“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 that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).
Sometimes it seems that Christianity is under attack from all fronts. Our social media feeds reveal terrible persecutions happening in places like Nigeria, China, Nepal, and elsewhere. We are urged to pray for our brothers and sisters living in such terrible conditions. Yet, in the Western world we are also hearing of persecution, but something known as soft persecution. Demands by officials to stop meeting in home Bible studies, forcing Christian teens to turn their Gospel t-shirts inside out, bakers punished for not make gay wedding cakes and so on.
Persecution was no stranger to the early church. Some suffered soft persecution, some hard. But the response of the Apostles was always the same. Endure.
Jude, Jesus’ brother, urged a defense of the Gospel. The persecution he discussed was less physical, but rather intellectual and from the heart. The very beliefs of the faith were under attack by those who would redefine Christianity into something that it was not. Or to deny the historical truth about Jesus.
How hard it must have been for Jude to endure the attacks against the faith that his very own brother had launched.
“Contend for the faith,” Jude said. To put it simply, tell the story about Jesus. Tell the true story, correct the errors, let the real Jesus and what he taught be known. Do not remain silent against those who would redefine the faith out of existence.
How do you defend your faith in an increasingly hostile world determined to see it die? How do you help your children to stand firm in the faith, contending for it, defending it? And to do so with humility, kindness, and love?
Memory Verse
“Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).
Application
Do you attack others who attack your faith in Jesus? How can you defend your faith with humility? How can you “Bless those who persecute you?” What good can you do for your enemy today?
