Godly Characteristics Needed to Struggle for the Faith

Introduction

Jude has identified himself and his audience.

He is a slave of Christ.

They are the called, those who have been loved by God and who have been kept by Jesus Christ.

Today, we will see him complete the opening of his letter. But he will do so in a meaningful (contextually) way.

Our position in Christ brings with it responsibility.

It brings us into a long-standing struggle.

Those of you who have listened to me for many years know that I have expressed concern over the political focus of so much of recent, American Christianity. It isn’t that I don’t want our fellow-citizens to be moral people or to have political officials who are decent, God-fearing people. Instead, it has been my contention that using Christianity as a tool or instrument in our fight for the country misses the point of what God’s word teaches us about who we are and why he has saved us. This has led to the greater tragedy that in using Christianity to fight for the country, we have forgotten to fight for something more important. Namely, the faith. What is the faith? Does anyone know anymore? Have we gotten so lazy that the very threats that Jude wrote about have happened again in our own time?

We need to proceed cautiously and think matters through.

How do we content for the faith in a godly manner?

Let’s begin our study of God’s Word by looking at how Jude frames the letter.

Contending for the Faith (Jude 3)

Jude states clearly that he intended to write on a different topic.

Our salvation is common.

Jude, through the aid of God’s spirit, saw a more urgent need among his audience.

We are involved in at least two different kinds of wars.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (external)

Ephesians 6 (the panoply of the soldier against the darts and methods of the devil).

1 Thessalonians 5 (similarly).

Jude (internal).

1 John 2 (those who went out from us because they were not of us).

Note that this struggle is for “the faith” once and for all delivered to the saints.

There is a permanency, a finality to this terminology.

Jude offers no conception of the faith as something malleable, changeable, or influx.

We belong to something established by God. It is based upon his person, and it is his person that gives authority to His Word that reveals “the faith.”

Characteristics for Contending (Jude 2)

What appears to be a common form of greeting in Jude 2 turns out to be much more especially in light of 2 Peter 1:2.

Paul routinely closes the initial greeting of his letters by expressing a wish for love and peace from God to be among the congregation.

Jude adds a third element, but Peter in 2 Peter 1:2 gives us something to consider.

First, it is the case that Peter saw “grace and peace” as godly characteristics that could be multiplied among the churches as they increased their knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ. This might suggest that spiritual growth should produce among God’s people more kindness and the absence of strife. They should also exhibit the love of God among one another.

In light of the direction that Jude’s letter will take, the presence of false teachers who denied the lordship of Jesus and who presented licentiousness as godliness, Jude may be expressing his desire to see the congregation’s kindness, unity, and love for one another to increase even as they combat the errors that will arise among them.

We could understand how the pressure of false doctrine and the rejection of Jesus could increase pressure among the church members.

They could be motivated to turn on one another and for the situation to devolve very quickly. Jude, however, wanted them to remain tightly knit by exhibiting these characteristics among themselves. This united front would present the truth contrasting it with the complaining and fault-finding that would characterize those trying to pass error off as truth (Jude 16).

We are to stand out from the world.

Our congregations are to be havens from the world’s pursuit of lust.

They should be free from disputes, complaints, and untruth.

Compassion to see the wayward brought back into the fold should be present.

Peace, we have with God through Christ, but also with one another.

John 16:33.

John 14:27

Love is the defining, godly characteristic.

The teachers that Jude knows will influence his recipients represent an existential threat to the integrity of the true message and practice of Christianity.