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Contend
by Steve Bussey
Last night at the conclusion of our
meeting at LEAD, Bishop Carolyn Moore shared a word from the
Lord she believed God has for The Salvation Army. The word
was: “CONTEND.”
To contend for the faith.
To contend for the faithfulness of The
Salvation Army.
To contend for the purpose God raised
up our beloved movement.
As I ruminate on this prophetic
challenge, this is what the Lord is saying to me:
In an age of spiritual drift and
cultural compromise, the call to contend for the Church is
more urgent than ever. But this is not a call to quarrel - it
is a summons to agonize, to strive, and to suffer in love for
the Bride of Christ to remain faithful, radiant, and rooted in
the holy love of God.
The New Testament word for “contend” is
ἀγωνίζομαι (agonizomai) - to struggle, strive, or fight. It
evokes the image of an athlete in the arena or a soldier in
battle.
Jude exhorts believers to:
“Contend earnestly for the faith which was
once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 1:3)
This is not passive resistance. It is
active, sacrificial engagement - a holy agony for the Church
to remain true to her calling.
Paul echoes this in Colossians 1:29:
“To this end I strenuously contend with all
the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”
And again in Galatians 4:19:
“My dear children, for whom I am again in
the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you…”
To contend is to labor in love, to
agonize in prayer, and to strive in holiness for the Church to
be what God has called her to be.
The Salvation Army was born in the
crucible of this kind of contending. It was not a movement of
comfort, but of aggressive Christianity - a militant mercy
that refused to let the Church sleep while the world perished.
We are made for war. We are put into
this world to fight. We are called to contend, not to be
content.
A Spirit-filled Church sanctified in
the truth will not be a social club, but a battalion of
holiness, called and committed to storm the gates of hell with
the fire of divine love.
Sadly, much of the church today has
lost her power because she has lost her purity. She has ceased
to contend for the faith and has become content with
formality.
To contend for the body of Christ then
is to refuse spiritual apathy, to reject compromise, and to
wrestle in prayer and proclamation for the Church to be holy,
loving, and alive.
To contend as The Salvation Army is to:
• Agonize in prayer for revival
• Strive in holiness for purity
• Fight in love for the lost
• Labor in truth for the Church
Samuel Logan Brengle teaches about
contending in the fight for faith in his “Helps to Holiness.”
He states:
“Many people say they are fighting the
devil, who do not know what fighting the devil means. It is a
fight of faith, in which the soul takes hold of the promise of
God, and holds on to it, and believes it, and declares it to
be true in spite of all the devil’s lies, in spite of all
circumstances and feelings to the contrary, and in which it
obeys God, whether God seems to be fulfilling the promise or
not. When a soul gets to the point where he will do this, and
will hold fast the profession of his faith without wavering,
he will soon get out of the fogs and mists and twilight of
doubt and uncertainty into the broad day of perfect assurance.
Glory to God!”
Brengle describes a fight of faith that
is:
• SPIRITUAL: Not against flesh and
blood, but against lies, doubts, and spiritual darkness (cf.
Ephesians 6:12).
• PERSISTENT: Holding fast to God’s
promises even when circumstances and feelings contradict them.
• OBEDIENT: Acting in faith regardless
of visible outcomes.
This is the essence of ἀγωνίζομαι
(agonizomai) - to strive, struggle, and wrestle in faith. It’s
not a fight of fists, but of faithfulness. It’s the kind of
contending that refuses to let go of God’s truth, even in the
fog of spiritual warfare.
In an age where the Church is often
tempted to compromise - whether through cultural
accommodation, theological dilution, or spiritual apathy -
Brengle’s words are a clarion call to Salvationists:
1. CONTEND IN FAITH
• Refuse to be swayed by popular
opinion or emotional instability.
• Declare the promises of God as true,
even when they seem delayed or denied.
2. CONTEND IN HOLINESS
• Live lives of purity and obedience,
not just belief.
• Let your life be a testimony that
God’s Word is trustworthy and transformative.
3. CONTEND IN LOVE
• Fight not with bitterness or pride,
but with the burning love of Christ.
• Let your agony for the Church be
rooted in compassion, not condemnation.
4. CONTEND IN COMMUNITY
• Stand together with fellow believers
who are committed to truth and holiness.
• Encourage one another to hold fast
without wavering (Hebrews 10:23).
O God, raise up a generation of
Salvationists who will contend - not with swords, but with
surrender; not with noise, but with nearness; not with
compromise, but with consecration. May we fight the good fight
of faith until the Church shines again with the light of Your
holy love.
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