Keeping the Faith Entrusted to You

Remembering the Covenant

Jude 4 The Message

Fight with All You Have in You

3-4 Dear friends, I’ve dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish. What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks (our Scriptures warned us this would happen), who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license—which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master.

For Reflection

In this world, our faith in God is challenged.  Christians face enormous pressure to conform to the societies in which they live. As in Jude's time, there are artful and wicked men and women who have pretended to be religious teachers, but whose doctrines tend to sap the foundations of Christianity.  These false teachers deny fundamental Christian beliefs and profess to be holy when in fact they exploit our fears so that we will abandon our confidence in the power of God in favor of self-determination and self-righteousness.

We are to be humble, kind, generous, receptive, and nonjudgmental toward all people. As Paul put it, "Therefore do not let what is a good thing for you [because of your freedom to choose] be spoken of as evil [by someone else]; for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking [what one likes], but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:15 -17 AMP)

Pray

Pray so that you become confident in the power of God to make all things work for good.  Pray for the courage to guard the bedrock of love, grace, and justice that is the foundation of Christian righteousness.

Forward to a friend