“Contending For The Faith”

“Contending for the faith” is the theme of the epistle by Jude, who was one of the brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ. To contend means taking a stand for “those things which are most surely believed among us” as Christians.

Jude found it very necessary to write this epistle urging and exhorting his readers to earnestly contend for the faith in view of the prevalence of false teachers who had deliberately entered and placed themselves into the local churches.

 At the conclusion of his short epistle, the second to last book in the New Testament, Jude gives us one of the noble and marvelous benedictions in Scripture, which reads: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority,  before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 24,25).

Because of His infinite love, mercy, and grace, God is the only one who is able to keep us from stumbling. And we do stumble at times. Not only that, but our gracious God is also able to present us blameless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. What a glorious thought and bright hope for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

In context, Jude admits with very sound reasoning, that although he was very eager to write about our common salvation; instead he found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith.” (Jude 3). 

Jude admitted that the need to write about our common salvation was because of apostasy in the early church, who were “ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).

These are ungodly and immoral people who pretended to be ministers of the Christian gospel (perhaps “false converts”), but instead they were apostates who opposed the Lord Jesus Christ, His church and His cause.

Jude identified their deceptive and indeed the disruptive behavior of these apostates, and sternly warned that they will certainly face God’s inescapable wrath and judgment. At the same time, Jude saw the need to remind believers that although they “once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 5).

In verses 5 through 9, Jude describes the heretics by demonstrating how apostasy leads to sinful living.

Jude mentions three groups and three individuals of apostasy in the past and God’s judgment on them. As Jude moves towards the conclusion of his letter, he exhorts believers “building yourselves up in your most holy faith, and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude 20,21). 

It is most noteworthy that Jude exhorts believers to “keep yourselves in the love of God.” And since “God is love” and our righteousness comes from Him alone, He is the one who keeps us abiding in His vast and boundless love from day to day.

In his commentary on Jude 21, William MacDonald points out, “Then again believers are to keep themselves in the love of God. Here the love of God can be compared to the sunshine. The sun is always shining. But when something comes between us and the sun, we are no longer in the sunshine. That’s the way it is with the love of God. It is always beaming down upon us. But if sin comes between us and the Lord, then we are no longer enjoying His love in practice. We can keep ourselves in His love first of all by lives of holiness and godliness. And If sin should come in between, then we should confess and forsake that sin immediately. The secret is to let nothing come between us and God ” (Believers Bible Commentary pg. 2345, Thomas Nelson Publishers).