The epistle of Jude begins with an urgent message: “I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Because of the danger of false teachers who had “crept in unnoticed” to “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality” (v. 4), the believers to whom Jude wrote needed to be vigilant and active, exalting the truth and rejecting falsehood.
This directive is no less crucial today. False teachers are still creeping into God’s church. People still pervert the Gospel to suit their own sinful desires. And the church still needs vigilant and active men and women who will “contend for the faith.” Yet when we hear these words from Jude, we are likely to have one of two reactions.
Some will find themselves immediately fearful and hesitant. “It’s just not my way to be like that,” they may say. “I’m not a confrontational sort of person.” They may be tempted to tolerate error rather than risk conflict. Niceness and propriety set the agenda, and if the error becomes too great, there’s always the option of a quiet exit. Doubtless there were some like that in the first-century church who needed Jude’s counsel. There are still many like that today.
On the other hand, some receive Jude’s directive a bit too eagerly. They are naturally bombastic, and they need to be settled down. There is something about the need to deal with error that draws the worst out of people who relish fights and enjoy arguments. This “quarrelsome” temperament (1 Tim. 3:3) is unbecoming of God’s people, who ought rather to be “completely humble and gentle,” to “be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Eph. 4:2 NIV).
In our day, this latter danger is especially prevalent. Digital media has made it all too easy to engage in a kind of theological headhunting—looking here, there, and everywhere for “false teachers” against whom we can self-righteously contend.
So even as we receive Jude’s exhortation with all seriousness, we need to turn a page in our Bible to John’s Revelation and hear the rebuke that the Lord Himself leveled against the church in Ephesus:
I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. (Rev. 2:2–4)
The Lord commended the Ephesian church for their ability to distinguish between truth and error. He was pleased with their ability to confront and expel the wicked. But tragically, this virtue swallowed them so completely that it became a vice. In their effort to achieve doctrinal purity, they had forgotten the Lord’s command to love (John 13:34–35).
When we encounter those who oppose the Gospel, whether openly or discretely, our best tool is not a clever argument but a transformed life. We don’t merely contend for the faith by preaching the truth and confronting error, but we live the faith, rebuking our opponents with gentleness, longing not for their defeat but for their repentance and salvation (2 Tim. 2:25–26).
The Christian approach to false teaching is to contend for the faith and to keep our love. May we all look to God’s enabling for the wisdom, conviction, and grace to do both so that the watching world will see our works and glorify our Father in heaven (Matt. 5:16).
This article was adapted from the sermon “‘Keep Yourselves’” by Alistair Begg.
