WHEN Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, wrote his Epistle to “them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called,” he warned them in language which the most hard-hearted could not lightly ignore, that the way to heaven was beset with many dangers. Lukewarmness was not to be named among them, nor were they, for the sake of their own comfort, to quietly ignore the attacks made on the common faith. He exhorts them to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. There are some who profess to follow Christ who are altogether averse to contend earnestly for the faith, and this aversion is not merely passive, but becomes aggressively active in some who go the length of discouraging to the utmost of their power all such earnest contending for the faith. There are others, again, who hold that, while it may be the duty of ministers and elders who have come under solemn promises to assert, maintain, and defend the truth, “notwithstanding of whatsoever trouble or persecution may arise,” that they are not called upon to do so. But it is not office-bearers Jude is addressing, but the sanctified and the called of God. Others, again, think it is carrying the contending too far when the false and ruinous teaching of men without their own particular denomination is exposed and condemned. There is no use of bringing before people heresies which, but for such exposure, they would never have heard of. This is a short-sighted policy, and would limit the field of contending for the faith once delivered to the saints only to those particular departures from the faith against which the particular denomination may be a standing protest. The narrow outlook of all who hold such an opinion needs only to be stated to show how inadequate it is. The call by Jude is to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and is not to be limited only to certain principles and truths, in witness of which a denomination exists. But this warfare is not to be carried on after a carnal manner, though it is too ready, even in the best, to degenerate to that which is not heavenly. False fire is not meant for God’s altar, and false zeal, however vehement and vociferous it may be, is not heavenly in its origin. It is further to be borne in mind, as Jude so pointedly emphasises, that it is all essential to continue to the end. The children of Israel sang sweetly and with great feeling the praises of Jehovah at the Red Sea, but they, with one or two exceptions, perished in the wilderness. And the angels, too, who kept not their first estate, had a good beginning, but an unspeakably sad ending. Even Satan himself had a good beginning, but a bad ending. And as Jude emphasises these points, pressing home his message in language that must have appeared to them laden with doleful and depressing warnings, he is not unmindful that, difficult though the way to heaven be, that all that are truly called have an Almighty and All-wise Keeper who is able to keep His people from falling, and to present them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. There are times and circumstances in the lives of God’s people when such a promise stands out as a Rock in the midst of a stormy sea of shattered hopes and painful disappointments. In His inscrutable providence God does permit His people to be sifted as wheat even to the length of denying the Lord that bought them by their actions or their words. But this is part of the way in which He brings down their self-sufficiency, so that, with the weakness of a little child, they feel their need of holding His hand all the days of their pilgrimage.
We are travelling through an Enemy’s country, and within the citadel of man’s heart the Enemy has a host of friends who are willing to further his interests on all suitable occasions. When one thinks of the host of the Enemy’s friends within, the wonder is that so many reach the end of the journey, and the fact that they do is to be all traced to the sustaining grace of Him who called them. Unbelief, Self-sufficiency, and False Strength, and their numerous retinue, have made many of the pilgrims on the way to the Heavenly Canaan feel that they would never see it. But what a glorious Captain the Lord Jesus is! He is able to keep from falling and to present faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, and to this Almighty and All-wise Keeper Jude directs the thoughts of those whose hearts must have trembled as they listened to the message pregnant with warning of dangers to which they were all liable. It is a beautiful ending to a message that must have appeared to many weighted heavily with sternness and warning. What a great day will it be for the followers of the Lord Jesus when they are learning, as they never had done before, to lean with all the hope they have of heaven upon Himself alone. The fear of the dreadful power of our great Enemy should ever make us keep our eye on the Captain of our salvation. Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear was the exhortation of one who passed through the awful trial of being sifted as wheat. And this fear is no cowardly or imaginary emotion, but healthy and eminently becoming all those who are journeying to heaven. The Psalmist knew what it was, and it made him trust to God alone for his salvation, as he so touchingly sings in the thirteenth psalm:—
“O Lord my God, consider well,
And answer to me make:
Mine eyes enlighten, lest the sleep
Of death me overtake:
Lest that mine enemy should say,
Against him I prevail’d;
And those that trouble me rejoice,
When I am mov’d and fail’d.
But I have all my confidence
Thy mercy set upon;
My heart within me shall rejoice,
In thy salvation.”