Jude 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 you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
God commands the believer to earnestly contend for the faith. We often use this verse as a rallying cry to fight for the faith, and using this verse in this manner is not wrong. We need believers who have a backbone to be willing to fight for the faith. If you are not willing to fight for the faith, then the faith will soon become a bother to your worldly way of life.
However, to contend for the faith also means to compete for it. When a person is in contention for something, they are competing for something. For instance, we will say that someone is in contention to win the championship, which means they are contending for the championship of that sport. The believer should be contending or competing for the faith. We ought to contend so the faith wins. One reason the faith is not influencing many in our day is because of so few believers who are contending to be sure the faith wins over worldliness and worldly philosophies. It ought to be that believers contend for the faith so that the world sees the faith as something worthy of having in their lives.
If we are contending for the faith it means we are competing against someone. Certainly, we are competing against the world and its philosophies when we contend for the faith, but there is a greater opponent that we compete against. The greatest opponent you should compete against is yourself. In other words, compete to make sure you are doing better than what you have done before. Your greatest competition is you. I may not compare to another’s abilities, but I don't have to compare because I am competing against myself. I may be better or bigger than another, but if I compete against myself, I won't look down on those who are not doing as much as I am doing. Therefore, I am bettering myself when I compete against myself. There are two areas where you should contend for the faith against yourself.
First, contend against your earnestness for the faith. You should contend for your intensity for Christ to be greater the longer you serve Him. Your passion for Christ should not lessen the longer you are saved, but it should increase. Sadly, the intensity of most believers continually cools year by year, only to see them doing nothing by the end of their lives. Your earnestness for Christ should grow as you grow in grace. It is easy for your earnestness to grow because the more you know Christ, the more you will love Him.
Second, contend against your diligence for the faith. Are you as diligent about getting the Gospel out and teaching others the faith as you have been in the past? Your diligence to do more for God should get greater the longer you serve Him. When you are diligent for the faith, your vision for what you want to do for Christ will become greater. When you are diligent for the faith, you will always want to do more for the faith than what you have ever done in the past.
Are you contending for the faith? Better yet, are you contending for the faith against yourself? When you compete against yourself is when you will find your earnestness for the faith continue to grow, and your diligence to do more for God to increase. Competing against yourself and not others will help you to do more for God without hurting others to get there.
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