Contending for the Faith Without Being Contentious

INTRODUCTION

Edmund Burke once said, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." It's also the price of maintaining the Christian faith. Maintaining the faith is a little bit like raising children. If you display too much harshness, you'll discourage your child; if you fail to discipline, you'll raise a spoiled brat. If we develop a watchdog mentality and start building fences of our own making, with the good intention of preserving the faith, we will produce modern day Pharisees. But if we adopt a sort of "loosey, goosey" attitude that says, "what you believe and how you behave isn't any of my business," we'll end up in worldliness. One extreme is just about as bad as the other.

The epistle of Jude is devoted to keeping the faith alive. This short letter steers a mid-course between extremes. It is written in language and thought patterns that are somewhat foreign to us. That's not to say that it's impossible to understand. It simply means it does not read like USA Today. For that reason, many people have encountered some of the difficult material and neglected the study of this short letter, which is unfortunate. Jude's message is very much on target for the kind of stresses and pressures we face in our day and time.

Who was this man called Jude? Most scholars believe him to be the brother of Jesus. Mark 6:3 identifies James, Joseph, Judas and Simon as the brothers of Jesus. The writer of the letter, in our current study, identified himself as the brother of James. Thus, most people believe him to be the sibling of James, the Lord's brother.

The letter was addressed "to those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ" (verse 1). There is nothing in the letter to suggest where the original readers of the letter resided. We will not be able to deal with the letter in depth. Many questions arise in the letter, such as the nature of angels, questions about Jude's quotation from books outside the Bible, etc will not be dealt with in this presentation. The constraints of space will require us to stay with Jude's main point and avoid the temptation to take these interesting side roads.

The challenge is laid out in the third verse. Jude had intended to write a letter of a somewhat less controversial nature, but circumstances had arisen which required him write much more vigorously. In the last part of verse 3, he said, "I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints."

We need to ask two questions about that challenge.

1. What is contending?

2. What did Jude mean by "the faith?"

First, let's talk about contending. "Contending" is a militant term. The RSV translates it "fight." The term suggests the presence of opposition. There's an interesting little twist in the Greek language that we miss in all of our English translation. The word translated "contending" is very similar to the word which we translate "agony." It suggests a certain degree of intensity. It also suggests a price to be paid.

Recently news reports have told us about a most unusual war. We're attempting to fight a war in Yugoslavia, in which no one except the enemy gets hurt. The history of warfare offers ample evidence that you can't really do that. When Jude urged his readers to contend for the faith, he recognized the fact that the contender is vulnerable to attack. He's going to take some hits. Remaining faithful comes a price.

Before we come to the close of our study, we will understand that "contending for the faith" is not a license for contentiousness. When you have been assaulted, attacked, made to look like villain, and pressured to do things that ungodly, there's a strong temptation to respond in kind. In other words, when somebody attacks, you say, "If you're trying to pick a fight, I'll be happy to oblige." That kind of behavior is not within the range of contending for the faith and if you read all the epistle of Jude, you'll understand why.

Secondly, let's talk about the faith. The faith is not the act of believing. It's not the emotion of trusting. It is an expression, which describes the content of what Christians believe. There are a number of passages in which the term is used that way.

Acts 6:7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Acts 13:8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.

1 Timothy 4:1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

The faith is not something Christians invented, discovered or felt. It was "once for all entrusted" to them, or as other versions say, "it was delivered to them."

Why did Jude depart from his plan to write about the common salvation and issue this rather intense plea to fight for the faith? The answer is in verse 4.

For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

That's what makes this letter so appropriate to our day and time. The grace of God is a beautiful, comforting, and encouraging concept. Without it, we would all be lost, but now as then, there are apostles of cheap grace - those who would turn grace into license, an excuse to commit sin. It was that philosophy that caused Jude to change the direction of his letter.

The conflict between cheap grace and responsible grace is not just grist for discussion behind the ivy-covered walls of theological seminaries. It's not just something that provides the occasion for a heated debate in an otherwise boring Sunday morning Bible class. It's a life and death issue.

It was important for Jude's readers to understand the seriousness of the behavior of these men, whom he calls "godless."

1. They "pollute their bodies" (8). Since that indictment is given in the context of a discussion about sexual immorality, I assume that's what Jude mean by "polluting their bodies." In verse 7, he specially described the kind of sexual perversion that triggered the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Even though the opinion makers in our current society, want to suggest otherwise, the fact is that Jude was thinking about homosexuality. Just this week, a figure in the news was quoted as saying, "homosexuality is not a sin; homophobia (fear of homosexuality) is." It was a blatant attempt to attach the Biblical label of sin in a manner that is the exact opposite of what the Bible actually says. It was also a blatant attempt to sanitize that which the Bible labels sin.

2. They reject authority (8). That probably means that rejected any authority that interfered with what they wanted to do.

