The Good Fight

NIV 1 Timothy 6:12  Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses

Today, I was finishing up a sermon from 1 Timothy chapter 6 that I'm going to share on Father's Day in just a few weeks.  I was looking at verse 12 and just fell under great conviction from the Holy Spirit. 

For good reason the Christian life is often referred to as a contest or a battle.   Just this week I was speaking to a friend in ministry who was relating the difficulties of the past few weeks.  We were discussing the real possibility of the things that he faced being a spiritual attack.  For those of us in ministry spiritual attacks are common.  However, I would also think that spiritual attacks are real, no matter who we are or what walk of life we journey down.

This passage describes a person who is straining and giving their best to win a prize of battle.  It is my desire that I give my best years to Jesus, that my best effort and my best energy are offered up.  God desires the majority of my time, effort, and my resources for the kingdom to which I serve. 

The word fight means to agonize.  {i wish it were easy, but it is not}  It describes concentration, discipline and conviction. It requires great determination and commitment.  This is a personal battle that I take on but it is also a cooperate battle that we are fellow believer’s together engage.    This word fight, is a present middle imperative, that doesn't mean anything to those who speak only English, and it means very little to most of us who have an elementary understanding of Greek, but from what I can tell here's what this word means: I make the choice to “fight the good fight.” God does not make me fight the good fight.  It is a personal choice that I make.  This speaks of a noble cause, an excellent campaign worthy of my time and devotion.  The object of the fight is the extension of God’s kingdom! 

To be transparent, I must confess that in my heart I battle against self-apathy, and cynicism.  I have often encountered lethargic believers, and apathetic church members.  And daily I fight to keep the right mindset, and the correct concentration to determine to do what is good and right before the Lord. 

The faith referred to in verse 12 is the Christian truth and the content of the word of God!   Who is to wage this war?  The Bible says “to which you were called.”  What do you mean, Paul?  This is the call of Salvation.  So, believers are to enter into battle.  {See what Paul said in Ephesians 6:10-20} All of us were lost and headed for a devils hell and God in His, sovereignty, reached out to you and to me.  The only reason we think about God, is because God thought about us.  He initiated it all.   I did not choose Him, but rather He chose me first!  I like what Adrian Rogers used to say: “God chose me so that I could choose him.”

You have a choice to make today, as did I. Are we going to get in this fight of fights?  Will we wage war on the enemy?   {Many of us will play it safe today} Are we determined not to give up?  {So many in the pew and the pulpit are about to give up} I do not want to become a POW in this spiritual war!    Today, let us pray and ask God to provide within each of us a determination to take hold of the eternal purposes to which we have been called.  This phrase in verse 12, “ to which you were called”  Paul uses a different tense here in the Greek's, an aorist passive, which means God called this to be.  There  was a time When God spoke.   The fact that it is in the aorist means that the effect of this call is still effective.   I praise the Lord today that God has called, and his callings still have an effect on my life, in the present tense of my life. 

Through the years people have asked me,  “Do you believe in the internal security of the believer?”  Yes I do!  I love what Paul said in  NIV Romans 11:9, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.”

I was called by God and in his grace I responded to the gift of salvation.  As I study the Bible I have learned that his callings and gifts have an eternal present impact on my life!  Let me tell you today what I struggle with:  it is when people use that eternal security, as a clause to get away with iniquity harbored in the heart.    When people claim to be called but there's never any effect of those callings, I stand concerned.  My Bible tells me that when God calls, his callings affect you!

As Paul told Timothy, may we live out the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.