The Noble Fight

Introduction:

1 Timothy Chapter 4: Fight the Good Fight (1 Timothy 1:18–20)

If there is going to be a war, men must be ready to fight. This is the lesson of the first battle of Manassas (or Bull Run), the first major engagement of the American Civil War.

There had been talk of war for months, ever since South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter in early April of 1861. Both the North and the South hurriedly prepared for the conflict. By early July, each side was ready for war and certain of an easy victory. When Union general Irvin McDowell addressed his troops on the eve of battle, his only fear was that the enemy would be unable to put up a good fight.

The first shots were fired in northern Virginia late on the 8th of July. News of the skirmish reached Washington by nightfall. Since a Union victory seemed inevitable, the battle was treated as the social event of the summer. The next morning, the ladies and gentlemen of high society gaily packed their hampers, piled into carriages, and rode to Bull Run for a picnic.

But the day turned out to be anything but festive. The scene of battle was one of unimagined chaos and horror. The commanders were unaccustomed to warfare on such a grand scale. The armies did not so much engage as collide. The fighting was fierce until Stonewall Jackson led the Confederate soldiers on a bayonet charge. The Union was routed, with three thousand soldiers left dead or bleeding on the battlefield. The Washington socialites ran for their lives, their army defeated because it was not ready to fight.1

As a Pastor himself, Paul turns to his young Pastor Son and reminds him that he is going to have to fight.

True Pastors are Pastors that fight the spiritual war that is waging.

When John Calvin was pastor at Geneva Switzerland, the prolific years were anything but an “ivory tower” experience.

The pulpit at Geneva is some magnificent to see; in the middle of the is a large column with stairs winding up leading to the pulpit overlooking the congregation.

The Expository Genius of John Calvin In the Face of Adversity

While ascending his pulpit regularly, he met much difficulty on every side. Frail in stature, Calvin suffered many ailments. He also endured physical threats to his life. Yet Calvin never ceased his exposition.

Further, groups of Geneva’s citizens caused him much pain, not the least of them being the Libertines, who boasted in sinful licentiousness. Sexual immorality was permissible, they claimed, arguing that the “communion of the saints” meant that their bodies should be joined to the wives of others. The Libertines openly practiced adultery and yet desired to come to the Lord’s Table. But Calvin would have none of it.

In an epic encounter, Philibert Berthelier, a prominent Libertine, was excommunicated because of his known sexual promiscuity. Consequently, he was forbidden from partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Through the underhanded influence of the Libertines, the City Council overrode the church’s decision, and Berthelier and his associates came to church to take the Lord’s Supper with swords drawn, ready to fight. With bold audacity, Calvin descended from the pulpit, stood in front of the Communion table, and said, “These hands you may crush, these arms you may lop off, my life you may take, my blood is yours, you may shed it; but you shall never force me to give holy things to the profaned and dishonor the table of my God.”17 Berthelier and the Libertines withdrew, no match for such unflinching convictions.

Paul is giving to his son a great, great charge and it is a great charge for us as well.

I. The Responsibility Directed (vs. 18)

After having given to young Timothy an introduction into the work that must be done and after having given to him all the reasons why God can use him to accomplish this task, Paul now takes the directive and makes it absolutely personal to Timothy.

Because Timothy needed to understand that though this is a task that but for the Grace of God could never be accomplished and even though Paul calls himself the upmost sinner and God still uses him and can; therefore, use Timothy; and though God is sovereign and can is responsible for results of what happens, Timothy still bore some major personal responsibility.

And the Apostle, lovingly; yet pointedly, breaks down Timothy’s responsibility.

A. Timothy has a Command to Obey (vs. 18)

Paul says, “this command”....stop right there.

It is the Greek word “παραγγελία” and it literally speaks of “a charge” or “instruction”, it is the announcement of something that must be done.

Paul as already given Timothy his apostolic credentials so that anything that Paul commands Timothy to is said to be as from God; Paul being the very mouth piece of God.

