Jude introduces this final message in the general epistles with the following words: "Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I w a s constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in privaly, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jude 3,4).

Urgency

Apart from the message of the epistle, the urgency with which it is introduced enhances its importance. No other letter in the New Testament begins with such a change of plans. Jude evidently intended to write on an entirely different subject, "our common salvation," but he had his mind changed by God. Something else was, in divine wisdom, more needful at this time. Men who had been "called, beloved in God the Father," were in jeopardy of being deceitfully led astray and Jude was "constrained to write" on this matter with a message of warning and strong exhortation to steadfastness.

In the Minor Prophets we think of Joel and Amos as writing prophecies of doom and destruction upon the unfaithful and wicked but none surpasses the picture Jude gives of the final doom of the ungodly that would turn the saints' away from Christ and His ways. God's picture of these men and their doom is in these words: "These are clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved for ever" (verses 12 and 13). The saints do not always know who these men are as was true in the churches at the time Jude was writing. They had "crept in privily" and will do the same today. This shows the danger in placing confidence in men who are uninspired and all are uninspired today. This leads to the second important consideration from this epistle.

Contend far the Faith

Since we cannot always trust men and must never let our hope of glory rest upon our confidence in them, what can we depend upon? We have that answer in these words, "… contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints." Our only confidence can be in "the faith" and for that all of our energies must be directed. We cannot, we dare not, "go beyond the things which are written" (I Cor. 4:6). The nobility of the Bereans was judged commendable because they "received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the scriptures daily, whether these things were so" (Acts 17:9). Throughout the church today, in bulletins, magazines, on lectureships, and in sermons, men are being held up for their attainments and exaltation given them as men to whom you can listen and be assured of hearing the soundness of the gospel. This may be true and again it may not. Our contention is not to be for men but for the "faith." Men who preach the truth are to be commended, but no man can be held up as an image of the church and our standard of righteousness.

You test what you hear by a "thus saith the Lord." A command, example or necessary inference will be sufficient. John said, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (I John 4:1).

What man can you trust? You don't know!! But you can trust this "The Faith." Then when you have scripture for what you are doing, "contend" for it as Jude in his urgency admonished.

Truth Magazine VIII: 8, pp. 17-18 May 1964