October 8, 2023: Jude 3 - Beloved, Let Us Earnestly Contend for the Faith
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” - Jude 3
Jude addresses his brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ as “beloved” and it is clear that he loves them. So ought we to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and Jude loves them enough to warn them and to tell them the truth, and so should we. While Jude first intended to write about their common salvation, instead the Holy Spirit impressed upon him to warn them to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Each and every person who has been saved has received it one way and one way only: through faith in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, who died and was raised again to life, to redeem us of all our sins. There is no other way to salvation; it is through Jesus alone:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (Jesus Christ; John 3:14-15)
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13)
The Bible clearly tells us that all other proclaimed ways of salvation are false and lead to destruction:
“Enter ye in the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 7:13-14)
As He was crucified on the cross, before Jesus gave up His life, “…he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (John 19:30) Jesus accomplished all that was needed for salvation; Jesus did it all. There is nothing left for us to do but to believe in Him as our risen Savior to redeem us of all our sins. It doesn’t matter if we are Jewish or not Jewish, rich or poor, male or female, free or slave, or anything else; what matters is do we believe in Him with our heart as our Savior and that He has paid the price for our salvation.
In verse 3, today’s Scripture verse, Jude gives us a hint of what his book is about: to warn us to earnestly contend for the faith, and he will tell us why in the next verse, which I will discuss in my next devotional post. But what does it mean to “contend”? Dictionary.com defines “contend” as: “to struggle in opposition,” “to strive in rivalry,” and “to assert or maintain earnestly.” Strong’s Greek defines “epagónizomai” as "struggle upon, appropriately.” Do you see what is in the Greek word for contend? It is where we get our word “agonize,” which dictionary.com defines as “to suffer extreme pain or anguish; be in agony” and “to put forth great effort of any kind.”
This leads us perfectly into the next verse, in which Jude warns his brothers and sisters that imposters and deceivers have invaded the churches, deceiving many and denying Jesus Christ. I will discuss this in detail in my next devotional. However, let me ask you this: how many professing “pastors” today will tell you that you should contend earnestly for the faith, where that means to suffer and to agonize and to put forth great effort? I venture to say that the answer is few. On the contrary, many professing “pastors” are telling you that you can have your best life now, that if you donate this amount of money to the church, if you tithe, that God will bless you beyond your wildest imaginations, that you will be healthy, wealthy, and wise, and that after you are saved by believing in Jesus, you don’t have to change the way you are because God loves you exactly as you are, sin and all. These are wolves in sheep’s clothing, telling smooth lies to those who seek not salvation of sins but seek a false gospel. They don’t want to hear the truth, for the truth is offensive because it convicts us of our sins and shows us that we need the Savior - Jesus Christ - to save us from our sins. They don’t want to hear that once we are saved, we should not remain in our sin but strive earnestly to be more like Him, to put away our old selves and put on the new man or woman created by Christ when we were born again. When one doesn’t seek the truth of God, they will be deceived by Satan, and we are seeing this in many so-called “churches” across America and around the world. Those of us who are believers in Christ must not have blinders on our eyes and pretend that this is not happening, for we could be deceived ourselves. We must do as Jude exhorted us: to earnestly contend for the faith which Jesus delivered once for all who believe on Him. We must stay in His word, stay in communication with Him through prayer, and heed the guiding of the Holy Spirit within us.
Lord willing, until next time … ✝️