Contending For The Faith
Follow in Faith and in Love
John 13:33-34
33 Little children, I shall be with you a little
while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am
going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you. 34 A new commandment I give
to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also
love one another.
NKJV
All of Scripture is about God&s faithfulness and love. This is the pattern to be followed by His children. We should display the faith in God demand by God&##8;s faithfulness and love. This love should be transferred by us to others. The command to contend for the faith must be carried out in our daily lives.
John writes in his first epistle about the effect of actually seeing, hearing, and walking with Jesus. John&s point is to emphatically demand that all Christians act as the Apostles acted. There were few Christians who could make the claims of the Apostles. But, John says, we should all realize our faith is grounded in Christ. We should believe the Truth of the Gospel.
Then, having understood the Truth, we need to become obedient to this truth. We need to apply the Truth of our Faith to our moral lives, thoughts, and actions. The Truth needs to be incorporated into our daily lives.
This daily application of obedience will result in our reaching out to others in the same love with which God reached out to us. The Gospel is not an abstract religion or philosophy designed to be debated, modified, and further debated. The Gospel is the demand for a fellowship of love with God. This demand is for us to exercise faith in God and believe that Jesus is the Christ, our Lord and Savior. This exercise of faith results in a deep seated desire on our part to please God by becoming obedient to His Word, the deposit of Truth. This obedience will affect our personal moral views and will result in an outreach to others in love. The goal of this outreach is not to earn credits in our ledger accounts. The goal is to bring glory to God by drawing others to Christ.
Jesus Himself taught us this entire process of becoming obedient and reaching out in love is only accomplished under the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the last point of Paul&s outline. But first, Paul discussed contending for the faith, or as the Apostle puts it, guarding the deposit of truth.
