What Jesus' Brother Jude Wanted Us to Know | Verse 3, Part 2 | The Strenuous Endeavor for Faithf
In our last post we looked specifically at the urgency of Jude’s writing seen in his own attestation that he switched gears. The very fact that he was careful enough to note his sudden change emphasizes the import of his concern now at hand. Ultimately, he is doing this to make sure he has our undivided attention.
“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (v. 3).
Ultimately, it is “the faith” that is in view here as the object of value. By “faith” he means not just the gospel of salvation, but the whole counsel of God as put forth by the prophets and apostles—the Word of God.
It is not as though the faith or the Word of God is at real risk of being extinguished, for the Lord Jesus told Peter that death itself would not overcome the growth of the church (Matt 16:18), but there is the potential for people to fall away, as it were, from the faith by believing lies and errors that are sown by the enemy. Since we do not know who God’s elect are in actuality, we are obligated to continue exhorting one another in the faith to make sure that we have truly believed and repented of sin. Jude is doing exactly that in order to safeguard those who could potentially come into contact with heresy.
Jude urges us to contend for this “once for all delivered to the saints” faith. He says this on purpose. The whole embodiment of truth that we have received from the prophets and apostles has, together, been committed to us; given into our hands. Jude is saying that the very nature of this unchanging and authoritative Word that has been used to bring about our faith is not going to be updated or changed in any way. It is the truth from God Himself and anything that contradicts it is self-defeated. The one who knows the truth is under obligation to believe it and love it and be changed by it. This faith is worth standing for and dying for.
The Apostle Paul wrote to his younger protégé, “O, Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you” (1 Tim 6:20). To the Corinthian church he establishes that the very fact he is involved in the ministry of the gospel to begin with is a mercy in itself, and so says, “We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word” (2 Cor 4:2). Elders in the church, Paul says, “Must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught” (Tit 1:9)—it needs no polishing or perfecting, just faithful men to proclaim it (emphasis mine).
Likewise, Jude urges every Christian to contend for this faith.
Of note in Jude’s Greek usage is that he employs a word that is used nowhere else in the New Testament, namely epagonizomai. This is what becomes translated as “contend earnestly”. It is a word that assumes competition, or better yet, adversarial confrontation. It means “to endeavor with strenuous zeal”—a far cry from the casual 'take it or leave it' attitude seen in most pulpits today as if there really is no judgment seat to be faced one day.
Jude knows better.
In our modern, cushy-seated church context we may be a bit taken aback by this seemingly sensational rhetoric, but make no mistake, the adversary is alive and well as are many others who are operating to further his agenda of tearing down the faith of whomever possible. If the subtle workers of iniquity are zealous to do evil to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church, so also ought we to be zealous to do good works (Tit 2:14; 1 Pet 3:13) and to contend for the faith that we have been entrusted with.
The Word of God that you have received by faith, Jude says, is complete and sufficient and we most hold tightly to it.
Jude’s vigorous call to arms, here, is one that demands action. It is not acceptable to passively allow different ideas of God and salvation to be entertained, or to allow people to teach us what they think another spin on the Bible could look like with their translation. No, we are under obligation to be those “rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). If this is what we ought to do, then what chastisement might we face from God Himself when we do not hold accountable those who mishandle His Word that was commended to us?
James, Jude’s brother, reminds us that “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (4:17).
Friends, Jude’s appeal to contend for the faith is as relevant for us as it ever was for his first century readers. Attacks against the faith, the Word of God, and our Lord Himself have been going on since the Garden of Eden and if we are not careful to acknowledge the existence of the threat in the first place and we do not contend for what God has already established for us, then we will be susceptible to the subtleties of false religion and heretical doctrine that deludes those who do not love the truth (2 Thess 2:10).
It would make no sense for Jude to appeal to us to contend for something that is apt to change—this is one of the key takeaways from this verse. God’s Word is immutable—unchangeable—because God Himself is immutable.
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Num23:19). “I the LORD do not change” (Mal 3:6), thus the “word of our God will stand forever” (Is 40:8; 1 Pet 1:25) (emphasis mine).
The author of Hebrews, like Jude, appeals to his readers to “pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (2:1) relying on the fact that the word which was attested by the Lord Himself to the apostles and others who heard is now being attested to us (v.3). In fact, Jesus promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would come and “bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26) saying that “you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning” (15:27). This was literally fleshed out and preserved in their writing ministries that we still have preserved in our Bibles.
Jude is rallying the Christian to an active stance for truth, reminding them that the faith has already been delivered once and for all and we must contend for it. We must contend for the unchanging word of our unchanging God.
Friends, if we do not read Jude’s letter like we are a literal recipient of it, then we are not reading it correctly, or viewing God’s Word appropriately. This letter is intended for us now. We must contend for the faith and hold fast to what has been given to us. We must guard what has been revealed to us. We must submit to the authority of God’s Word. We must strenuously endeavor to know and guard the truth. It is not a passive hobby. It is a sword. Hold it tightly.
The implication of heeding or not heeding Jude's exhortation was already established by the prophet Isaiah, in 7:9:
"If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all."
Contend earnestly, then, friends.
In Christ Alone
Ben
