“Dear friends, although I have been eager to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel compelled instead to write to encourage you to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men have secretly slipped in among you – men who long ago were marked out for the condemnation I am about to describe – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Jude 1:3-4 NET https://bible.com/bible/107/jud.1.4.NET
Before whom must the people of God contend for the faith? It is before those who have secretly slipped in among us, who deny our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. We contend not with the pagan who has nothing to do with us and denies our Lord. We contend with those speaking to us, perhaps even claiming to be one of us, who do not follow Jesus or advocate obedience to Him among us. Amazon created a series called ‘shiny happy people’ that is stirring the Christian community against one another. Pagans, not believers, created this series. It is not for encouraging and building up the body of Christ but for tearing down and destroying our Lord’s people. Like the university, the media constantly disparages and maligns God’s ways and God’s people. They tell half-truths, somewhat truths, and no truths couched as fact though it is fiction. Like the devil quoting Scripture to Jesus, they seek to have us disobey and tempt God to discipline further His people who wander away in foolishness, rejecting His truth because we listen to the voice of the pagan. Certainly, some in ministry have done evil. That has always been the case. The Scriptures reveal such reality to us repeatedly. This doesn’t change the necessity for us and our household to obey the Lord. We must still apply God’s word appropriately to our lives and not disdain His teachings because some fooled many, leading them to harm by misusing God’s truths. We must stop listening to those who oppose God and, therefore, His church and instead encourage one another by reminding one another of His ways and His will even as we seek together to obey everything He has commanded.
