The Study Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write to you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write to you… I. CHRISTIANITY HAS A CREED. There is a body of dogmatic teaching which can be called "the faith," the thing to be believed. Indifference to religious truth is sheer folly, to say the least. Do we allow that it makes no difference what a man thinks on the subject of geology provided he is devoted to his favourite science? Do we say that a man's opinion on a point of law is of no consequence so long as he is sincere in advocating it? Far from it. The question we ask in all these cases is, whether the opinions are correct. We know that truth may be one thing, and what a man thinks to be truth a very different thing. Why, then, should men adopt the opinion that on the subject of religion it is a small matter what a man thinks? II. THIS BODY OF TRUTH IS REVEALED. It was "delivered" — divinely, as we know from other statements of God's Word. It is not a matter of intuition. Intuitions cannot be pleaded in behalf of the common practices of morality even, far less for a complete system of religious faith. It is not a matter of philosophical speculation. It is final, and it is authoritative. It is of great moment to find out exactly what the truth is which has been revealed, for once found we may have a faith which is sure and which binds. III. IT IS A COMPLETE BODY OF TRUTH. It was delivered "once," not once upon a time, but once for all. Nineteenth century sinners are like the sinners of all the preceding centuries, and nineteenth century salvation is the same salvation which Paul preached. IV. IT WAS "DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS." And so has it come down the line of evangelical succession ever since. The Church and the family have been God's appointed agencies for perpetuating and spreading far and wide His truth. Do we despise knowledge which comes to us through the channel of tradition? Is the boy's belief in the earth's figure less real because, instead of a scientific proof of it, he has been told only that it is round like an orange and not flat like a plate? Then why should we undervalue the religious beliefs which multitudes hold because they were taught to hold them, and it has never occurred to them to call them in question or even to verify them. We may trust the Church to act as trustee of the Bible without allowing it to make the Bible, or without accepting doctrines which it teaches outside of the Bible, just as we may trust a servant to go to the druggist to bring some medicine, when we would not allow him to put up the prescription. If, then, the Church is in possession of a definite body of truth — if, moreover, this truth is contained in the Bible — it would seem to follow that any objection to a formulated expression of it is very weak. For the Bible is practically of no use to us unless we are able to impose a meaning on what it says. We have entered into an inheritance of truth because of a pious parentage and a faithful ministry, and we are under solemn obligation to transmit that truth to the coming generation. (The Study.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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