“… I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 1:3

Contend Earnestly

Walk His Way Revisited

In my mind’s downtime, I often turn my thoughts to the saints of Bible days. I think of the days of Jesus on earth, when the disciples walked alongside Him, hearing the very Word of God in the flesh, and Paul, meeting Jesus on the road to somewhere else. The apostles—the eyewitnesses of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ—faithfully gave witness and thus delivered faith to the saints. These were able to give a full picture of the Messiah, for they had heard His teachings and saw all there was to physically see of Him.

Many other less well-known people also had testimony to give—perhaps they had been present at healings, or at miraculous feedings of thousands on a hillside. Perhaps they had been bystanders when Jesus taught at the beach, or in the pressing crowd on a feast day when Jesus healed someone, or in the temple when Jesus taught. Perhaps they were in the circle of friends that fished with Peter and Andrew. All these may have passed on to others what they heard and had seen, although it would be limited to what little they had experienced. Nevertheless, faith was perpetuated.

But false teachers came in, those with the spirit of antichrist, and perverted the saints’ faith. They denied or explained away various aspects of true faith. Have you experienced this? You were sure of a thing until someone created a seed of doubt in you. You wrestled with it.

We are told to earnestly contend for the faith. To contend is to struggle in opposition. We are to earnestly struggle against the teachings or thoughts that oppose the faith. We are to dispute those words that would tear down, ridicule, or pervert faith. Paul tells us to “hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us” (2 Timothy 1:13-14).

This is one reason I continue to immerse myself in the Scriptures. I want to know all about the early saints’ faith, since it was “delivered once for all to the saints.” I need to take a good look at it, understand it, see what it was based on, and imitate it or use it as a model for my own faith.

Let’s take to heart Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 6:20-21. “Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith…” Contend for the faith that was delivered to those first saints.

Father, give us an understanding of the faith of the earliest saints, that we may grasp it and contend for it in our own lives today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.