Contention

7/2/2017 

Jude 3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. – St. Jude 

Jesus had a half-brother named Jude. His name was probably Judah, or Judas but he was a believer in Christ. He was passionate in his faith and apparently held a non-apostolic position of leadership in the early Church. Jude wrote Jude. 

As was common in those days, the Christian moniker, ‘friends’ was used by the early believers to signify unity among themselves, and their partnership with Jesus (John 15.15 …I call you friends…) So, when Jude wrote, “Dear Friends”, he was writing to people who were friends of Jesus Christ as believers. Friendship with God is an important context for me. God desires to be our True Friend. 

So, Jude wanted to write and encourage his friends about their salvation, but felt compelled to write and urge to them about contend for their faith. Contend here means to struggle, or seek to overcome.  

Now, the struggle (or contention) is not against others but against the pull of the world, to live for the world, and daily living as more important than God, and godly living. I think one of the biggest bashes Christianity takes is the concept of godly living. Godly living is simply living in the presence of God and striving to do what He commands and directs as the right way to live in a wrong world. The world heralds that as hypocrisy. 

And no wonder – if the world sought godly living, then it wouldn’t contend for worldly living – living in a world apart from God. The worldly contend it is possible to live a full and rewarding life in this world apart from God; without the constraints (as they see it) of living for God. The worldly stop short at the threshold of self-accomplishment and self-aggrandizement.  

The Christian, on the other hand, may be tempted to stop short at the threshold of salvation thinking: I signed the card, I made the pledge, I got my name in the book, and I’m just gonna continue to live the best I can. Salvation isn’t just a letter-grade on a ledger; it’s relationship with God that comes no other way than through Jesus Christ and belief in Him – and daily life with Him. Life with Jesus is peace, promise, and presence in the midst of a world hostile to all that would usurp it’s culture of self. 

Contending for the faith, for the child of God, is a very real and serious thing because all else in this life contends to pull us away from our salvation: what we are saved from, and what we are saved to. Contending for the faith means living with purpose, power, and persistence in the things of the faith and the salvation we hold so dear. We do hold salvation dearly, don’t we?  

Living for Jesus a life that is true, [contending] to please Him in all that I do; yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free, this is the pathway of [salvation] for me. – Thomas O. Chisholm 

Father in Heaven, every day is a day of contention, contending for my faith. Give me the strength, the wisdom, and the vision to keep my eyes on the prize: You! Amen