When We Are Alone

Introduction

It has been several months since our last breakfast (May), but at our last breakfast we kicked off a series entitled Men of Honor. We suggested last time that men of honor love God, and express this love by maintaining this watchful, steadfast commitment to Christ. We also spent some time in Galatians where we considered one of the road blocks to us being men of honor, namely self-reliance. Fundamental to the gospel is our reliance upon or dependence on the cross of Christ. Christ secured our ransom from our sin through His death and resurrection. And the progress we may experience in our walk with the Lord is ultimately due to the work of God in our lives. Being men of honor means we embrace that we are dependent upon God and His provision of the Savior.

In the upcoming breakfasts we will consider certain aspects of our lives in light of our striving to be men of honor. Being men of honor in our homes, being men of honor in our church..

Today, we will consider what it means to be men of honor when we’re alone. Now this would certainly include the times that we are actually by ourselves. Those rare times, for many of us, when we are the only ones home. But what I mean by when we are alone, I am referring to when the presence of accountability is not particularly felt. Perhaps we are surrounded by people at work or in the class room or in a store or even in our homes, but we are not sensing anyone looking over our shoulder. We are not, for whatever reason, not particularly concerned about conducting ourselves or maintaining thought patterns that honor God. It’s not just when we are physically alone, but when we are not concerned about our behavior or thoughts in any context.

Of course, God is always present, and He must be our ultimate source of accountability, but when we are alone, in the way I have attempted to describe, we must possess a certain posture of warfare. In other, we need to be ready to go to battle… we need to be ready to fight to be men of honor.

Now, where am I getting this idea? There are several places we could go in Scripture to see this, but one is

1 Timothy 6:11–12 ESV

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Verse 12 in particular brings the idea of fighting or warfare to the forefront. Paul commands Timothy to fight the good fight of faith. Now, the epistle of 1 Timothy is a pastoral epistle. It is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, a young pastor, to encourage him in his ministry. But what we need to understand is that not all that is said in the pastoral epistles is applicable only to pastors. There are some instruction and exhortations that are directed to pastors, but some that is for everyone. Fighting the good fight of faith is for everyone, and what I aim to show today is that taking up this call… this command is crucial to being men of honor when we are alone.

So let me suggest a summary of these 2 verses and then we’ll spend the rest of our time together unpacking that summary. I suggest that the main idea Paul is conveying here is that

Men of God (men of honor) lay hold of eternal life by fighting the good fight of faith.

Now, the most productive and fruitful way we can spend the rest of our time together is to work our way through these 2 verses in 1 Tim. I want to help us do that by asking several questions:

Who are men of God?

notice how Paul begins v. 11: But as for you, O man of God. I’m suggesting that being a man of God is the starting point for being a man of honor. As I suggested earlier, being men of honor means we love God, and express this love by maintaining a watchful, steadfast commitment to Christ. So, while men who are not men of God may be able, by God’s grace, to behave honorably, being men of honor goes far beyond behavior. So again, who are men of God?

Men of God have been called to eternal life. This is in v. 12. Men of God do not achieve this status through behavior, but are brought into this category of people by God. God calls people into eternal life. Another way to put this is to say that God gives people eternal life.

Peter’s words make this point clear:

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

So men of God are men who have been called by God into, or who have been given eternal life, and this truth is formative to being men of honor. Men of honor, in other words, celebrate the grace of God as has been expressed to them in their salvation and in their daily lives.

Men of God guard themselves against thoughts and behavior that dishonor God. Where am I seeing this?

Notice again how v. 11 begins: but as for you. These words suggest a contrast. Paul is exhorting Timothy, a man of God, to be different in some way. Go back a couple of verses.

1 Timothy 6:9–10 ESV

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Notice what Timothy is being warned against: a desire to be rich. Paul says that those who desire to be wealthy fall into a snare and are plunged into ruin and destruction. It’s not a warning against possessing wealth, but against a desire for to be rich. Why? For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and we are told that these kinds of desires led to some wandering away from the faith.

Men of God, in light of their calling into eternal life are given new desires that will move them to guard against desires and behaviors that dishonor God because they have a new desire to honor God.