3. They slander celestial beings (8). This is one reason for us to be very careful in the way we wage spiritual warfare. It's another reason why we must contend for the faith without being contentious. Notice the example he gave in verse 9

   But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"

   This is one of those passages that came from a source outside the cannon of scripture. The Old Testament doesn't record it. It is beyond to scope of this study to examine its possible origin. I will simply say that I have no doubt that it happened since we are reading inspired scripture. What is important to us is the point he makes. Michael wouldn't even speak to the devil in slanderous terms. If Michael, the archangel, showed that kind of restraint in dealing with the devil, shouldn't that slow us down just a little bit, when we are upset over the way some brother in the church is acting? Again, I make my point. We must contend for the faith without being contentious.

4. They spoke abusively (10).

   Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals-these are the very things that destroy them.

   The men, of whom Jude wrote, poured at all kinds of invective and abusive words because their thinking was governed by things on a fleshly level. In Romans 8:5, Paul said that the world consists of two kinds of people.

   Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

   When you look at some of the things going on in their behavior and look at the things he classifies as fleshly, they might make us very uncomfortable. It's easy to agree with him on homosexuality. It's not quite so easy when he talks about grumbling and faultfinding in verse 16.

We're going to back up in the text a few verses so we can understand why all of these negative things make a difference.

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home-these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. - Jude 5-7

In verse 11, he recalled Korah's rebellion. Korah was a guy who didn't like the leadership God had appointed. He made some negative statements about Moses and Aaron. What happened? According to Numbers 16:31-33

". . . the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.

There were other consequences. Observe verses 14 and 15

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

Too often when we're faced with people and influences like those Jude describes - ungodly sinners, grumblers, faultfinders, those who follow their own evil desires, those who boast about themselves and those who flatter others for their own advantage (note that he lists all those behaviors in the same category), we wring our hands and bemoan how awful things are. Jude will not let us do that. He demands that we take a proactive stance. It is only when we take a proactive stance that we contend for the faith without being contentious.

The proactive plan is laid out in verses 17-23

• First, we expect to be challenged. As a friend of mine likes to say "the grenades are going to come over the wall. Jude reminded his readers that the apostles had foretold these very things.

• Build yourselves up. How do you build yourself up? It involves what you read, who you're around, what you think. You can either plug things into your life that will make you stronger or make you weaker. The choice is up to you.

• Keep yourselves in God's love. How can we keep ourselves in God's love? Does God have his love tied to some kind of heavenly bungee cord that's close sometimes and faraway at other times? No. I like the way the late Ray Stedman put it, "God's love is just like the sunshine, constantly shining on us. But we can put up parasols and various barriers that shut it off."

• Wait for the mercy of God. Most of the commentators seem to think that's a reference to the Second Coming. The significant thing about this response is the term "wait." It doesn't mean to sit around waiting. It means to look, earnestly with longing and expectation. Too many Christian live in dread of the Second Coming. That was not the attitude of Jude. Basically he was saying, "I know it's bad now, but it's going to get better. Don't lose sight of that.

• Be merciful to those in doubt. When the church is being confronted by the kind of assault that Jude describes, it's inevitable that some people will be on the fence. In 2 Peter 2:14, Peter describes them as "unstable." The church will always have people like that. Some haven't been in the church long. Some have discernment difficulties and so they're heavily influenced by smooth talkers. They're not firmly grounded in the faith. Jude says that you need to cut these folks some slack. You need to be patient with them. Why? Maybe they can't sort out the rhetoric between you're saying and what the smooth talker is saying, but they do they do understand the language of mercy. They do understand when you say, "I care about you" and you really mean it and you show it with your actions.
• Snatch others from the fire and save them. There are people who have gone away from the Lord and need to be rescued. Doing that is a noble activity. James wrote

  My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. - James 5:19-20

• Hate the sin, but love the sinner. That's the essence of his last exhortation, "show mercy, mixed with fear - hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh." We hate sin because anywhere sin gets a foothold, there's the threat of spiritual destruction. Earlier in the text, he was used some extremely strong language in condemning sin. It's okay to condemn sin. It's okay to fear sin. "Homophobia" - fear of homosexuality - is not a sin; it's a legitimate fear because it can bring about one's spiritual destruction, but while we fear homosexuality and its spiritual consequences, we must look upon the person who is trapped in that kind of sin with compassion and be merciful. We can never lead him out of that lifestyle otherwise.

  A few years ago, some zealous Christians in a congregation where I served took a militant stance against abortion. They were promoting participation in a massive public demonstration. I have a distaste for marches and public demonstrations anyway, so I chose not to participate. A brother rather strenuously suggested that I not only needed to participate but that I needed to be promoting it from the pulpit. I assured him that I was against abortion, but I also pointed out to him the fact that I had dealt with people in our own congregation who were trying overcome the emotional burden of having gone through abortions. I said, "I don't believe I can have a redemptive relationship to people like that, if I'm out on the street holding up signs." To me the last part of verse 23 confirms the validity of that decision.

The epistle closes with a grand an eloquent doxology. A number of doxologies occur in the writings of scripture. When our faith is threatened by sinister forces, the beginning point of our response should always be in the deepening of our relationship to God. That was uppermost in the mind of Jude. I can think of no better way to close this study than to simply recall the closing words of the epistle.

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. - Jude 24-25

Norman Bales
Southern Hills Church of Christ
Norman's e-mail address: nlbales@allaboutfamilies.org