there?
Where do these false teachers come from who insinuate themselves into our midst without us spotting them? Certainly they are not blatantly anti-God, for we would quickly spot such. But yet Jude warns us of them. It must be that they feel at home in our assemblies, yes, that is it, they feel at home. One way that this could be is that they have grown up in our midst, and maybe then have gone away to pick up liberal ideas and have brought them home to "help" us.But our children, even our grandchildren would never do a thing like that? Well, possibly someone else's grandchildren maybe, . . . and yet, according to Jude they are here. No wonder then that his exhortation comes so strongly and that the people he uses as examples themselves started out in good circumstances.
How do we understand this to apply to us, to teach us anything we need to be warned of? Could we not spot these perversions a mile away? Of course we can when we have the mind of Christ, but maybe there are some in our fellowship who do not have the mind of Christ in all things. Jude reminds us that the Lord’s disciples told us to be wary of unsaved imposters, or fame seekers, or new-born believers from a worldly background, or any one who leads in another way. Now Jude exhorts us to openly expose and earnestly oppose those perversions. We cannot imagine he is talking about stirring up trouble and being sectarian, but about keeping the whole assembly from getting blind-sided. Jesus foresaw that it could happen.
Jude 1:21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.These lines show that they were doing the right thing in dealing with sinners who needed to be patiently won back to the way. They were indeed in the same world where the sinners were, but Jude’s warning is that they keep themselves unspotted from that world. John said love not the world. Jude says to love the errant believer and the sinner, but have nothing to do with their sin-world. Rebuke it, condemn it, have nothing to do with it, contend with them, but above all you must keep yourself pure and safe.
22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting;
23 save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
He exhorts us to a commitment that wants to know what is right and to do it and see it done by others, knowing full well that anyone regardless of name or position can stray. I am told to keep myself and yet I am as human as anyone else. This is why the wonderful assuring promise of the final verses is so reassuring to the faithful. The faithful in evangelizing and the faithful in contending against everything and everyone who advocates a lower standard than being as holy as God is.
the Epistle of Jude
1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:---
2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5 Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,
7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.
9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.
11 Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
12 These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;
13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
14 {It was} also about these men {that} Enoch, {in} the seventh {generation} from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones,
15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."
16 These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their {own} lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of {gaining an} advantage.
17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18 that they were saying to you, "In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts."
19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting;
23 save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, {be} glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever.
Amen.