Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. Jude 3 (NIV)
In Jude’s short letter, he gets right to the point: “contend for the faith.” As with other references in the New Testament, we find a strong allusion to athletics. To contend is to strive or struggle with intense effort in the arena. He had the intention of writing about the “salvation we share,” but he was compelled to urge them to fight for the faith.
The word that Jude uses for contend, epagōnizesthai, a strengthened form of “agonize” is used once in the NT. It brings to mind a picture of Jacob wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-30). This was not to be a halfhearted effort. Jude saw this as an intense struggle for the faith.
The reason for his urgency is that the “faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people,” was under attack. God’s people were infiltrated by pretenders and posers, ungodly people who were distorting the truth for their immoral purposes. It was apparent that Jude intended to write about salvation, but instead he sounded the alarm and issued a call to action.
Jude’s call to action is every bit as applicable today as it was then. Within and without the church, efforts are being applied to bring about a dilution of the truth. The world is telling the church that for it to remain relevant, it must change and conform. The “cancel culture” is an intimidation tactic, designed to put fear in people’s hearts. The conflict is real, and we must be willing to remain firm and “contend for the faith.”
A Plan of Action
Our next question should be, “How can we contend for the faith?” First, we must understand the true nature of the conflict. How often do we need to be reminded: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms Ephesians 6:12 (NIV). A failure to recognize the spiritual battle will result in using the wrong weapons and the wrong tactics.
A significant source of turmoil within the early church was the inclination to forsake grace alone and embrace the law. The reason for this should be obvious; grace can get messy whereas the law provides structure and comfort.
If our true enemy is unseen, being comprised of spiritual forces, we will need spiritual weapons to ensure victory. Too often the church sees only flesh and blood. We will not achieve victory by electing the “right people,” or passing laws to uphold morality and virtue.
So, if we cannot “contend for the faith” by legislation, what can we do? A modest proposal would be that we can contend for the faith by living it:
Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night Philippians 2:14–15 (The Message)
We must not forget that we have the “whole armor of God,” and that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual. We must not shy away from the public arena but always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that lies within us.
The Struggle Is Real
We would not claim that to “contend for the faith” is not a difficult struggle. It may cost everything that we have. I recall the words of the song:
It will be worth it all
when we see Jesus!
Life's trials will seem so small
when we see Christ.
One glimpse of his dear face,
all sorrow will erase.
So, bravely run the race
till we see Christ.
We contend for the faith because it alone can rescue those who live in darkness and are bound by sin. We contend for the faith, not alone in our own strength, but by the Holy Spirit, who has empowered us (Colossians 1:29). We contend for the faith by utilizing the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us (Romans 12:6-8). We contend for the faith, by loving one another (John 13:34-35).
There will always be those who try and infiltrate the church, to dilute and compromise the truth and to divide us because they are following their own “ungodly desires” (Jude 17-19). We however, “are not ignorant of Satan’s schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11), and so we will not contend on his terms.
In the Arena
President Theodore Roosevelt once said something that resonates with our thoughts today:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
To contend for the faith means not giving up, and it is not about making life easy and comfortable, but it is about taking a stand for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that the world so desperately needs to hear. We do not want to look back on our lives with a sense of regret because we compromised the truth of the gospel. Be a contender! Stay in the arena!
Steve Ekeroth