In Classical Greek, this Greek word was used in the context of a military order being given to a soldier, so there was no negotiation with the mandate.

It was a command given that must be obeyed, without question.

Acts 16:24 NASB95

and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Acts 5:28 NASB95

saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.”

The idea of the word is that obedience is demanded and expected without further delay and without further question.

The mandate is so strong that Paul, later on in the Epistle, made Timothy accountable to God the Father, Jesus Christ and the elect angels.

1 Timothy 5:21 NASB95

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.

Once again, in this Epistle, Paul held Timothy accountable to God for his actions.

1 Timothy 6:13–14 NASB95

I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Listen, this is a staggering responsibility, not one to be taken lightly.

Obedience to this command is so important that he borrows that Greek word from Classical Greek as an indication of the importance of that order; just as disobedience to a military order would result in a court marshal and having massive earthly affects, disobedience to this order would result in massive eternal affects.

Timothy had a duty to God in the Church, something that our self-indulgent society knows nothing about, and his obedience was required.

Timothy was not the only one whose obedience to commands are required; as is as well.

We talk about freedom, success, joy, and peace, but little about our responsibility to the God, who is the Head of the Church.

We are duty-bound to obey the commander.

2 Timothy 2:4 NASB95

No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

2 Timothy 2:4–5 NASB95

No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.

Those things are not optional; faithful obedience is the key to Timothy’s work and is key to ours.

Christ stresses the importance of obedience:

Luke 17:7–10 NASB95

“Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? “But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink’? “He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’ ”

Paul clearly understood the concept of obedience; to King Agrippa he says:

Acts 26:19 NASB95

“So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,

1 Corinthians 9:16–17 NASB95

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.

Paul understood that he was under a divine obligation to use his gifts and fulfill his calling.

To the Ephesian Elders he say:

Acts

Acts 20:24 NASB95

“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.

1 Timothy: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Responsibility beyond Himself

Every servant of the Lord is duty-bound to carry out his ministry. Moses (Ex. 4:10–16), Isaiah (Isa. 6:8–11), Jeremiah (Jer. 20:9), Ezekiel (Ezek. 2:7–8), and Jonah (Jonah 1:1–2) all were given a charge to fulfill. In 2 Timothy 4:1–2 Paul commanded Timothy to preach the Word “in season and out of season.” In our society, with its emphasis on entertainment, anti-authoritarian attitude, critic mentality, and psychological orientation, our message will often be rejected. That, however, does not excuse us from our duty (cf. Jer. 7:27; Ezek. 2:4–5; 3:7; 33:30–32).

Timothy’s Responsibility Directed was that he has a Command to obey.

B. Timothy had a Commission to Fulfill (vs. 18b)

The word “entrust” is “παρατίθημι” and again it meant in classical Greek “to place beside”, it was used of an expression that means that you place beside someone something of great value and you trust them with it.

Paul tells this young man that I have laid beside you a command to obey, and this command is of great worth and am trusting you with the command.

You know, when you think about life; and it particular your spiritual life, the Father has laid trust on us.

Typically speaking God does not come to you and force you do this or do the other; he is similar to the way that Paul here is with Timothy, I am trusting you with this command.

I am laying it beside you and I am trusting that obedience will be the result.

Now, admittedly, there are things that compel us.

2 Corinthians 5:14 NASB95

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;

2 Timothy 2:4 NASB95

No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

So, certainly, there are things things that compel us to service and obedience, but at the end of the day God trusts us with obedience.

And we, like Timothy, have a commission that we must fulfill.

With Timothy’s Responsibility Directed, he had a Command to Obey, He had Commission to Fulfill.

C. Timothy had a Confirmation to up to (vs. 18c)

“To the prophecies” , and this is very strange and I want to explains this to you.

If you go later on in the book of 1 Timothy Paul says this:

1 Timothy 4:14 NASB95

Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.

And what he is talking about here is the same thing that he is talking about in our Text.

When Timothy was ordained, there was preaching, there were exhortations…there was a service just like it is today and certain things were said.

