Contend meaning “assert something as a position in an argument.”
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. (Jude 1:3)
Jude was illustrating that it really does matter what you believe and we really do not have the
right to simply make up our own doctrine or to apply our own personal, private interpretation to
Scripture simply because that makes our own theology work out. But Jude and all of the other men
whom God used to pen down sacred Scripture taught that we must work very hard; we must be diligent; we must struggle in order to get the Gospel right.
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (2 Corinthians 13:5)
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: (1 Peter 2:2)
If we realize that being 'born again" is the beginning and we drink milk, the truth is that we should grow and mature enough to start eating solid food. Being "born again" is the start of a new life, not finishing point because we have our ticket punched for eternal life.
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. (Hebrews 5:12)
But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. (Galatians 6:4)
This thread is to prove our own doctrine in relation to all scripture by “rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)
So as we examine our faith in relation to our perceived doctrine we have been taught, do we contend for the faith, or are we earnestly contending for the doctrine?
Is our doctrine dividing the word of God or does our doctrine “rightly divide” the word of truth which leads to “contending for the faith?”
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. (Jude 1:3)
Jude was illustrating that it really does matter what you believe and we really do not have the
right to simply make up our own doctrine or to apply our own personal, private interpretation to
Scripture simply because that makes our own theology work out. But Jude and all of the other men
whom God used to pen down sacred Scripture taught that we must work very hard; we must be diligent; we must struggle in order to get the Gospel right.
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (2 Corinthians 13:5)
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: (1 Peter 2:2)
If we realize that being 'born again" is the beginning and we drink milk, the truth is that we should grow and mature enough to start eating solid food. Being "born again" is the start of a new life, not finishing point because we have our ticket punched for eternal life.
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. (Hebrews 5:12)
But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. (Galatians 6:4)
This thread is to prove our own doctrine in relation to all scripture by “rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)
So as we examine our faith in relation to our perceived doctrine we have been taught, do we contend for the faith, or are we earnestly contending for the doctrine?
Is our doctrine dividing the word of God or does our doctrine “rightly divide” the word of truth which leads to “contending for the faith?”