{"id":352,"date":"2012-01-24T06:35:47","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T11:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/?p=352"},"modified":"2012-01-24T06:35:47","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T11:35:47","slug":"how-do-we-contend-for-the-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/how-do-we-contend-for-the-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"How should we &#8220;Contend for the Faith&#8221;?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe servant of the Lord must not strive.\u201d When I first began to consider the implications of 2 Tim 2:24 to <a title=\"Should Believers Debate?\" href=\"http:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/?p=342\">debate as a mode of teaching<\/a>, I immediately thought of Jude\u2019s exhortation to his readers:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Jud 1:3 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 <em>you <\/em><strong>that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Doesn\u2019t this exhortation imply that we should boldly confront those who teach error?<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nJude 1:3 is the only instance of the Greek word translated \u201ccontend\u201d (\u03b5\u03c0\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03bd\u03b9\u03b6\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9) in the Greek Bible. The word does describe a struggle, but Jude does not identify the adversary with whom one struggles.<\/p>\n<p>The simple form of the verb, \u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03bd\u03b9\u03b6\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9, does occur frequently in the NT. Elsewhere in Greek literature it often describes a wrestling between two human adversaries, as in an athletic competition (compare 1 Cor 9:25, where Paul compares himself with an athlete). Our Lord uses it in this sense, but only to explain to Pilate that this is <em>not <\/em>to be the practice of his followers:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Joh 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants <strong>fight<\/strong>, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In other NT references, the verb describes strenuous exertion, without any sense of conflict between people:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lk. 13:24 \u201c<strong>strive<\/strong> to enter in at the strait gate\u201d\n<\/li>\n<li>Col. 1:29 \u201cI also labor, <strong>striving<\/strong> according to his working, which worketh in me mightily\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Col 4:12 \u201claboring<strong> fervently<\/strong> for you in prayers\u201d\n<\/li>\n<li>1 Tim. 6:12 \u201c<strong>fight<\/strong> the good fight of faith\u201d<\/li>\n<li>2 Tim. 4:7 \u201cI have <strong>fought<\/strong> a good fight\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We are indeed in a conflict, but not with other people, as Paul teaches the Ephesians: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Eph 6:12 For we <strong>wrestle not against flesh and blood<\/strong>, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high <em>places<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We can expect to exert every bit of our energy in this spiritual combat. Jude is right: we must struggle for the faith. And there is an adversary: we wrestle against the forces of evil. But this does not justify using the world\u2019s methods, or viewing people as our adversaries. In fact, Paul reminds the Corinthians,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>2Co 10:3-4 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 For the weapons of our warfare <em>are <\/em>not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Epaphroditus in Col 4:12 gives us a good example of wielding these weapons, \u201claboring fervently \u2026 in prayers.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Jude tells us of our attitude and duty toward <em>evil<\/em>. Paul\u2019s exhortation in 2 Tim 2:24 concerns the <em>people<\/em> whom we engage. We are to hate evil, but treat people, even those who are ensnared by the devil, in a spirit of humility, patience, and gentleness, not one of combat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe servant of the Lord must not strive.\u201d When I first began to consider the implications of 2 Tim 2:24 to debate as a mode of teaching, I immediately thought of Jude\u2019s exhortation to his readers: Jud 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-debate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2MwJP-5G","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyber-chapel.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}