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OCTOBER 12
CONTEND FOR THE FAITH
“Beloved, when I gave all
diligence to write unto you
of the common salvation, it
was needful for me to write
unto you, and exhort you
that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which
was once delivered unto the
saints. For thee are certain
men crept in unawares, who
were before of old ordained
to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the
grace of our God into
lasciviousness, and denying
the only Lord God, and our
Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude
3-4)
We note a threefold
corruption process. UNGODLY
- literally, irreverent. How
flippant many are with their
worship and reference to
“the man upstairs.” But “God
is not a man,” Numbers 23:19
makes that clear. Yet in
their irreverence they lose
all sense of holiness, the
fear of the Lord, an awe
before Him. This is a very
subtle thing, for while it
is true, He does condescend
to min of low estate, yes,
“though I make my bed in
hell, Thou are there,”
nevertheless, it is not a
familiarity that reduces God
to the human level of man in
all his pervertedness and
finiteness.
TURNING - again a subtle
work, “turning the grace of
God into lasciviousness,”
or, into excess. This is
using the freedom of His
grace for the fulfilling of
the lusts of the flesh. It
is not always a broad jump
into corruption, but that
gradual turning, until it
doesn’t seem so bad, and
what was once thought of as
sin, no longer seems to be
so sinful, in fact, it even
seems to be quite
permissible. God help us
from any turning which would
cause us to err, miss the
mark, as we press toward the
mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in
Christ Jesus.
DENYING - it didn’t start
out as denying, only just a
little irreverent, then a
little turning, but it ends
up denying the very God that
bought them with his own
blood, even denying that He
alone is God.
So we would “contend for the
faith” - from the root word,
to agonize. With intensity
of purpose we would be
irrevocably committed to the
faith, not to be
“contentious” about it, but
to LIVE IT in daily
overcoming.
Ray Prinzing |
