Contend for the Faith

When I was young, I had a tiny bit of experience with rock climbing on more than one occasion. And the very first occasion happened in Zermatt, Switzerland, the home of the Matterhorn. I was barely a teenager, and for some reason, my parents thought it would be a good idea to send their not-very-athletic-son out with an experienced mountain climbing guide. I guess my parents thought that I should be challenged to move a bit out of my comfort zone. 

Well, this big mountain of a man, with long, black beard, took me out hiking to some location outside of the village of Zermatt, and he taught me the basics of rock climbing. We were scaling little, tiny rocks mind you, not mountains. But at the end of the day, the guide said to me, in his broken English, “You come back next year, and I take you up the Matterhorn. Those rocks are the same as these. There’s just more of them.”

Thankfully, we didn’t go back to Zermatt the next summer and I never had to see that scary mountain man again. The closest I have come to climbing the Matterhorn is to watch videos on YouTube of other people doing it… and even that gives me the willies!

The passage of Scripture we are going to read today has a similar juxtaposition to what I have just described. Jude says to his readers that he would have preferred to write to them about the salvation they share in common. In other words, he would like to have led them on a comfortable hike where they might climb some small rocks together. But instead, Jude finds that he must write to urge his readers to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. Jude writes to his first century readers and to us in order to urge them and us to do something more difficult, more like climbing the Matterhorn.

Let’s read the opening of Jude’s letter and see what he has to say. Listen for God’s word to you from Jude 1:1-4…

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Author

 

Who is the author of this “little lost letter”? He tells us his name is Jude. Literally, in Greek it is Judas. Obviously, later translators did not want us to confuse the author of this letter with Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus. Jude is also the same as the ancient Hebrew name Judah, the patriarch of one of the twelve tribes of Israel from which great King David and Jesus himself were descended.

 

Jude calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ. Literally, he calls himself a slave. He could hardly have adopted a humbler term to describe himself. As William Barclay says, “Jude regarded himself as having only one object and one distinction in life—to be forever at the disposal of Jesus for service in his cause. The greatest glory which any Christian can attain is to be of use to Jesus Christ.”

 

Jude also says that he is a brother of James. We quickly get the idea that Jude “was a man well content with the second place.” (Barclay) In Greek the name translated as James is literally Jacob, another famous name in Israelite history. Jacob was the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.

 

James is a name that turns up repeatedly in the New Testament. Jesus had two disciples by the name of James. There was James, son of Zebedee, whose brother was John, the author of the Gospel and the letters of the New Testament that bear his name. Then Jesus had another disciple named James son of Alphaeus. Jesus also had a brother named James who became the leader of the first church in Jerusalem and the author of the letter that bears his name in the New Testament. (Acts 15:13)

 

The names of Jesus’ brothers, half-brothers really, are mentioned in Matthew 13 and Mark 6. They are James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. There are a number of Judases mentioned in the New Testament, but there is only one Judas who is the brother of James. So, this means that not only is the author of this letter the brother of James, a prominent leader in the early church, but Jude is also the brother of Jesus.

 

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, his brothers did not believe in him. (John 7:5) But this changed after Jesus rose from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:7 specifically mentions Jesus appearing to his brother James after he rose from the dead. Whether he made an appearance to his other brothers, we do not know. But one thing is certain, Jesus’ brothers went from being unbelievers to being prominent in the missionary work of the early church. (1 Corinthians 9:5)

 

Is it not interesting that one who was a brother of Jesus would not claim any special status but simply refer to himself as a slave of Jesus? I think this tells us something about the attitude we all should have. We should all regard ourselves as slaves of Jesus Christ not as ones to claim any special status in life.

 

Recipients

 

To whom was Jude writing? The Letter of Jude has been called one of the General or Catholic epistles. It is so called because it is not addressed to any one local congregation, nor to an individual Christian, but it is addressed to the universal church of Jesus Christ. The Letter of Jude may be one of the few books of the New Testament to derive directly from Palestinian Christianity. Some scholars think this may be one of the earliest books of the New Testament. Others think it may be one of the latest. But the date of the letter does not really matter.

 

Jude uses three words to describe the recipients of this letter. First, they are called. The Greek word is “kalein” and it is used of summoning a person to office, to duty and to responsibility. The Christian is called to the service of Jesus. 

 

The word “kalein” is also used of summoning a person to a feast or festival. So, it is the word used when inviting someone to a happy occasion. The Christian is called to joy.

 

Third, “kalein” is the word used of summoning a person to court to give account of himself or herself. This word reminds us that we will all one day have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

 

The second word Jude uses to describe the recipients of this letter is beloved. That is a description of you. That is a description of me. We are all loved in God the Father. Yes, we are all called to a task, the service of Jesus Christ. And yes, we are called to judgment. But even more than that, we are called to be loved and to love. We are called to a relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ, and in the end, that means we are called to total joy, and to the judgment of love.

 

The third word that Jude uses to describe the recipients of this letter is kept. We are kept by Jesus, for Jesus, and in Jesus. No matter where we go and no matter what we do, we are kept by the Lord; we are guarded by him, protected by him. Jesus is our constant companion and our shield, whether we realize it or not. And it is he who will one day bring us to stand spotless before his throne, as Jude will remind us at the end of this brief letter.

 

All three of these things were true of the first readers of this letter and they are true of you and me. We are called; we are beloved; we are kept.

 

As if that were not enough, Jude also wishes three things for the recipients of this letter. He wishes us mercy, peace and love.

 

William Blake wrote a wonderful poem that employs these three words and one more…

 

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

All pray in their distress;

And to these virtues of delight

Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

Is God, our father dear,

And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,

Pity a human face,

And Love, the human form divine,

And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime,

That prays in his distress,

Prays to the human form divine,

Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,

In heathen, Turk, or Jew;

Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell

There God is dwelling too.

