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.

It hath been thought by some, (and I see no reason to disprove it), that Jude, when he found his mind first directed to write to the Church, intended to have followed the same course as the other Apostles had done, Paul and James; and to have spoken of the common salvation. He had in view, to have dwelt principally upon those subjects which related to the Person, and glory, and offices, of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that he found his mind over-ruled by the Holy Ghost, to state rather to the Church, the things which belonged to the latter day apostacy; and, in bringing before them the striking difference between God's chosen and reprobates, he might exhort them earnestly to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. Whether this conjecture be right or not, I will not determine; but very certain it is, that the whole burden of this blessed Epistle is directed to this one purpose, in drawing the line, between the faithful and the ungodly. For, from the end of this verse, to the end of the nineteenth verse, (Jude 1:3) the Apostle only speaks of the mockers of the last times, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts, and whose characters were of old ordained to this condemnation, being separate from the Lord's own people, sensual, and having not the Spirit. So that, if we take the Epistle into one view, after the exordium, from this verse to the end, the Apostle treats but of the two distinct classes of people; namely, the reprobate, whose features of character he draws at large; and the lord's people, who are sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. To these latter, the Apostle, in a very blessed and affectionate manner addresseth himself, and closeth the Epistle. We will follow the Apostle through both.

But, before we go further, I would beg the reader to consider, with me, what a strength of argument is in this verse, for every child of God to regard, what Jude saith of this holy, and earnest contention, for the faith once delivered to the saints. What that faith is, the New Testament, in the inspired writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles, most plainly, and fully shew. The great and leading doctrines of the Gospel, in the everlasting love of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, more or less, are in every page. The Person, glory, blood shedding, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, with redemption only in his blood, and regeneration only by God the Holy Ghost; these are the bottom, and foundation of all our mercies. To contend for these, and with earnestness, is to contend for the very life of our souls. An indifferency, or coldness to the open profession of these glorious truths in ourselves, or to the denial of them in others, is wounding the Redeemer, in the house of his friends. It is high treason to the Majesty of God. It is traitorously admitting the enemy into our citadel. I leave the reader to his own thoughts, how far the present day is awfully marked with this character; when the general, yea, I had almost said, the universal plan of professors, is to coalesce, and not suffer mere points of doctrine, as they are called, to interrupt the common philanthrophy of the times. What the Apostle Jude would have said, had he lived to have seen it, may be easily gathered from his earnest exhortation in this verse! And what God the Spirit, the Almighty Minister in his Church, always watching over it, shall judge, cannot be difficult to conceive.