What is "the most holy faith" (Jude 20)?

"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith." This is the only place in all the New Testament where faith is called our "most holy faith." It might have been thought that when things are so evidently wrong we must not be too stringent, that we must not be too exacting, that we must not look for such care as on the day of Pentecost. Why, so far from that being so, we require more care. And instead of its being now called merely the holy faith, or precious faith, Jude calls it, "your most holy faith." The saints, in short, are encouraged to cleave to the truth in all its sanctifying power. We cannot think too much of "the faith of God's elect." I am not speaking now of faith looked at in the saint, but of "the faith" looked at in itself. It is the thing that we believe, which is the meaning of it here. It is not crying up individuals, but what these individuals receive from God. That is what he calls it — "the faith." There is a great difference between faith and "the faith." Here it is "the faith." Faith is a quality of you, and me, and every believer. But that is not the sense here, which is, "the faith once delivered to the saints," as he says in this very Epistle.

Well, thus you must look at it. When it came, you may say, It came down from God out of heaven, revealed through the apostles — Christ Himself of course in particular. There, was "the faith ": what we are called to believe; that which separated us to God from everything here below. So here, we have the same faith, only — it is not now said, "once for all delivered to the saints," although this remains true. Here it is called "most holy." What! has it not got tainted? Has it not got lowered now? Woe to those that say so! "The faith" is just the same faith now as on the day of Pentecost, the same faith that Peter preached, and also Paul, and all others of the apostles. And we have Peter and Paul, i.e. we have their words. We have the most careful words they ever spoke. We have the words that they were inspired to write from God. We do not therefore merely listen, as some of the early fathers talk about a man that saw the apostle and heard the apostle; and it appears that the man that did so was a poor foolish old man! Very likely. Well, and what have you got by putting a poor foolish old man between you and the apostle? Little or nothing. But Peter and Paul and Jude were not foolish, and whatever they may have been in themselves, there was the mighty power of the Holy Ghost Who gave them the truth of God absolutely intact; and here it is His word now, and we come into personal contact with it by faith. We that believe receive that "most holy faith," and what is more, we are called, every one, to act upon it now.

And what are we to do with it? It is not only that we impart it to others, we "build up ourselves on our most holy faith." Nothing, therefore, can give a more delightful picture of the resources of grace for as bad a time as can well be conceived as what we have here. "Ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith"; it is not to be on a little bit of the faith, not on the faith that was given to you through the intervention of a poor foolish old man. No, here it is, fresh from God, kept fresh and holy, unmixed with anything that could lower it.

We are living in apostate times; when those who take the name of Christ, alas, are using it in any way but for His glory, have any desire but for His glory. We are living in such dark times that we might easily be discouraged. But listen: "Ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." How beautiful! I am surrounded by apostasy; what am I to do? Keep myself in the love of God. I am surrounded by those who are trusting in their own pride and strength; what am I to do? Pray in the Holy Ghost. I am surrounded by those who deny the very foundations of Christianity; what am I to do? Build up myself on my most holy faith. That verse is often misquoted. People say, build up yourself in your most holy faith, as if the faith was something in us, to be strengthened and built up in. That is not the thought. We are to build up ourselves on that solid, holy foundation of the faith, the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. That is the faith. We cannot strengthen that, but we can strengthen ourselves upon that. We are to be established upon it in days of apostasy. That brings us again to the precious word of God, which is the only thing that will establish us upon that solid foundation.

First, we are to build ourselves up on our most holy faith. Note the wording carefully. It does not say that we are to build up the faith. We have already seen in the Epistle that the faith is committed to us as a perfect and completed thing. It needs no building up: we can add nothing to it. It is we who need the building up. We may have received the faith, and taken our stand upon it in faith. That is the right and true beginning, but we must not stop at that point; we need to be built up on it so that it becomes our very life. We can never be too fully instructed in it or too solidly established on it. Jude speaks of it as "most holy." We have not got today a most holy place as Israel had of old: we have instead a most holy faith. It is not to be trespassed upon or tampered with. None shall do so with impunity. Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Let us recall at this point that the main burden of the Epistle is that we should earnestly contend for the faith. Our being built up on it is undoubtedly a prerequisite for this. Some folk, who love a fight for its own sake, would rush into conflict on behalf of a cause which they understand but imperfectly, if at all. But this is not to be the way of the called ones who are beloved in God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ. The faith must be the basis on which we are built up before it becomes the banner for which we fight. And the more we are really built up on it, the more we shall be morally and spiritually equipped to enter into the conflict.

