It is the nature of pragmatism to reduce the task to a single thing. Whether this be ‘to save souls’ or ‘to plant churches’ or to ‘show compassion’, the allure of reductionism is—like the poor—seemingly always with us.
It is perhaps most important for those who strive to be ‘biblical’ and who find an identity marker in the urgent purity of their faith to pause over the multifaceted nature of the task as the biblical materials themselves present.
The letter of Jude is a case in point. In the face of distress and division, Jude counsels his readers to guard the entire communal frontier rather than to set off on any one single-minded campaign:
But you, beloved, must remember the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; for they said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.’ It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on some who are wavering; save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on still others with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.
Jude’s community doesn’t have the luxury of sacrificing the broad life of faith to any single obsession. They must, in a manner of speaking, do it all. Jude is clear that such comprehensive life in the Spirit is empowered by the presence of the Holy Spirit, the love of God, and the mercy of Jesus. It is hardly a secular enterprise.
It knows how to stand with humility and boldness before insistent cries from inside and from outside that the Church dedicate itself to just one thing. To do so might satisfy the spiritual rage of a minority. It would know little of the triune God, little of mercy, even less of love, and nothing of that ‘building up’ that is essential to shared life where these are present.
Canter Bridge 
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