Fight to the Finish

Series on I Timothy

VI Worth

B The Fight of Faith, Text:6:11-16

Title: Fight to the Finish

Introduction

In bold contrast to those who pursue wealth and financial gain, worldly success, and security , Timothy is to pursue virtue. This command does more than merely encourage personal holiness. Timothy is to pursue these virtues as a means to an end, that is, as a part of his commitment to Christ in the service of the gospel. He is a soldier in the army because he has confessed Christ as Savior and Lord. There is no turning back. The pursuit of personal godliness is instrumental to an authentic confession of Christ in the world. Before we dismiss these words as applying only to Timothy or only to pastors and missionaries, note that Paul begins with the title “man of God.” In the Old Testament the term man of God designated a person entrusted with high office. Moses, David and Elijah are called men of God. However, in the New Testament we are plainly taught that we are all prophets, priests and kings as in I Peter 2:9, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Every Christian, then, is a man of God and these words apply to all. in II Timothy 3:16 and 17 Paul uses this designation for all of us, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. How then shall we fight the good fight? it requires action, abiding, and abandon.

I Action

The image or metaphor Paul uses here in verses 11 and 12 reminds us we are to be very active, But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. The Christian faith is a contest or a fight. The opposite of action is being inert, impotent, indifferent and negligent. All of these suggest people who are avoiding responsibility. The idea of fighting is not new here. In chapter one verse 18 Paul uses the same image. This concept compasses and pervades the letter. Everything Paul commands here falls under that description. It is a fight of faith. Fight is the translation of the Greek word from which we get our word agony. This word describes a fight of any kind. It described athletic contests in the New Testament times, and Paul also pictured the Christian life as a race, and as a boxing match or a wrestling match. In fact in II Timothy 4:7 he uses both metaphors describing himself. Here the idea of a race is before us in fleeing greed and quarreling and envy and running after righteousness and godliness, faith, love, hope, and gentleness. A process is in view and accordingly Paul uses the Greek verb tense indicating a continuous action. In every case a contest is in view. The false teachers in Ephesus engage in word battles, but we are to engage in real battles for the sake of the gospel: battles with temptation and sin, battles with falsehood, battles within and without. C.T. Studd said, “When in hand to hand conflict with the world and the devil, neat little Biblical confectionery is like shooting lions with a peashooter: one needs a man who will let himself go and deliver blows right and left as hard as he can hit, trusting in the Holy Ghost.”

II Abiding

The next thing Paul says is to arm us for the fight, He says take hold or get a firm grip on eternal life in verses 12 and 14, Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He changes the tense of the verb here in verse 12. He is no longer talking about a continuous action as in fighting the good fight, but about an event that stands by itself independent of time. We might paraphrase his words as “Realize fully the eternal life to which you were decisively called by Jesus through the Holy Spirit and realize fully all the implications of the confession that you made in the presence of many witnesses.” Paul is reminding us that when we publicly confess Christ, as everyone does who joins this church, we have thrown in our lot with the people of God. We have enlisted in the army. If this is real we need to lay hold of that fact. It is that turning point in our lives when we left the old ways and became new creatures in Christ. I like to use marriage as an illustration. The reason we make a public confession of undying love to another through sickness and health, through riches and poverty, through joy and sorrow is so we can go back to that event and remember we made a good confession. The reason my wife and i have a wonderful marriage after 50 years is that we understood this when we were married. The world always says the reason you are together is that you don’t have the problems. They never understand that the reason we don’t have the problems is that we are committed. If i had to grovel in agony for fifty years i would rather do that than break my word of promise to God. That opens me up to solutions that otherwise i would never consider. All Paul is doing here is reminding us that when we confessed Christ publicly we sealed the deal. We must lay hold of that at all times if we are going to fight the good fight. The soldier who is going AWOL doesn’t have to fight.

III Abandon

In verses 13 and 14 Paul says we are to abandon ourselves to the fight, In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time. He gives two reasons. First of all we are to do it in verse 13 because God is the giver of life. Then Paul ends with a doxology in verse 16, God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. This reinforces the truth that we need not fear for our lives as Jesus said because the command is given by the one who is life itself. He bestows and preserves life, therefore we can fight with abandon. In the second place we are to abandon ourselves to the fight because Jesus did as we are told in verse 13, In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you. Jesus died for us, He loved us so much that He gave his life in our place. He received the punishment for sin that we deserved. In order to do this He was faithful to the end, in his trial He witnessed a good confession and was condemned because of it. Can we who claim to follow Him do less. We owe Him our lives. our hope depends upon affirming this truth. Fight the good fight!

Conclusion

Let me conclude with a quotation from Hudson Taylor, “Envied by some, despised by many, hated by others, often blamed for things i never heard or had nothing to do with, an innovator on what have become established rules of missionary practice, an opponent of might systems of heathen error and superstition, working without precedent in many respects and with few experienced helpers, often sick in body as well as perplexed in mind and embarrassed by circumstances-had not the Lord been specially gracious to me, had not my mind been sustained by the conviction that the work is his and that he is with me in what it is no empty figure to call, ‘the thick of the conflict,’ I must have fainted or broken down. But the battle is the Lord’s and he will conquer. We may fail-do fail continually-but he never fails. Still, i need your prayers more than ever.”