“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort (encourage) you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Jude intended to write about “our common salvation,” but the circumstances demanded that he write about contending for the faith. I think that we live in a time like this as well, but I don’t want us to necessarily read that as a call to fight. There are many things that make me angry today, but anger will not make me a good witness. We need to fight, but we need to remember that the weapons that we use in this warfare are spiritual. I want to give you my opinion of how we can contend for the faith today. I will begin with one thing that we should not do in order to contend for the faith. We do not need to argue with people about the faith. I don’t mean that we do not need to speak up for the faith. What I mean is that when our witness, or discussion, turns into an argument all it does is raise our blood pressure and it does not contend for the faith. I have never argued anyone into the kingdom of God. Let’s move to what we can do to contend for the faith. The first answer is simple: We can live what we preach. There is no advertisement for the Christian faith like a person really living for Jesus. This means that our moral lives are upright and beyond question. This certainly doesn’t mean that we will be perfect, but it does mean that we will watch our behavior, privately and publicly. I know that a lot of people are turned off by church because they see church people living like the rest of the world. Early Christians turned the world upside down because they lived authentic Christian lives. We contend for the faith when we obey Jesus’ admonition that we love one another. In John 13:35, Jesus said: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” This means that Christians are to love each other, but beyond that, it means that we are to love people in general. Now, I know that this is not an easy command to follow. There are some people in the church, out of the church as well as people who are opposed to the church, who are not easy to love. We have personality conflicts. We have differences of opinions. We have doctrinal differences. We have moral differences. We are to help people live better lives, and we will be more effective in that endeavor if we love them. I love the saying: “People won’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.” If we want to contend for the faith, we need to stand up for the faith. This doesn’t mean that we should tear into people, foaming at the mouth, condemning them. We cannot, however, contend for the faith if we are ashamed of Jesus or ashamed of what we believe. Paul admonished us in Ephesians 4:15 to “speak the truth in love.” We need to speak the truth, and we need to do it in love – but we do need to speak the truth. If we say what we say out of love and concern and by the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we don’t need to worry about what the other person thinks, for we have done what we have been commanded to do. This post is by no means comprehensive on the subject, but I think that it gives some sound advice on contending for the faith. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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