I must confess I did not pay much attention to the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude (which is today) until I resided at Pusey House during Michaelmas Term 2018. It then struck me how the day is a fitting harbinger of All Saints Day, a favorite holy day of mine.
Last night, I was struck all the more what a fitting harbinger this day is for the Feast of All Saints when I read the Epistle of St. Jude. Early in it he writes:
…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. (v. 3)
Note that the epistle is addressed “to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.” So he is writing to all church people, both clergy and laity, not just church leaders.
Hence it is the responsibility of all of God’s people, of all the saints, to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
And judging from the rest of the epistle, Jude did not want the people to be all that nice about it. “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (v. 4) And Jude was just getting warmed up about false teachers.
Recent history illustrates that Jude was right that it is the responsibility of all God’s people to contend for the faith and put down false teachers. I’ve long stated that a big reason most of the mainline denominations have gone to Hell is because people in the pews did not put their feet down and say, “NO!”
Yes, clergy have a heightened responsibility to hold each other accountable. But should the laity rely on clergy to police clergy? NO.
A weakness of modern Anglicanism is that the laity can be shy about calling out false teaching. Don’t be. Follow the good exhortation and good example of St. Jude and “contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
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