Contending for the faith

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to CONTEND FOR THE FAITH that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and DENY Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord Jude 3-4


For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But YOU, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. 2nd Timothy 4:3-5

In recent times, I've been having interesting conversations about faith, religion, God, veritas (truth), The Bible amongst other topics; both with people who share my faith and those that don't. I am aware that there are people who don't believe in the existence of God or Jesus Christ, the Bible or tenets of the Christian faith, whilst I don't agree with them, I believe that we all have the right to either accept or reject GOD for it is within our right to choose, I also believe that all choices have consequences, we weigh what we believe those consequences to be and act accordingly.

However, the reason for this post is not to argue about the existence or in defence of God or truth but to remind and urge believers as Jude did a long time ago to contend for the faith. As I mused on my conversations, I realised how passionate the people I was discussing were in bringing me to their line of reasoning and understanding, I asked myself if I was also this passionate when it came to sharing the gospel, what I believe to be truth. Have I been contending for the faith? But what does it mean to contend for the faith? I believe it is what Peter asked us to do in 1st Peter 3:15

...Always be prepared to give an answer to EVERYONE who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with GENTLENESS and RESPECT.

To be able to do this, we as well need to know what our reason is as Paul encouraged Timothy

"....Warn them before God against quarrelling about words; it is of no value and only ruins those who listen. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" 2nd Timothy 2:14-16

I want to encourage us to stay in the word, deeply rooted in it, serving God faithfully, living our lives in such a way that we can even preach without words. Please remember that while we are contending for the faith and for what we believe, we are not fighting for God. I'm so grateful to believe in and serve a God who I don't have to fight for, He's very capable at handling things for Himself. I'll also encourage us to study the book of 2nd Timothy and 1,2 and 3rd John. We really need to be building ourselves up, we have been called to be the salt and the light, let's get to stepping.

An important note is that the way of God is the way of love. Ask God for the grace to walk in love, ask God for the strength to walk away from unprofitable arguments. It's not about having the last word but about saying what God has told you to say. He will use the 'foolish' things of this world to confound the wise. Sow your seed and ask the God of the harvest to do the rest.

It is well, keep contending.

Remain blessed and highly favoured. This remains our year of POSSIBILITIES.