It is remarkable that the only occasion in which the words “most holy” are used in the New Testament is in giving its character to our Faith, not, of course, to its subjective power as an inward quality, but to the common belief which, as Christians, we profess. The truth which, as a system, we have received from God is (mark the word) “most holy”. It is “the faith once delivered to the saints” and for which we are commanded to contend earnestly (see Jude 3, 20).

When we seize the fact that this faith is esteemed by God as “most holy” we cannot fail to regard it as a treasure of supreme value.

It should be a daily question as to how much we are occupied in building ourselves up on our most holy faith. We all know as regards our bodies the need of continual cleansing, taking in frequent supplies of nourishment, protecting ourselves from bad external influences, and of availing ourselves of seasonable refreshment and comfort. But what about our souls? Are we hating the garment spotted by the flesh? Are we carefully seeking to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, and purposing not to touch the unclean thing? Is self-judgment before God habitual with us, because we exercise ourselves to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward man? Do we go to the word of eternal truth morning by morning; read, meditate on it in dependence on the Spirit; pray over it, and take it in as food for the renewal of our inner man? Do we hide the word of God in our hearts that we may not sin against Him? Do we thus have to do with "God, and the word of His grace," which is able to build us up, and throughly furnish us unto all good works?" Do we seek in this way to gather strength, so that faith may grow, love abound, and hope be increasingly brightened? If so, then it may be that we are building up ourselves on our most holy faith. And we may be quite sure that those who are building up themselves will greatly value being built up by others, and be profited by their divinely-given ministrations.

Moreover, this exhortation as to building ourselves up, occurring in Jude, seems to carry with it a loud voice to such as, in these last days, have taken the way of faith in a day of evil; for Jude traces the ruin of the Church from its commencement, leaving it as God's corporate witness on earth going on to judgment, without the smallest hope of reconstruction, or of general recovery; and, at the close, he addresses himself to such as are standing for God in this time of declension and failure. He says, "Ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith." A people true to the Lord in an evil time are thus recognized, and called to be diligent in building up themselves. The faith too is not spoken of here, as at the beginning of this brief epistle, as "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints," but as "your most holy faith." Yes, it is that divine revelation of truth which specially refers to us. It is your faith, and it is "most holy." It is not merely that we should be holding a set of principles or doctrines; but taking into our hearts the ministry of the exceeding riches of divine grace, the actings of divine righteousness, and the almightiness of divine power, which are to usward in the death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification of Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to abide with us for ever. We are thus delivered from the authority of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love, and by the Spirit united to Him where He now is. A work has been wrought by Him who not only died for our sins, but died to sin, which has set us free for ever from the guilt of sins, and also from the dominion of sin; has delivered us from our old standing in Adam, and has made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus - we are thus brought into a totally new position - in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins; so that now, in Christ Jesus, we who some time were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ, brought into favour in the Beloved, and blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ; so that we are always before God in the cloudless favour, nearness, and acceptance of Christ. Brought into relationship with the Father as His children, with Christ as members of His body, and with the Holy Ghost as His temple, our fellowship by the Spirit is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. The nature of God being now revealed in light and love, we walk in the light as He is in the light, where His eternal redemption has brought us. How true it is that we have received abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness, and shall reign in life with Christ.

Even the knowledge of the Scriptures will not avail apart from state of soul; and thus there is another thing to which Jude points. After reminding those to whom he was writing of the correspondence between present corruptions and the apostolic predictions, he says, "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." It is to this he summons every believer who desires to be outside of prevalent errors and moral corruptions, to be in the mind of God, and to be dwelling in the holy circle of His love, even while treading the pilgrim path, awaiting eternal life in its full fruition according to His eternal counsels. And the first thing to which He exhorts us is to be edifying ourselves. The foundation has already been laid in the revelation of God in Christ: in His death, resurrection, and exaltation at the right hand of God - in the truths of Christianity; these it is which constitute our "most holy faith," that is, the things which we have believed. But we cannot rest there; we are to go on to build up ourselves on the foundation. The apostle Paul speaks in a similar manner in the presence of errors of another kind: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk ye in Him: rooted and built up [being built up] in Him, and stablished in the faith," etc. (Col. 2:6-7.) To remit diligence, therefore, in self-edification is to expose ourselves to the subtle dangers of error of every kind. As Nehemiah's safety lay alone, when surrounded with enemies without and traitors within, in straining every nerve to build up the walls of Jerusalem, so ours will consist in diligent attention to our spiritual nourishment, edification, and growth through feeding upon the Word of God in the power of the Spirit.

