Jeremy Hoover

I preached from Jude on Sunday. Jude writes that he wanted to write about the salvation they shared in common, but he needed change gears and encourage them to contend for the faith. The faith they should contend for is the faith that had been entrusted once for all to the church. It is the unmovable, unshakeable gospel.

Divisive, ungodly "dreamers" had entered the church and advocated for a change of direction. But their changes appear to be based more on behavior (blasphemy, division, and disruption) than on teaching. Of course, teaching would be at the core, but Jude wants his readers to be on guard against this divisive disruption.

How should the church today continue to "contend for the faith"? Certainly, we need to guard our doctrine. But we also need to guard our own motives. Jude says that these dividers "rely on their dreams" (8). Evidently, their own experiences and ideas caused them to become divisive and seek their own way. We do the very same thing today when we allow our opinions to become divisive.

Jude provides a simple solution to ungodliness and division--seek your own spiritual growth and that of others (20-23). Divisive people are devoid of the Spirit (19), but godly people build themselves up in the faith and pray in the Spirit. They mercifully watch out for others and work to build up their faith. They never lose sight of Jesus' impending return, and they keep spiritual growth--theirs and others'--front and center.

That is what it means to contend for the faith.

In carpentry, the phrase "measure twice, cut once" is used to encourage people to slow down, focus on what's important, and be careful. Our faith is the same: instead of getting caught up in division and other people's power-plays, we need to "measure twice" by focusing on our own spiritual growth and then the spiritual growth of others.

In my last post, I wrote about how opinions can be divisive and disrupt Christian love. Paul explains this in the context of the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11), but he also explains it in the context of their worship (chapter 14). They were dividing themselves by arguing about which spiritual gifts were superior and how those gifts were to be used. They were arguing about their opinions.

To teach them otherwise, Paul teaches them to “stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults” (1 Cor. 14:20). We are childish when we care so much about our opinions that we cause dissension and division among others. In fact, when we press our opinions on someone else who doesn't see it the same way, we are like a child who forcibly takes back a toy from another child, even though the taker has plenty of toys to play with. (“But I want that one!”) We do damage and harm when we inflict our own conscience on another's conscience.

Of course, it takes wisdom to discern what is an opinion and what is part of the gospel core. This is why Paul advocates for love (chapter 13). We act like adults in faith when we love others, because we have fully developed and matured. No opinion should be more important than the spiritual health and well-being of a brother or sister. Building up those in the faith through love should always be our primary goal; opinions must be secondary and must be seen as unnecessary in the life of someone seeking to be mature.

I was reading today in 1 Corinthians and was really moved by Paul's teaching in chapters 11-14. For me, one of the most difficult challenges in my own life, and that I see in my church experience, is letting my opinion go for the sake of unity with and love for others. Opinions are dangerous. They have a way of taking on a life of their own (often encouraged by us, of course). But opinions need to be left aside for the sake of Christian love.

Beware of making your opinion a stumbling block for others. As Paul begins teaching the Corinthian believers about the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11:17-19) he points out the divisiveness of their meals together. They are not waiting for each other and they do not even appear to be sharing a community meal but rather are eating their “own private suppers” (11:21). He links this behavior with divisiveness. He can't believe that when they come together there are divisions among them, and the divisions exist as a way of showing which of them have God's approval. The danger here is in making God side with you in your opinion. To do so triangulates God with you and against others. It is not right.

We should read this section of scripture (chapter 11) in light of the teachings in chapters 12-14 about the preeminence of love in the lives of believers. Only when we love others can we truly see how divisive our opinions are. Only when we love others are we willing to lay our divisive opinions aside for the sake of another.

When someone begins lining God up behind their opinion, there is generally a lack of love. Paul says we are nothing without love. We can reach so-called spiritual heights, teach with the best of them, have a faith that stands above the rest, give away everything we have to the poor, and even turn our bodies over to hardship. But all of these things, without love, are useless. Maturity and completeness are found only where there is love. Knowledge and experience can take us only so far. The rest comes when we learn to lay aside our opinions—and divisiveness—for the sake of our love for others.