“Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (v. 3). That’s what Jude tells us, but he isn’t talking about standing up to godless college professors or protesting against the latest outrage coming from Washington, D.C. No, his concern is with those who have “crept in” to the church (v. 4), teaching things that are not true.

So, against what kinds of false teachings should we be on guard? Unfortunately, Jude’s list is extensive. He begins with the obvious: those who deny either the humanity or the divinity of Christ are to be condemned, even if they proclaim their lies from the most prominent pulpits or in the classrooms of our most prestigious universities (v. 4). He also condemns those who pervert Christ’s teachings on love to justify a selfish obsession with sensuality (v. 4), much like the ancient people of Sodom and Gomorrah who were, of course, destroyed by fire from heaven (v. 7).

But there are more subtle, and perhaps more dangerous false teachings. Jude criticized those who relied on their dreams and rejected authority (v. 8), and many modern Christians are going down the same road. Claiming to be guided by the Holy Spirit, they rely on their own intuition instead of on the clear Word of Scripture. In fact, more and more people who claim to follow Christ insist that they don’t need the mutual support and accountability of any Christian community – they reject “organized religion, ”trusting only in their “spiritual” feelings instead. As a result, they fall into all sorts of error, or as Jude says, they “blaspheme all that they do not understand” (v. 10).

But even those who profess to believe in the Bible and who hold to the truths of the most orthodox of creeds and confessions can still fall prey to the worst sorts of errors. For the sad truth is that while grumblers, malcontents, boasters, and those who show favoritism can be found even in the best of churches (v. 16), they are very seldom held accountable for the bad example they set. As a result, they all too often cause divisions (v. 19) both within and between congregations of those who claim to follow Christ.

So yes, we modern American Christians have much to oppose in the world around us. But maybe if we get our own house in order before we start pointing fingers at the wickedness of unbelievers, we’d be able to provide a more united and a more compelling witness to those who need to know Christ or to know Him better.

Jude (ESV)

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day–
7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.
9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”
10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.
11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.
12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;
13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones,
15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”
19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
22 And have mercy on those who doubt;
23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.