1950 This Means Everlasting Life - A2Z.org

PUTTING UP A HARD FIGHT 185
When once we have established by God's written
Word what is the "common faith" originally
delivered to the Christian congregation, what
must we do? Well, if we are finally to make our
salvation sure, we must now put up a hard fight
for it, for the same reason that Jude stressed
in his letter. Telling us his reason for not writing
to describe the "salvation we hold in common", he
said : "My reason is that certain men have slipped
in who have long ago been appointed by the Scriptures
to the judgment described below, ungodly
men, turning the undeserved kindness of our God
into an excuse for loose conduct and proving false
to our only Owner and Lord, Jesus Christ . . . .
these men, too, indulging in dreams, are defiling
the flesh and disregarding lordship and speaking
abusively of glorious ones . . . . all the things they
do understand naturally like the unreasoning animals,
in these things they go on corrupting themselves
."-Jude 4-10, NW.
8 Putting up a hard fight for the faith means not
only holding fast with our minds the things taught
us from God's Word . It also means resisting corruption
and sincerely applying God's teachings to
our daily lives that the way of the truth may not
be reproached and spoken of abusively . Our lives
must harmonize with the things which our minds
and hearts believe and accept and which our
mouths confess . If we do not practice what we
7. After ascertaining the faith, what must we do? For
what reason?
S . What does putting up a hard fight for this faith
mean?