Podcast Summary: Renewing Your Mind

Episode: The Need to Contend for the Faith
Date: January 13, 2026
Guest Teacher: Jason Holopoulos
Host: Ligonier Ministries

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode centers on the urgent call found in Jude 3–4: Christians are exhorted to "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints," particularly in the face of false teaching and moral laxity within the church. Jason Holopoulos addresses misunderstandings about the tone of Jude’s letter, explains the dangers the early church (and churches today) face, and unpacks what contending for the faith means for individual Christians and the corporate church.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Tone and Purpose of Jude

• Misconceptions about Jude:
  • Holopoulos highlights that many see Jude as harsh or lacking love and grace, but contends,

    "Jude is filled with the love and the grace of Christ and the hope of the gospel. But he’s going to speak a hard word because he’s concerned." (00:00)

• Necessity of Addressing Hard Topics:
  • Sometimes, as teachers and Christians, we must address difficult subject matter out of necessity, not personal preference:

    "There are other texts that are a little harder to preach and have a hard word in them, and yet I still preach them. Why? Because it's necessary." (01:44)

2. Cause of the Letter: False Teaching

• Modern Parallels:
  • Holopoulos draws a poignant parallel between the decline of historic churches in Edinburgh, Scotland and the danger facing Jude’s readers:

    "It also incredibly demoralizes me as I walk through Edinburgh because most of those churches are no longer churches.... It didn't just happen. That's Jude’s concern here, that this could happen to these churches." (04:34)

• Summary of the False Teaching:
  • The heretics in Jude’s day:
    • Perverted grace into sensuality (antinomianism – against the law)
    • Denied Christ’s ultimate authority (independency) (07:01)
• Holopoulos on Antinomianism:
  • True grace leads to a life dedicated to God—not moral laxity:

    "In the Christian life, the law leads us to grace and the grace of Christ leads us back to the law...I now belong to another." (09:47)

• Holopoulos’s Personal Anecdote:
  • Shares how realizing he is "not my own" changed his conduct as a new Christian, marking the difference between a false and a true gospel (13:35).

3. Denying Christ’s Lordship

• The Error of Independency:
  • Many want Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord:

    "They liked the idea of Christ being their Savior. They didn't want him as their master and Lord...That is not the gospel." (15:16)

• Scripture Referenced:
  • Matthew 11:28–30: Coming to Jesus includes taking His yoke and submitting to Him as Lord. (16:52)

4. Purpose of the Letter: Contend for the Faith

• "Contend for the Faith" Explained:
  • "Contend" translates to agonize, indicating strenuous effort is required to protect "the faith"—the established core of Christian doctrine, not just personal belief:

    "Jude is not speaking about having faith...There's an article there. The [faith], our beliefs." (19:16)

• How Faith Is Perverted:
  • Faith can be corrupted by subtraction (removing essential truths, e.g., denial of the resurrection) or addition (placing extra requirements, e.g., new legalistic demands). Both must be resisted (21:04).
• Motivations for Corruption:
  • The temptation to change "the faith" is often driven by trying to make Christianity more palatable (liberalism) or to withstand perceived threats (legalism):

    "Usually it is because we are trying to make it more palatable in our day and age...This is usually the error of liberalism...There is the other end of the spectrum, though, too, where we...add or we take away because we think the church needs to withstand cultural pressures...This is the era of legalistic fundamentalism." (21:51)

• Finality of the Faith:
  • The faith "once for all delivered to the saints" is not subject to revision. It must be safeguarded and handed on unchanged (23:21).

5. Passing the Faith On

• Guarding for Future Generations:
  • Holopoulos gives a family anecdote, comparing safeguarding the faith to guarding a family secret (his grandfather’s hidden money), except the gospel must not be kept secret but faithfully guarded and passed along (23:36).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the love and urgency in Jude:

  "Jude is filled with the love and the grace of Christ and the hope of the Gospel. But he's going to speak a hard word because he's concerned." (00:00)

• On Christian obedience and antinomianism:

  "I know that I can't do the things that God has prescribed for me. I have inability because of my fallenness in Adam. And so I need grace. He has to call me because I am beloved, right? And now that I am in that grace of Christ, now I am led back to the law, desiring to live according to the law out of thanksgiving and praise and glory to him." (10:10)

• Personal testimony about changed behavior:

  "I remember the thought going through my mind, Jesus would not have me do this. And I put my arm down...I had a smile on my face because I was thinking, I just might be a Christian. I understood I'm not my own. It looks different. There's an ethic that comes with the Christian life. I now belong to another." (13:35)

• On wanting Christ as Savior but not as Lord:

  "They liked the idea of Christ being their Savior. They didn't want him as their master and Lord. And this error is committed over and over and over again throughout church history." (15:19)

• Contending for the faith requires effort:

  "'Contend'...means to agonize over it. You're striving for it, you're fighting for it...There are things that are worth fighting for. There are things worth contending for. And [the faith] is worth fighting for." (19:29)

• The danger of adjusting the faith:

  "It's not a wax nose that you get to shape into the way that you want it to be. It already is. It's once delivered for all." (22:26)

• On the necessity of passing on the faith:

  "It can't be shared if it's not safeguarded. That's his concern...We have to guard it so we can share it so it keeps going on generation after generation after generation. And so our churches, our homes, don't look like Edinburgh today." (23:47)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–01:04 – Introduction: Misunderstandings about Jude’s tone
• 03:17–05:12 – Personal reflections on the state of historic churches in Edinburgh
• 07:01–13:35 – Identification and consequences of false teaching: antinomianism and independency
• 13:35–15:16 – Holopoulos’s personal testimony about "not being my own"
• 15:16–18:00 – On denying Christ’s Lordship, reference to Matthew 11
• 19:16–21:51 – Contend for the faith: definition and practical implications
• 21:51–23:21 – On subtraction/addition to the faith, legalism versus liberalism
• 23:36–24:43 – The analogy of guarding a family treasure, final exhortation

Conclusion

Final rallying call:

"There are things worth contending for. The faith is chief among those things." (24:06)

Holopoulos and the host encourage believers to safeguard the core tenets of Christian faith, passing them on untarnished, and to resist both laxity and legalism. Contending for the faith is an act of love and necessary for the endurance of the church and the gospel from generation to generation.