As in so many places in Scripture, edification is connected with prayer. Building yourselves up - "praying in the Holy Ghost." This is of all moment for every believer; for if the study of, and meditation upon, the Word of God be carried on apart from praying in the Holy Ghost, there will be no real profit or edification. Light may be increased, but light without power will only tend to self-exaltation. It cannot be too earnestly pressed that a state of soul (and state of soul is acquired through that realised dependence which expresses itself in prayer) is absolutely necessary for being built up on our most holy faith. Neglect of this is a fruitful source of danger, as may be often seen in the case of some who give themselves to the pursuit after light without watchfulness over their spiritual condition. Such souls are an easy prey to Satan, and their fall into his temptations becomes a warning to every passing pilgrim. The apostolic admonition should, therefore, be very seriously heeded by those who desire to be acceptable to the Lord. Combined with "praying in the Holy Ghost" is, "keep yourselves in the love of God." Indeed, these are not separate exhortations, but each clause of these two verses forms part of the whole state required: that is, it is a fourfold expression of the spiritual condition requisite to repel the evil influences around. The word "keep," in the clause now under consideration, is in a past tense, and its meaning is, Be in that state, or, have yourselves kept in the love of God. This - the love of God, that love which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us - is to be the atmosphere and home of our souls, that holy circle in which we are to live and move and have our being, a circle into which no enemy can intrude, and where all is light, life, calm, and blessing.

We cannot rightly contend for the faith unless we are building up ourselves in our most holy faith. We are not called to build ourselves up in all the different forms which evil may assume. We shall not be able to resist error by simply having an acquaintance with error. We can only meet error as we are built up in the truth. Moreover, our faith is a "most holy faith." So that in being built up in the faith we are not only gaining a deeper acquaintance with the truth, but we are increasingly wrought upon by the truth. It has a holy, sanctifying effect upon our souls, leading to a greater separation from the evil by which we are surrounded (John 17:17). Furthermore, Jude has linked up with "building" the importance of

THE FAITH is at times referred to in the sense of 'the truth;' that which has been recorded, and which the Christian has believed, to the saving of his soul. For this the Christian should contend earnestly; for it is fundamental; and many false prophets are gone into the world, and have even crept into association with the saints unawares. Jude 3.

Further let us note that the faith for which we have to contend is the faith "once delivered to the saints." The word "once" has the force of "once for all" (See R.V.). It admits of no addition, no modification, and no development. There is no fresh communication of truth to the saints. It has been delivered to them once for all. We may have much to learn about the truth. God may grant fresh light upon the truth already revealed, and we should grow in our apprehension of it. But the truth itself has been once for all delivered to the saints. And for this we are to contend. Not the truth held in measure by the Fathers, or handed down by tradition, or crystallized by the creeds, or obscured by faulty teaching, but the faith once delivered to the saints in the very form in which it was delivered.

Well, now we come to a very comforting word. "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in [the] Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in [the] love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto life eternal" (vers. 20, 21).

So then we are not to be cast down, we are not to be disheartened, even by these terrible pictures of evil. They are revealed in order that we should not be deceived, that we may really know what the actual state of Christianity is before the eye of God, instead of yielding to false expectations and wrong and imperfect judgments of our own. But even in the face of all that, there is this call to these beloved saints to build up themselves on their most holy faith. This is very carefully worded. There is nothing at all said in this Epistle about leaders, or guides, or rulers, or preachers, or teachers either. In a general way, as far as there were any, they have a very bad character, not of course that all who preached or taught were so, but that there were many of this class that were so especially. The saints themselves are here exhorted directly.