Contending earnestly for the faith

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

(Jude 3)

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation

1. Jude addresses his audience as “beloved”
   1. They are truly God’s beloved ones in Christ (1, Romans 5:8)
   2. We too must regard one another as such
2. Jude was very diligent (making all his effort speedily) to write to them about salvation
3. The salvation Jude speaks of is
   1. Something we all share in common
   2. The salvation of our souls (1 Peter 1:9)
   3. The salvation and all its attendants the angels desire to look into (1 Peter 1:12)
4. The subject of salvation is of importance. However, something else needs prompt attention!

I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith

1. Jude found it necessary to write the subject of faith instead
2. To be more specific, he chose to write exhorting them to contend earnestly for the faith
3. Put it differently, Jude urgently urged his brethren
   1. To battle for the faith – the body of truths
   2. To fight for what is true and right
   3. To war against all forms of errors and deceptions
4. This necessity (of contending in earnest for the faith), as for Jude, is established in light of the false teachers approaching

The faith which was once for all delivered to the saints

1. What is this ‘the faith’ for which Jude called his brethren to contend?
2. The phrase “the faith” refers to
   1. The body of truths believed in
   2. The content of the Gospel preached
3. This is ‘the faith’ which was once for all delivered to the saints
   1. The faith was passed onto the believers
   2. The faith was given to us (the saints)
      1. Once for all
      2. As a complete unit of truth
   3. Let us accept the truth of the Gospel handed down to us as revealed in the Scriptures
   4. Let us seek to contend in earnest for the faith we have inherited