Jude 1:3

Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.

While I was giving all diligence ... means that Jude was actually engaged in writing a treatise on "our common salvation." For possible reasons why this might have been overruled by God, see in the introduction.

Common salvation ... This has the meaning of the salvation which is offered to all people alike, upon the same conditions, from the same source, and entailing the same obligations. This salvation is not common in the sense of being ordinary, being on the other hand the most precious treasure ever made available to the sons of earth.

I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you ... Not further instructions, but exhortation to heed the truth already received was the great requirement of the day; and Jude accepted the challenge. As to the incident that might have led to this change in his plans, we are not told; but it may be surmised that news from churches in which he was vitally interested might have been the decisive factor.

Beloved ... The only other example of a New Testament book beginning with this particular word is 3 John 1:1:2. "As Jude's subject was a very unpleasant one, he hastens to assure his readers of his affection for them, to prevent his strong language from offending them."[5]

Exhorting you to contend earnestly ... There are very important deductions which are mandatory in such a declaration, the first being the possibility of apostasy. As Mayor put it, "It is possible (as shown by the following examples) for spiritual blessings once given to be lost unless we use every effort to maintain them."[6] Another deduction is that hostility to the truth exists and will continue to exist throughout history. What is meant is that Christians shall vigorously fight for and defend the truth. Barclay pointed out that the Greek word used here "contains the root of our English word agony. The defense of the faith may well be a costly thing; but that defense is a duty which falls on every generation of the church."[7]

For the faith ... What is this? We reject the notion of some, like that of Dummelow, to the effect that the faith as used here applies merely to the fact "that our common salvation is the work of Christ."[8] While true enough as far as it goes, much more than that is meant here. "It means that alone which is contained in the Bible."[9] "It means the sum of that which Christians believe."[10] "The faith here implies a recognized body of teaching such as we know emerged from Peter's early sermons."[11] Therefore, Caton is correct in including in the meaning all of the basic New Testament requirements of faith, repentance, confession, and baptism into Christ of all who would be saved initially, and the ethical, moral and religious obligations of Christians, including their faithful observance of the Lord's Supper, along with the reception and cherishing of the earnest of the Holy Spirit, as necessarily manifested in their subsequent lives.[12]

Here again, in the New Testament usage of faith, it means, as so frequently in other New Testament passages, as Alford put it: "Faith means the faith which is believed, not the faith by which we believe."[13]

Once for all delivered ... The use of the Greek word [hapax] carries the meaning of "once only and forever." The gospel delivered to mankind was not a piecemeal revelation, "here a little and there a little" as in the Old Testament, but the full message in its entirety and completeness as delivered through Christ to the apostles. The word ([Greek: hapax]) is the same as in such New Testament expressions as "appointed to man once to die," "Christ offered himself once," etc. See fuller comment on this word in my Commentary on Hebrews, p. 164. Russell's comment on this phrase was: "The gospel was delivered not in part, but as a complete whole."[14]

There is hardly any other message of the New Testament that has greater relevance for our own times than this. The revelation of Christ through the apostles is complete, inviolate, sufficient, eternal, immutable, and not subject to any change whatever. Jesus made his sayings to be the dogmatic foundation of Christianity as evident in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:24-25) and in the great commission (Matthew 28:18-20). People who desire to know God, walk in the light, have eternal life, etc., should heed such passages as 2 John 1:1:9, always remembering that the truth was "first spoken by the Lord" (Hebrews 2:3), and that all of those religious doings which cannot pass the test of having been "first" spoken by Jesus Christ should be rejected.

[5] Alfred Plummer, op. cit., p. 508.

[6] J. B. Mayor, Expositor's Greek New Testament, Vol. V (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 255.

[7] William Barclay, The Letters of John and Jude (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p. 179.

[8] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 1063.

[9] James MacKnight, MacKnight on the Epistles, Vol. VI. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, reprint, 1969), p. 191.

[10] Delbert R. Rose, op. cit., p. 428.

[11] David H. Wheaton, op. cit., p. 1275.

[12] N. T. Caton, Commentary on the Epistles of James, Peter, John and Jude (Delight, Arkansas: Gospel Light Publishing Company, 1897), p. 202.

[13] Delbert R. Rose, a quotation from Alford, op. cit., p. 432.

[14] James William Russell, Compact Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1964), p. 612.