Charles Spurgeon Commentary 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." — Jude 1:3 (ASV)

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 you should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints.

These godly men, though they wrote under divine inspiration, yet stirred themselves up so that they might be in a right condition of mind and heart. Even though the pen does not by itself write, it is well that it not be corroded, lest it not respond to the hand that uses it; so Jude says, I gave all diligence to write unto you. All the diligence of Jude by itself could not have written this Epistle; still, while depending upon divine guidance, he was no mere passive agent, but he gave all diligence to the accomplishment of his task.

Jude wrote of "the common salvation," for there is only one. He was writing a general Epistle, a catholic Epistle, to all sorts of persons all over the world, and he therefore wrote of "the common salvation."

There is only one salvation; there cannot be another. There are some who trouble us, as some troubled the Christians in the apostles' day, by preaching another gospel, which is not another; but there is only one salvation. It was needful, says the apostle, for me to write unto you; and oh, how needful it is still to preach the gospel, and to warn men against defections from it!

Jude continues, It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all (that is the correct rendering) delivered unto the saints.

The faith is not a growth; it is not an evolution. It was once for all delivered to the saints; and the great business of the saints, the holy, the saintly among men, is to defend, if necessary with their lives, the faith once delivered to them.

We are put in trust with the gospel, we are trustees of a divine deposit of invaluable truth; and we must be true to our trust at all costs.

It was needful for Jude to write as he did, for he had further to say—

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 you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints.

In the sense of being once for all given to the saints, the faith of Christians is not a variable quantity. It is not a thing that changes from day to day, as some seem to suppose, vainly imagining that fresh light is bestowed upon each new generation. No, the truth was delivered once for all, it was stereotyped, fixed; and it is for us to hold it fast as God has given it to us.