What is the purpose of passing out a tract? What is the purpose of witnessing or testifying for Christ? Why do preachers preach? Why do believers tell others of their salvation?
I hear preachers commonly say “Contend with them!” referencing sinners for salvation. Contend with the unbelievers int he streets, they say! Contending was never a reference to any saved person dealing with the lost!
Jude 1:3 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.
Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Titus 1:4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
This is a striking verse. The term, “the faith” is only found in the New Testament beginning in Acts 3. “The faith” was no longer being preached. It was delivered to “the saints” which is a OT and NT reference. God’s collective bodies, the saints and the body of Christ, are all considered saints now.
Jude said the “common salvation”. “The faith was reference many times to mean the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The faith IN Christ! To contend for the faith is to contend for the common salvation!
Men were making it uncommon. Men were apostatizing already. Men were getting into unorthodoxy. Men were making things religious. Preaching other gospels (Galatians 1) Men were going back in to the Temple, men were keeping the law and the oblations. Men were rejecting any gospel of grace. Men were keeping to the old paths so to speak. To do this was rejecting Jesus Christ. To hold to the Law was to reject his payment for sins! It was denying the Lord that bought them!
