Faith of our Fathers

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was necessary for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Jd.3

When talking about faith of our fathers, we are talking about something that has gone through several generations before getting to us. We are talking of something that have been tested, proved and found to be of great benefits and values. We are talking about what men and women at various generations and times have laboured to protect, believe and guide. Hence it is called the faith of our fathers.

In every generation, there are things that people hold in high esteem. It may be cultures, traditions, values, lifestyles, habits, materials, skills, trades, etc that are being preserved by passing from one generation to the other. The same way, there is a faith that was 'once' delivered to the saints.

Please note the word once. It was once delivered to the saints several years and generations away. And the fact that it has been delivered years ago does not make it change or different. It is still the same and has not lost its face value.

It is an error to think that the faith that the saints in the Bible practiced was different from our own. It is great an error to even think that faith is a function of our cultural or traditional believes. The Bible is not the English man's culture. The message of the cross is not the culture of the Jewish people. The faith that was delivered to the saints was devoid of culture, tradition, races, ethnic sentiments and the likes of any country. It was an introduction to a new life: the life of Jesus Christ.

What is faith?

The word faith can be defined as:

- believe, commit unto, commit to (one's) trust one, put in trust with one, believer, to have confidence.

- to trust in Jesus or God as able to and either in obtaining or doing something: saving faith

- to entrust a thing to one i.e. his fidelity

- to be entrusted with a thing

- the character of one who can be relied on

- conviction of the truth of anything.

The fathers did everything possible to ensure that this faith did not die.

And our text in Jd.3 says we should earnestly contend. The only one way to explore this faith is to contend for it.

What does it mean to earnestly contend?

The word "earnestly" means - seek early, diligently search, look steadfastly, fasten (one's) eyes, behold steadfastly without ceasing, fervent.

To "contend" means to - plead the cause, judge, execute, strife, vindicate. Oh my God.

In concluding this short sharing, I like you to examine yourself. 2Cor.13:5. The faith in your hands is it the same with that of Apostle Paul, Elijah, Joseph and the rest of the elders that obtained a good report. Heb.11:2. How are you contending for the faith? A lot of Christians have become disillusioned about the matter of faith.

The faith of Jesus is not what to use in securing inflated contracts and bring the proceed to church as tithes, offerings or seed faith. Otherwise, how do you classify a Christian, worker, pastor that is participating in sharing our common wealth with impunity? These are ungodly men who have infiltrated our camp.