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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.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

3 needful. The word “needful” connotes a sense of urgency. Jude had been planning to write a straightforward exposition of the doctrines associated with the “common salvation”—that is, the great salvation held in common by all who had been “sanctified,” “preserved,” and “called” (Jude 1). Instead, however, the Holy Spirit constrained and compelled him to write in defense of the faith which even then was under intense Satanic attack.


3 earnestly contend. Used only this once in the New Testament, “earnestly contend” is from the Greek epagonizomai. It was used of athletes intensely agonizing in the grueling training for a coming contest. Jude thus graphically stresses the urgency of defending the faith. Note also Philippians 1:7, 17; I Timothy 6:19-20; II Timothy 4:1-4; Titus 1:9; I Peter 3:15. The defense of the gospel is no indifferent matter, to be left to a few specialists, but one to which all believers should be trained and committed.


3 the faith. “The faith” is not in reference to the simple trust we place in Christ in salvation, but to the entire body of Christian truth as revealed in the Holy Scriptures.


3 once delivered. That is, the faith that was delivered once-for-all to the saints (that is, to all true believers) for guarding and keeping safe. As Paul wrote Timothy: “Keep [that is ‘guard’] that which is committed to thy trust” (I Timothy 6:20).


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