And Paul is reminding Timothy of that, he is encouraging Timothy to be a minister.

He is encouraging him to be true to his ordination vows and true to his promises and true to his calling.

When these prophetic words were spoken to Timothy, probably referring to the time when Timothy was singled out for a special service in God’s kingdom and all the things that went along with it.

“Timothy, you have all of those obligations and responsibilities to live up to”.

And the authority by which Paul expected Timothy to obey the command, was not only his authority as an Apostle and his spiritual father, but also he believed and reminded Timothy of those things that are expected of him by others.

Listen, if I may just put this also on the level of the believer sitting in the pew for a moment.

You also have a directed responsibility.

You too have a command that must be obeyed.

1 Corinthians 4:2 NASB95

In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

You have a commission to fulfill

Acts 1:8 NASB95

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

God has entrusted these orders to you and have a Directed Responsibility to Fulfill those Commissions.

And you a have a Confirmation to live up to.

Meaning that there are people that have certain expectations of you because you are a child of God, and with those expectations need to come a certain obligation to fulfill those expectations for the glory of God.

Promises made to God, your children, your wife, your friends.

James 5:12 NASB95

But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.

Lest we think that the obligations of Responsibility fall only of the preachers, you have a Directed Responsibility as well; a Directed Responsibility obey the Commands, to fulfill the Commissions and to live up to the Confirmations.

But noticed what else Paul says here, “by them (remembering the admonitions received) you fight the good fight”.

As I said in the Introduction, A true Pastor is not only someone who is a lover and a teacher of the truth, but a true Pastor is also a fighter.

He fights the good fight of faith; not only for himself but also for his congregation; he has to be willing to fight.

The Word “fight” is the Greek “στρατεύω” and it literally means “to engage in a conflict, to wage war”.

Notice the pronoun that Paul uses here and that is the pronoun “them”.

Of course, “them” is a plural pronoun and the idea that Paul is giving Timothy that because of the encouragement and commissions that you have received in the past, I want you to take those things and I want you to be willing to wage war if need be.

Because the Christian life, and the life of a Pastor, is a life of war; a spiritual war.

And Paul dies not want Timothy to forget all the things that have been said to him in the past, but hold fast to the commitment of those things and be ready to wage war in need be to protect those things.

The whole purpose of Paul starting out at the beginning of the verse with a military charge is because he wants Timothy to be ready to fight.

In answering the call to his minstry, Timothy was ordered to “wage the good warfare”.

And with Paul telling Timothy to “wage a good warfare”, that leads us to believe that there are some bad fights.

And let me just share these things with you as something else for you think about.

Throughout the epistle, Timothy is repeatedly warned against the dangers of needless warfare.

He was to stay away from issues that were mere speculations ().

The Scriptures warn against such disputes because most Christian fights are bad fights.

For example, a fight over Doctrine not essential to the Christian faith is usually a bad fight.

Every biblical truth needs to be taught, discussed, believed, and practiced.

But not every Biblical truth needs to be argued for in every situation, and no biblical truth should ever be defended with a contentious spirit.

Some fights are not worth fighting, some wars are not worth waging, some battles are not worth contesting.

Too often, God’s sheep end up battered and bloodied because they have been attacked by other members of the fold.

How does one tell the difference between a good fight and a bad fight?

Ask questions like these: Will this matter a year from now?

If it will not matter then, it probably does not matter much now.

Am I enjoying this dispute, in a perverse sort of way?

If so, you may be fighting for the wrong reasons.

Am I fighting for myself, or for others?

It is one things to defend someone else’s spiritual interests, or the glory of God himself; it is very different to look out for your own interests.

There are plenty of bad fights, bey there is only one good fight.

The warfare he has in mind is the defense of the central doctrines of the Christian faith.

This is the battle that Donald Grey Barnhouse called “The Invisible ware—there is a battle for the truth.

The good fight is the fight for sound theology.

