Contending

Dec. 30

Read: Jude v. 3-13

Contending

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith…”

False teaching robs us of the opportunity to celebrate the salvation we share with one another in Christ. Jude was “eager” and excited to write to the people of God messages of encouragement that focused on the ways they were all saved and redeemed in Christ. Jude would have preferred to be writing to them about the manner in which they were unified in the sound teaching “that was once for all delivered to the saints.” In short, false teaching and corrupt leaders drain our time and energy away from a right focus on Christ and places it elsewhere. In this way, false teaching is “expensive”… it costs the community dearly. Just take a look at any church or ministry that has had to endure a leader’s moral failure. Imagine the time, energy, and material resources that are spent working through that mess!

It is sad but true that those healthy, right believing, and right living children of God must “contend” for the true faith even in the midst of others who “claim Christ”. Jude affirms what Peter has already mentioned, that “certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation…” (v.4) Heresy creeps in… even into the church… and the people of God must fight back against it… we must “contend”. All those moments “contending” take away from moments of worshiping, celebrating, encouraging, and sharing faith with others!

We see another trend forming here in Jude, namely that false teaching and false teachers are “sensual” - once again as Peter had alluded to. See here: “…certain people have crept in unnoticed… ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality…” This is the root of so much of the false teaching in the Church. God’s “grace” is “perverted”. People twist God’s grace to mean something it was never meant to mean… they manipulate God’s grace “into sensuality”. Once again, Sodom and Gomorrah are used as an example (among others):

“…Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” (v.7)

There is no denying that more often than not immoral sexuality and greed are at the heart of false teaching and in the lives of false teachers. I wonder how many times these examples need to be spelled out for us in the scriptures before we will begin to see. Are these passages really that “obscure”? In the end, this perversion of God’s grace leads to nothing more than a “denial of our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (v.4) This sort of teaching and living masquerades as being “advanced” or “more developed” or “more progressive”… but what do the scriptures actually say?:

“But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.” (v.10) These people are not acting like more developed and advanced humans… they are actually acting like animals! This is why sin is so often called “doing what is right in one’s own eyes”. This is why the heart of so much false teaching is a matter of doing what is pleasing to oneself.

I am grateful that what I get to write to you about is most often about the common salvation we share in Christ. (Maybe Jude would be a little jealous of me! Ha!) The Lord has laid it on my heart the last few days to “contend” for the faith some. I pray that you will join me! Time, energy, and resources are too precious to be wasted on the false teachers and living the way they are peddling. Flee these false teachers and the ministries they peddle. Contend for the TRUE FAITH that has been handed to the saints. These types of people (false teachers who pervert God’s grace as permission to sensually engage in the immoral) feed on the fame, power, and money given to them by others. Stop giving it to them!

I am excited for 2022. As we approach this new year my prayer is that we would celebrate the salvation we have received in Christ and embrace our new life in HIS Kingdom… the Kingdom of God. I pray that the people of God would have personal relationships with the Lord that are empowered by community, prayer, and time in the scriptures so that we would not be duped by false teaching / false teachers. I pray that we might contend for the faith. I pray that we would have many opportunities to love one another and share the good news of the KOG in our words and our actions. Love you guys and I am thankful for YOUR encouragement to me! - JDP