 

The Greek word for “mercy” is sometimes used to translate the Hebrew word “hesed” which refers to God’s covenant love. The word for “mercy” can also be translated as “compassion”.

 

When we think of the final judgment, we usually think of God making everything right that is currently wrong in the world, and that is important. But personally, I know I’m going to ask for mercy and not justice. That is what makes the good news good, that God does not give us what we deserve; he gives us mercy instead.

 

That is why mercy has been at the heart of Christian worship for two thousand years. There is a prayer in the Orthodox Church called “The Jesus Prayer”. It is based upon Scripture and it goes like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” That prayer is often shortened, in the liturgy of the church, to be simply, “Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy.” In whatever form one prays it, that is a beautiful prayer to take as one’s mantra. It can be prayed anytime, anywhere, over any person, or any situation. I find that when I pray that prayer, it brings me a sense of peace and love, which are the two other gifts that Jude wishes for his readers. Actually, mercy, peace, and love all go together.

 

And Jude wishes for us, his readers, that mercy, peace, and love would be multiplied to us. The word literally means to be multiplied to maximum capacity, until we are filled to overflowing. So much of what the world offers us only ends in emptiness. But Jesus offers us the fullness of his mercy, peace and love.

 

Why he is writing…

 

With verses 3 and 4 Jude tells us why he is writing. We get the sense here that Jude would have preferred to write a nice, comforting little letter about the salvation he shares in common with his readers. But something has gotten in the way of that desire.

 

As we saw with John’s letters, so too here, there is a concern about false teaching. Some men have invaded the fellowship of the church to whom Jude is writing. And these false teachers have denied the Lord Jesus Christ and used the grace of God as an excuse for indulging in sensuality. These men have committed both a theological and a moral error. The two go together as they often do. One usually leads to the other.

 

In response to this, Jude urges his readers to “contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.” Jude uses the word “faith” here not as a verb, not as an activity, but as a noun. The faith that Jude is talking about is not the act of trusting in Jesus, but rather it is the deposit of faith, it is a summary of the things that every follower of Jesus ought to believe.

 

Now, the moment anyone mentions false teachers, or right and wrong ways of thinking in our day, people get uncomfortable. “What do you mean by false teachers?” they ask. Isn’t truth sort of like a mountain, and aren’t there many pathways one might follow to climb to the summit?

 

Maybe. But even if the comparison is apt, it is important to remember you can’t climb up a mountain like the Matterhorn any way you want. There are some routes that only a very experienced climber might try and there are other routes that won’t work at all.

 

Furthermore, let’s imagine this situation. Imagine a mountain guide takes you and your friends up the Matterhorn, and because you are all novices, he has a rope going from his body to each of yours, just so he doesn’t lose anyone. 

 

So far, so good. But what if that guide is not strong enough to hold you and your friends should one of you slip on your way up the mountain? One of you might slip, and if the guide is not strong enough, one person’s error might take the whole group tumbling off a cliff. Or what if that guide doesn’t really care about the safety of others, and he does something foolish during the climb, something that sends your whole group plummeting to the valley below?

 

That is the kind of situation Jude is envisioning. For Jude, as for the rest of the authors of the New Testament, faith and spirituality aren’t simply a matter of taking a pleasant hike on a summer’s day. Faith and spirituality are more like climbing the Matterhorn—not an impossible task, but not easy either. There are many dangers in route to the summit, and even on the way back down. One needs an experienced guide who has been to the summit countless times, one who has the strength and the compassion to care for a group of novices who want to experience the climbing of a real mountain.

 

According to Jude, and the authors of the rest of the New Testament, all spiritual teachers are not equal. There is real good and real evil in the world. One can’t simply dabble in spirituality expecting it to be like a picnic. There are dangers on the spiritual journey that one must be prepared to face.

 

And Jude tells us the way we must prepare to face those dangers is by being willing to contend for the faith, to fight for it, even if that fight involves some agony. 

 

Do you remember that commercial from the 1970s for ABC’s Wide World of Sports? It used what became a famous phrase: “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” And to illustrate the latter, the commercial showed an Olympic skier going off an incredibly high jump only to take a terrible tumble on the way down.

 

That word “agony” was very appropriately used in that commercial whether the creators realized it or not. The Greek word translated as “contend” is ἐπαγωνίζομαι. The root word is ἀγών from which we get our English words, “agony,” and “agonize”. In secular Greek ἀγών refers to a gathering to see the games, or the place of contest (in Homer), or the Olympic games themselves, or some smaller contest at the gymnasium, the place where all Greek boys were trained not just for physical contests but mental ones as well. In the ancient world, athletic contests could be so severe that they could cause the toughest men to crumble. Indeed, this was common according to Euripedes and Xenophon.

 

This word, ἀγών, came to be used metaphorically to refer to any struggle or battle. The word is used by Paul in 1 Timothy 6:12 where he talks about “fighting the good fight of faith”, “αγωνίζομαι the good ἀγών of faith.” Thus, at its root, the Christian life involves soul struggle. But Jude believes that the ecstasy we will experience at the end of our spiritual journey will be worth any agony we must face along the way.

 

With all of this in mind, let me leave you with a couple of questions today. Are there any Christian teachings you would be willing to contend for? Is there any truth espoused by the New Testament you would even be willing to sacrifice your life for?

 

Those are the kind of questions Jude would invite us to consider. And we must consider them in light of the fact that the One who offers to be our guide up the mountain of life is one who is experienced, and who cares for us so much, that he sacrificed his life on the mountain to spare ours.

 

Maybe, just maybe, it might be worth it, to offer our lives to such a guide in return for all that he has done for us.