PT-2 “Jude’s Exhortation” (Jude 3)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/11/2025 9:07 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  PT-2 “Jude’s Exhortation”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                  Reference:  Jude 3                       

            Message of the verse:  “3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”

 

            Now as I continue looking at this very important verse in Jude’s letter and can say that Jude had a deep love for his readers, as he was dedicated to their spiritual well-being, and that is important.  Now according to his tone conveyed a genuine care similar to that of Paul, who wrote to the Ephesian elders the following in Acts 20:31 “"Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.” 

 

            “For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” This is Colossians 1:29, this was also written by Paul and it is similar to Acts 20:31 which Paul said, and Luke wrote.

 

            MacArthur writes “Jude could not resist appealing (parakaleo, ‘exhorting, encouraging’) to his readers that they contend earnestly translates a present infinitive (epagonizomal) and stresses the need to defend the truth continually and vigorously (cf. 1 Tim. 1:18; 6:12; 2 Tim. 4:7).  It is a compound verb from which the English agonize is transliterated.  From Jude’s day until now, true believers have always had to battle for the purity of the salvation gospel.”

 

            Now we want to move onto “the faith,” which Jude’s is not speaking of a nebulous body of religious doctrines, rather, “the faith,” constitutes the Christian faith, the faith of the gospel, God’s objective truth, everything pertaining to our common salvation.  This is what Luke wrote about in Acts 2:42, which says “42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  This verse notes that the early believers were doing just what this verse says that they were doing, and this is and always has been important for believers to do.  (Look at 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 and 2 Thess. 3:6 for references.)  Now Paul admonished Timothy to protect that faith as he wrote “13 Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.”

 

            MacArthur writes “In life and ministry, God’s truth is paramount (cf. Pss. 25:5, 10; 71:22; 119:142, 160; Prov. 23:23; John 4:24; 8:32; 2 Cor. 13:8; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Tim. 2:15).  To manipulate and distort that truth, or to mix it with error, is to invite God’s eternal wrath.  That’s why Paul told the Galatians, ‘If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what your received, he is to be accursed!’ (Gal. 1:9). And the apostle John told his readers,

 

9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; 11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

 

            Now we continue to look at this verse we are studying this evening by looking at how Jude further defines the faith in succinct, specific terms as that which was once for all handed down to the saints.  MacArthur then adds that “Hapax 9once for all) refers to something that is accomplished or completed one time, with lasting results and no need of repetition.  Through the Holy Spirit, God revealed the Christian faith (cf. Rom. 16:26; 2 Tim. 3:16) to the apostles and their associates in the first century.  Their New Testament writings, in conjunction with the Old Testament Scriptures, make up the true knowledge’ of Jesus Christ, and are all that believers need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3; cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17).

 

            “The authors of the New Testament did not discover the truths of the Christian faith through mystical religious experiences.  Rather God, with finality and certainty, delivered His complete body of revelation in Scripture.  Any system that claims new revelation or new doctrine must be disregarded as false (Rev. 22:18-19).  God’s Word is all-sufficient; it is all that believers need as they contend for the faith and oppose apostasy within the church.”

 

            Let me finish by looking at Revelation 22:18-19, as this comes from the end of the very last chapter in the entire Bible:  “18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”

 

7/11/2025 9:39 PM