COV LIFE BLOG

Jude 1-4 – Contending for the Faith

Sometimes the word faith is used for the feeling of trust in Christ. Other times, as here, it is used for the truths we believe about the one we trust.

Sometimes it is necessary to stress that Christianity is primarily a relationship with Jesus rather than a set of ideas about Jesus. The reason we do this is because no one is saved by believing a set of ideas. The devil believes most of the truths of Christianity. We need to stress that unless a person has a living trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord, all the orthodoxy in the world will not get him into heaven.

But if our stress on the personal relationship with Jesus leads us to deny that there is a set of truths essential to Christianity, we make a grave mistake. There are truths about God and Christ and man and the church and the world which are essential to the life of Christianity. If they are lost or distorted, the result will not be merely wrong ideas but misplaced trust. The inner life of faith is not independent from the doctrinal statement of faith. When doctrine goes bad, so do hearts. There is a body of doctrine which must be preserved.

I would plead for a new generation of students to think long and hard about the implications of Jude 3: “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” Whatever diversity there is in the way we view this faith, the emphasis here falls on unity. There is an apostolic faith. There is a body of doctrine that hangs together and is called the faith. We should not add to it or take from it. It has been once for all delivered to the saints.

John Piper

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HEART PREPARATION
Read Jude 1-4. In these verses you notice the urgency and value of fighting to preserve the truth of the faith. What are you doing to grow your own understanding of the word? What are you doing to see that word is honored in the midst of a world that seeks to destroy its message?

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
Rejoice by Dustin Kensrue