³ Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I was compelled to write to you [urgently] appealing that you ^[a]fight strenuously for [the defense of] the faith which was once for all ^[b]handed down to the saints [the faith that is the sum of Christian belief that was given verbally to believers].

¹² Fight the good fight of the faith [in the conflict with evil]; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and [for which] you made the good confession [of faith] in the presence of many witnesses.