The Uncompromising Call to Contend Text: Jude 1:1-4
Introduction: A Necessary Interruption
We live in an age that prizes niceness above all other virtues. The modern evangelical church, in many quarters, has adopted this posture as its central operating principle. We want a faith that is agreeable, inoffensive, and above all, peaceful. We want sermons about our "common salvation," messages that soothe and affirm, and we want them week in and week out. We want the comfortable fellowship of the saints, but we have very little stomach for the conflict of the soldiers.
Into this tranquilized atmosphere, the book of Jude lands like a hand grenade. It is short, sharp, and severe. It is not a gentle treatise on the finer points of systematic theology. It is a fire alarm being pulled in the middle of the night. Jude, the brother of James and the half-brother of our Lord, sits down with every intention of writing a pleasant, encouraging letter about the glorious salvation we all share. But something interrupts him. A pressing, urgent "necessity" hijacks his original plan. The house is on fire. There are intruders within the gates. The flock is being threatened not by wolves howling outside, but by wolves in the fold, dressed up in sheepskins.
And so he writes this letter, this urgent exhortation. And the central command of this letter is a direct assault on our modern sensibilities. He tells us to "contend earnestly for the faith." This is not a suggestion. It is a command to fight, to struggle, to wrestle for something. That something is not our personal opinion, or our preferred worship style, or our political platform. It is "the faith," a fixed, unchangeable, objective body of truth delivered by God Himself. This faith is not a liquid that takes the shape of its cultural container. It is a deposit of granite, entrusted to the saints, and we are called to be its guardians. To refuse this fight, to prefer a quiet life while the truth is being subverted, is not a sign of spiritual maturity. It is an act of treason.
The Text
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you exhorting that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
(Jude 1:1-4 LSB)
The Secure Foundation for the Fight (vv. 1-2)
Before Jude calls us to war, he first establishes the bedrock of our security. A soldier who is worried about his own position cannot fight effectively for his king. Jude grounds our identity in the sovereign work of the Triune God.
"Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you." (Jude 1:1-2)
Notice how Jude introduces himself. He could have pulled rank. He was, after all, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus. But he begins with "a slave of Jesus Christ." A doulos. He belongs to another. His authority is not his own; it is derived entirely from his Master. This is the posture of every true Christian teacher. He is a man under authority before he is a man in authority.
He then addresses the believers with three glorious descriptions. First, they are "the called." This is not a mere invitation sent out in the mail that you can RSVP to at your leisure. This is the effectual, sovereign call of God that raises the spiritually dead to life. You are a Christian not because you were clever enough to figure it out, but because God called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Your salvation began with a divine summons, not a human decision.
Second, they are "beloved in God the Father." Our standing is not based on our performance or our loveliness. We are secure because we are the objects of the Father's eternal, unchanging love. He loved us before the foundation of the world. This love is the ground of our entire reality.
Third, they are "kept for Jesus Christ." This is the great doctrine of perseverance. We are not just saved, we are guarded. We are preserved. The Christian life is not a matter of us grimly holding on to God, but of Him powerfully holding on to us. This security is absolutely essential for the fight ahead. We do not contend in order to be kept; we contend because we are kept. The knowledge that our eternal security is settled by God Himself is what frees us to engage the enemy without fear.
And on this foundation, he prays for mercy, peace, and love to be "multiplied" to them. We need these in abundance. We need mercy for our own failures in the fight, peace that guards our hearts in the midst of turmoil, and love for God, for His truth, and for the saints we are protecting.
The Urgent Call to Contend (v. 3)
Verse 3 is the heart of the letter, the pivot upon which everything turns.
"Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you exhorting that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints." (Jude 1:3 LSB)
Jude had a sermon series planned, a nice one, on "our common salvation." This is what we all enjoy. But an emergency arose. He "felt the necessity" to change the topic. The duty of a faithful watchman is not to play pleasant music, but to sound the alarm when danger is present. And so the letter on our common salvation had to wait. It was time to issue a call to arms.
The command is "to contend earnestly." The Greek word is epagonizomai. We get our word "agonize" from it. It is an intense, athletic term. It means to struggle, to fight with everything you have. This is not a call for polite disagreement over coffee. It is a call to doctrinal warfare.
And what are we fighting for? Not for our preferences, but "for the faith." Note the definite article: the faith. This is the objective, non-negotiable body of apostolic doctrine. It is the gospel, the truth about who God is, who man is, what Christ has done, and how we are to live in light of it. This faith was "once for all handed down to the saints." The Greek for "once for all" is hapax. It means it was delivered completely, at one time, and is not subject to revision. God is not giving new doctrinal updates. The canon is closed. The deposit of faith has been made. Our job is not to be creative innovators, but faithful guardians. We are not to adjust the faith to the spirit of the age; we are to adjust the age to the spirit of the faith.
The Nature of the Threat (v. 4)
Why the sudden urgency? Verse 4 reveals the nature of the emergency. The threat is not external persecution, but internal subversion.
"For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." (Jude 1:4 LSB)
The enemies "have crept in unnoticed." They are fifth columnists. They are inside the gates, carrying Bibles, singing the hymns, and sitting on committees. They are camouflaged, which makes them far more dangerous than an open enemy. These are the men who appear to be pillars but are actually termites.
But God is not caught by surprise. They were "long beforehand marked out for this condemnation." Their apostasy and their judgment were foreordained by a sovereign God. This does not remove our responsibility to oppose them, but it does give us immense confidence. We are on the right side of history, because we are on the right side of God's decree.
Jude identifies them by two characteristics. First, they "turn the grace of our God into sensuality." This is antinomianism. They take the glorious truth of salvation by grace and twist it into a license to sin. They preach a cheap grace that makes no demands. They argue that because we are not under law but under grace, our behavior does not matter. This is a demonic perversion of the gospel. True grace does not free us to sin; it frees us from sin. Grace is not just the pardon for sin; it is the power to overcome sin. Any "gospel" that makes peace with ongoing, unrepentant sin is another gospel, which is no gospel at all.
Second, as a result, they "deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." They may affirm His name with their lips, but their teaching and their lifestyle constitute a fundamental denial of His authority. The word for Master here is despotes, from which we get "despot." It signifies absolute ownership and authority. They want Jesus as a fire escape from hell, but they refuse Him as the absolute Lord of every area of their lives. By promoting sensuality and lawlessness, they are declaring that He is not, in fact, their Master. Their libertinism is a practical atheism.
Conclusion: Guard the Gift
The message of Jude is a bracing tonic for a drowsy church. We have been entrusted with a priceless treasure: "the faith once for all handed down to the saints." This faith is under constant assault, not primarily from the outside world, but from subversives within the church itself. These are the men who redefine grace to make room for sexual sin, who deny the Lordship of Christ by refusing to submit to His commands, and who do it all with a pious smile.
Our calling is not to be nice. Our calling is to be faithful. We are to contend. This means we must first know the faith. You cannot guard a treasure you cannot identify. We must be men and women of the Book. And second, we must have the courage to draw lines. We must have the backbone to call error, error, and sin, sin. We must do this not because we are cantankerous or love a good fight, but because we love our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, and we will not stand by silently while His grace is perverted and His name is denied.
Our security is in Him. We are called, beloved, and kept. And because we are secure, we can fight. So let us take up the charge Jude gives us. For the glory of our only Master and Lord, let us contend earnestly for the faith.