Jude 1:3 - Content for the Faith
Delivered to Saints:
Jude writes to encourage his readers to violently defend the faith that the apostles had taught. Jude writes that "the faith … was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3). To be a saint means you stand shoulder to shoulder with millions of Christians who have gone before. You stand with strong Christians and weak Christians, brave Christians and cowardly Christians, aged Christians, and young Christians.
The faith is handed over to those who are called, beloved by God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ (Jude 1). The duty to contend for the faith is, therefore, not just the duty of the ordained ministers of the Word, though they do have a special responsibility. It is the duty of every genuine believer. Contending faith means defending the faith and building the faith with great hope. William Barclay states that the defense of the faith is a duty that falls on every generation of the church.
Definition of Faith:
What does Jude mean by “the faith”? Does it refer to a set of church doctrines or creeds? Faith simply refers to believing the gospel or having faith as taught by the apostles to his original readers and listeners (vv. 5, 18, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Faith means the essential truths of the gospel that all true Christians hold in common. It means the sum of that which Christians believe. The full message in its entirety and completeness is delivered through Christ to the apostles and to us.
The faith is all-inclusive of the New Testament requirements of faith, repentance, confession, and baptism into Christ of all who would be saved initially, and the ethical, moral, and religious obligations of Christians, including their faithful observance of the Lord’s Supper, along with the reception and cherishing of the earnest of the Holy Spirit, as necessarily manifested in their subsequent lives. The revelation of Christ through the apostles is complete, inviolate, sufficient, eternal, immutable, and not subject to any change whatever. Jesus made his sayings to be the dogmatic foundation of Christianity as evident in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:24-25) and in the great commission (Matthew 28:18-20).
Fight for Faith:
Jude exhorts his readers to fight in three ways: First, avoid contamination with their ungodly teaching and sin (Jude 23). Second, live out the righteousness of the gospel that was originally given to them by the apostles (Jude 5-7, 17-18). And third, recognize the prophetic pronouncement of future judgment that is already upon these ungodly teachers (Jude 9, 14-15). Thus, they will have contended for the faith (v. 3). There is a faith once and for all delivered to the saints. This faith is worth contending for. This faith is repeatedly threatened from within the church. Every genuine believer should contend for the faith. In Acts 6:7, a great company of priests was obedient to the faith. In Galatians 1:23, Paul is said to have preached the faith he once destroyed. In Ephesians 4:5, Paul firmly teaches there is one faith.
The faith that we cherish was preserved for us with the blood of hundreds of reformers. The blood of the martyrs is a powerful testimony that the faith once and for all delivered to the saints is worth contending for. When the faith is at stake, our salvation is at stake. If the truth is lost, salvation is lost. The apostles and reformers were willing to die for the sake of the faith because they cared about whether the message of salvation would be preserved. The salvation common to Jews and Gentiles, and to all who bore the Christian name.
(Ref: Bible. ref; Three Steps of Jude 3 by DR. Doug Potter; Desiring God by John Piper; Enduring Commentary; study light & Bible hub commentaries)
