The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Jude 1:3, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

I won’t ask if you’ve ever started a task and then abandond it in favor of another one. It would be my guess that we’ve all done that –maybe more than once. So, it’s not surprising that we would encounter a biblical writer who did the same.

Jude was intending to write to believers about the “common salvation” they all had. I won’t speculate on what he intended to write because I simply don’t know. Nor do I know what Jude’s believer-friends needed to understand. Whatever the situation, they needed to be encouraged to “contend earnestly

for the faith.”

What we do know is that Jude sensed that these believers needed to more earnestly to “contend for the faith.” Friberg’s Analytical Greek Lexicon translates the word contend (????????????, epagonizomai) as “strenuous effort” or “struggle” on behalf of the Christian faith. That doesn’t tell us everything Jude felt those believers needed, but it does tell us that they were letting up a bit in their evangelistic endeavor.

They were a lot like us: they were just too comfortable. They had other “pressing matters” that were

demanding (and getting) their attention. Are you like that? Am I? We need to take inventory of just

how eager and enthusiastic and serious we are in reaching others for Jesus Christ! We need to remember that He is what it’s all about. We can dig deeply in the Word (and we should); we can become zealously active in the Church (and we should); we can give monitarily to home and foreign missions enterprizes (and we should). But what about our personal witness? What about our love for Him that compels us to share His salvation story?

I know we’re currently under a worldwide pandemic. But, that is all the more reason for us to reach

out to others. Some are worried beyond belief! They are facing the prospect of contamination, possibly

death. They’re thinking more seriously about eternity.

Jude was right in being concerned for the believers in his time. We should be concerned for those in

our time! Develop a strategy: use email, Gospel tracts, general conversation that includes Jesus…

It’s not yet too late, but it’s getting that way. What’s more, Jesus’ return is closer today than it was

last week. Let’s do it –for His glory!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”