Jude’s original topic of consideration changed. “Our common salvation” is a wonderful topic to consider. It is beneficial to discuss and ponder our “like precious faith” (2 Peter 1:1) and its eventual reward. By such conversation we are edified, and encouraged. But what if we lose the hope of such salvation?

Being deceived and falling from grace are legitimate threats. This is what Jude had in mind when his topic changed. It is appropriate to discuss “our common salvation,” but when that salvation is threatened by false teachers we must contend for that which has produced the salvation in us – “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

There were false teachers, “ungodly men,” who had “crept in unnoticed.” Jude knew if none assumed the mantel of contending for the faith their salvation could be lost. So he commanded his entire audience to defend that for which Christ died. We must do so as well, knowing that those who condone, compromise with, teach, and follow false doctrine are “marked out for…condemnation.”