Contend for the faith

When you contend, you are struggling to surmount, or struggling to overcome something. In this day in age, it is hard to have faith sometimes. We don't know who too trust, and people tend to make themselves look good in the eyes of others. There are a lot of false teachers. Teachers who twist the words of truth in order to get more of a following.

It is important for Christians to contend in our faith because we cannot follow or listen to the teaching of false teachers. There is no good from those things. In the book of Jude, there are three examples of those who rebelled. In others words, those who didn't contend for the faith.

1. the children of Israel - although they were delivered from the land of Egypt, they refused to trust God and enter into the promise land. The Lord destroyed those who did not believe in him.

2. the angels - although they were once pure, holy, and loving in God's presence, some gave in to pride and joined Satan to rebel against God. The angels who did not keep their authority in position were bound to everlasting chains for judgment on the great day.

3. the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah - the people of the cities were so full of sin that God wiped them off the face of the earth.

If the chosen people, angels, and sinful cities were punished, how much more do you think false teachers would be punished?

Here is how Jude described the false teachers:

These people were blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm - shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the winds autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted - twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up in their shame; wandering starts, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. (Jude 12-13)

Those are strong words written by Jude. It's wonderfully written to make the point clear. I read through those verses and to soak in the detail blows me away. False teachers were "twice dead" They were useless trees because they weren't producing fruit.

So I have written about those who have rebelled and how meaningless false teachers are. How do we contend in our faith so we don't rebel? Jude gives us three ways.

1. knowing the truth - We learn the truth from studying the Bible. If we don't study the Bible we don't  know the truth. It's as simple as that. We must understand the basics of the Bible so that we can recognize when there are false teachers and prevent the wrong teaching.

2. growing personally with Christ - Knowledge is something that is certainly important, but our personal relationship with Christ is essential. Through our personal relationship, God has given you the Holy Spirit. When we are unattached from God, we may know everything, but understand nothing. Attached to Christ, we are given spiritual understanding as well as experiences with Christ that underscore our faith.

3. remaining unified on the essentials - Christians can disagree on certain things. Like worship music, methods of worship, methods of outreach etc. But, we always must defend the truth of the basics of our faith.

I simply encourage you to contend in your faith. Overcome rebellion and the sinful desires of the world that entices us that we may be a light to all who struggle in those things on a daily basis.