Next question

What is the good fight of faith?

just looking at the words themselves, we can conclude that fighting the good fight of faith is a struggle of some kind. In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he makes clear that the end of this struggle is close for him:

2 Timothy 4:7 ESV

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

But here, Paul is urging Timothy to engage in this struggle. But again, what is it? Let me suggest a definition and then seek to show you where I see it in Scripture. Fighting the good fight of faith is:

engaging in the battle to believe God using faith as the weapon of our warfare.

you won’t be surprised to know that the command to fight here is a battle word. It can be used in athletic competition contexts, but it is also a warfare word, and I suggest that’s how Paul is using it here.

Again in 2 Tim., Paul call Timothy to understand himself as a good soldier of Jesus Christ:

2 Timothy 2:3 ESV

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

The call to share in the suffering of Jesus Christ is one that our flesh is not inclined to do. To share in the suffering of Christ requires that we engage in the battle that our flesh will wage against this command. In order to believe God that sharing in the suffering of Christ is what is best and what will be most satisfying for us is a battle. And the weapon we use to fight this battle is faith.

Faith is the opposite of unbelief. Unbelief is what would lead us to not share in the sufferings of Christ. Unbelief is what would lay us vulnerable to a desire to be rich and love money more than God. Faith is believing the promises of God… that the riches of His grace that He lavished upon us are far more precious than money. Faith, or believing the promises of God, is what enables us to see that there is joy sharing in the sufferings of our Savior, and that this joy far surpasses the fleeting joy we may experience by seeking to preserve our comfort in this world.

Now notice the offensive tactics we are called to use to engage in this battle:

1 Timothy 6:11 ESV

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

I won’t take the time to define all these terms but notice what we are to pursue. We are to flee worldly desires and behaviors, but we are also to pursue godliness. Verse 11, is really a call to pursue better faith. Engaging in this fight means we will seek to grow in righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness and gentleness.

So for example, to pursue steadfastness is to participate in that which will strengthen us to withstand hardship. So when it comes to our own suffering, we know that God uses our suffering to strengthen our faith. So when we suffer, we need to anticipate that God will strengthen us in the faith through it.

So we pursue that which honors God and reject that which dishonors God to fight the good fight of faith.

And men, when it comes to being men of honor when we are alone, this is what we need to give ourselves to. Engaging in this battle. Yes, this battle is always active, but I suggest we may be particularly vulnerable to laying down the weapon of our warfare when our sense of accountability is not engaged. This is often the case when we are alone.

But to close, we want to be clear on a connection that Paul makes in these verses. What may not be obvious needs to be clear in our minds as we seek to be men of honor. To that end, here’s the final question:

What is the connection between fighting the good fight of faith and taking hold of eternal life?

Now before we pursue this answer together, I want to to keep the context in mind. Paul is addressing someone he considers to be a man of God. A Christian. One who has been called into eternal life.

When we get behind the grammar of this text, we see a series of commands:

flee

pursue

fight

take hold (lay hold)

Now flee, pursue, fight are all the same kind of commands. They are commands that are calls to engage in a process. The final command in v. 12, lay hold, is a call to a result.

So to limit ourselves to v. 12, the command to fight the good fight of faith is the means by which we lay hold of eternal life.

What we are meant to do, when it comes to the action, fighting the good fight of faith, to view that action from its existing results.

The gift of eternal life is not only our justification. God’s declaration of of our righteousness in Christ. It is also the ongoing life of faith… the ongoing victory over our unbelief.... it’s a battle, but fighting the good fight of faith is how we come to lay hold of he eternal life that God has given to His people. We come to know it more intimately… we come to know God more intimately.

Consider the words of James

James 1:12 ESV

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

successfully enduring trial ad receiving the crown of life.

Consider this hypothetical:

Imagine someone close to you, perhaps someone in this room, was put in jail because of his commitment to Christ. He was in jail, and you were permitted to visit him. How would you go about encouraging him? What would you say? Now, compare that to what John said of such Christians in Rev.

Revelation 2:10 ESV

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

be faithful unto death, and you will receive the crown of life. Would we say this to someone in jail because of their faith in Christ? What’s the main concern of this encouragement? Faithfulness. Fighting the good fight of faith is the means by which we lay hold of the gift of eternal life.

We come to enjoy victory over unbelief as we fight, and men, this is key to our being men of honor when we’re alone. Fight this fight at all times, but ready yourself now for the times when no one is looking. It’s what men of honor do.