Contending for the Faith
11/26/25 Bible Thought (Jude)
From the very outset, Christianity has had many who have tried to corrupt its message.
As such, much of the New Testament letters are actually written to address false teaching that either corrupted the doctrine of Christ or corrupted the Christ-follower through sin.
This is exactly what we see in the short letter of Jude. Jude, the brother of James and half-brother of Jesus, wrote this letter to make an appeal to believers:
“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” (Jude 3).
His initial gameplan changed from simply writing about a common faith, to an appeal for believers to contend for that faith. Apparently, something was afoot.
To contend here means, “to exert intense effort on behalf of something.”[1] In essence, to fight on another’s behalf.
We know very little of the setting of Jude’s letter and the original audience, but what is clear is that the believer in Jesus Christ must stand for the faith—the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
The Christian faith was never intended to evolve.
It wasn’t to ever shift to match cultural pressures. Just as Christ was a once-and-for-all-time sacrifice for sins, so the faith that encompasses Him is unmoving and unchanging.
Apparently, in Jude’s day, ungodly teachers crept into the church who taught the people an errant view of grace:
“For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).
They took the opposite stance to the apostle Paul’s conclusion in Romans 6. For they would have said, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? Absolutely! That’s the whole point!”
When we lose sight of the costliness of God’s grace we will treat it with low esteem. If my sin was so serious it put Jesus on the cross, how could I then believe it doesn’t matter?
So, with false teaching on the horizon, both then and now, the letter of Jude issues a call to the church to contend for the faith. Now, what does this look like?
We diligently keep ourselves in the love of God, being faithful in prayer, asking for the Spirit’s leading, while awaiting Christ’s coming (Jude 20-21). We remain true to the unchanging faith personally.
Likewise, we extend mercy upon others. Those who might seem to be falling prey to false teaching should be treated mercifully. However, mercy in this instance looks like, “snatching them out of the fire” (Jude 23a).
If we see a brother or sister straying and being lured towards eternal hellfire by false teaching then we must intervene with the truth of the gospel, acknowledging that God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance (see Rom. 2:4).
Lastly, our disposition should be to hate even the garment stained by the flesh (Jude 23b).
As God works in us both the will and power to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13) we disdain evil. We don’t look with envy upon the wicked, but with disgust towards sin.
The grace of God doesn’t teach us to love our sin, but rather it teaches us to renounce ungodliness (see Titus 2:11-14).
Challenge for Today:
Am I willing to extend mercy to others in my life by speaking up if I see them lapsing into sin?
[1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 356.