The need to fight for what we believe

“’Dear friends, I wanted very much to write you about the salvation we all share. But I felt the need to write you about something else: I want to encourage you to fight hard for the faith that was given the holy people of God once and for all time.” (Jude 3 NCV)

In today’s climate of pluralism, where it matters not what you believe if you believe anything at all, Jude’s encouragement might seem strange. When people today are taught that anything someone might believe must be acceptable, Jude states there is something called “the faith” that is worth fighting for – and fighting hard for it. Most translations have that we should “contend for the faith” or “contend earnestly for the faith” – to me it doesn’t quite have the same ‘punch’ (if you will) that “fight hard for the faith” has. It isn’t that we are competing with anything else but that we are fighting hard for what we believe. It is all too easy to be overwhelmed by those who don’t want to believe.

Although we have been called by Jesus to be a peace-loving people, there are times that we must fight hard for what Jude calls “the faith”. As Jude pointed out throughout his letter, there were some who had “secretly entered your group” and they “refuse to accept Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord” (Jude 4). In the first century some were teaching that Jesus was just a Spirit, that he didn’t come to earth as a human; others were teaching that Jesus was just a human being, that he really wasn’t God. 

We can still find people today who advocate both of these position. There seems to be a growing popularity with the idea that Jesus was just a man that God chose his Spirit to enter, but that he wasn’t deity. Yet from the time of his temptation until he was executed on the cross, people recognised that Jesus was “son of God”. The phrase “son of God” emphasised that Jesus was deity, of the same substance as God. Paul reminded his readers that Jesus was equal with God but was willing to empty himself of that to live on the earth as a human (Philippians 2:6-7). How can someone be equal with God, empty himself of it, leave heaven and come to the earth, if they weren’t Deity who became human?

What we believe is important because God is not only a God of love but also a God of punishment.

“I want to remind you of some things you already know: Remember that the Lord saved his people by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. But later he destroyed all those who did not believe. And remember the angels who did not keep their place of power but left their proper home. The Lord has kept these angels in darkness, bound with everlasting chains, to be judged on the great day. Also remember the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other towns around them. In the same way they were full of sexual sin and people who desired sexual relations that God does not allow. They suffer the punishment of eternal fire, as an example for all to see.” (Jude 5-7)

What we believe matters – it is important because God has shown consistently that those who don’t believe and instead reject him and what he has commanded will be punished. They have turned their back on God’s love by rejecting him.

“But dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up, praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ with his mercy to give you life forever.” (Jude 20-21)

The choice is ours: keep ourselves in God’s love by building up our faith or reject what God has said. One leads to “life forever”; the other leads to “the punishment of eternal fire”. If we choose to stay in God’s love it will require us to “fight hard” for what we believe.

Image created by Apple’s ImagePlayground by Jon Galloway.

Readings for next week: 1 John 3-5; 2 John; 3 John; Jude; 1 Peter 1-2