1 Timothy Fight the Good Fight

The good warfare is the struggle to defend those doctrines which are essential to the Christian faith. This includes doctrines like the reality of the Trinity, the deity of Jesus Christ, the necessity of atonement for sin, the sufficiency of Christ’s death on the cross, the efficacy of faith alone for justification, and the infallibility of Holy Scripture. Such deep theological truths are well worth fighting for.

Paul’s command is a reminder never to take sound Doctrine for granted,

The people of God have never been able simply to rest in the faith; they have always had to fight for it.

1 Timothy Fight the Good Fight

This good fight began in the Old Testament. By the time Moses came down from the mountain, the children of Israel were already worshiping the golden calf (Ex. 32). Joshua had to confront them with the choice between serving God and serving the gods (Josh. 24). Elijah was outnumbered by the prophets of Baal, 450 to 1 (1 Kings 18). Although not all God’s prophets faced the same odds, they all faced the same enemy. Like Ezekiel, they had to oppose “the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations” (Ezek. 13:9).

The warfare resumed in the NT.

The preponderance of Jesus’ teaching contradicts the false theology of the Pharisees.

Every NT epistle is concerned with sound doctrine.

Apparently, there were as many enemies inside the Church as there were outside.

Even the little Epistle of Jude urges the Church:

Jude 3 NASB95

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.

1 Timothy Fight the Good Fight

The subsequent history of the church is largely a story of doctrinal confrontation. First the church had to defend the doctrine of the Trinity, settled by the Council of Nicea (AD 325). Then the church had to defend the sovereignty of God’s grace against the man-centered doctrines of Pelagius (the Council of Ephesus, 431). All the while there were arguments over the deity of Jesus Christ, which were gradually settled by the Councils of Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), and Chalcedon (451).

In the Middle Ages, the way of salvation came under attack. Eventually, because of doctrinal error, it was necessary for the Holy Spirit to reform the church. Scripture had to be defended as the alone standard for faith and practice (sola scriptura). Christ had to be defended as the alone mediator between God and man (solus Christus). Faith had to be defended as the alone instrument of justification (sola fide). Grace had to be defended as the alone power of God for salvation (sola gratia). And all these doctrines had to be defended in order to promote the greater glory of God, who alone is worthy of praise (soli Deo Gloria).

The good fight continued up through the twentieth century. There was the good fight between fundamentalism and modernism, fought by J. Gresham Machen and others. It was a fight between Christianity as a supernatural religion and Christianity explained away as human experience. This later became the fight between evangelicalism and liberalism, which Billy Graham, Carl F. H. Henry, and others waged during the middle part of the century, and which continued afterward.

The point of this sketch of church history is that there has never been a time when God’s people were not in danger of falling into error.

The history of the Church confirms the necessity of Paul’s charge to Timothy.

And until Christ’s return, the people of God will be engaged in a perpetual war against unsound doctrine.

The Christian faith needs to be defended, not only from paganism, but especially from heresy.

But we, and especially pastors, have to be ready to fight.

1 Timothy Fight the Good Fight

First, it is the fight for biblical inerrancy. The evangelical church won the battle for the Bible which James Boice, Francis Schaeffer, and others fought during the 1970s and 80s, but it may be losing the war. Inerrancy is still regarded as a cardinal affirmation. Members of the Evangelical Theological Society affirm every year that “the Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs.” However, students and teachers in some evangelical churches and seminaries hold more loosely to the orthodox doctrine of Scripture, in some cases drawing a spurious distinction between infallibility and inerrancy, or else advocating interpretations that call biblical authority into question. Thus there is still a need to teach and defend the truth that the Bible is the Word of God written.

1 Timothy Fight the Good Fight

Second, there is the fight for salvation through Christ alone. So-called post-conservative evangelicals are increasingly open to the idea that Jesus Christ is not the only way to salvation. He is a way but not the way. Meanwhile, some leaders in the so-called emerging church are de-emphasizing the blood atonement of Jesus Christ. Therefore, confessing evangelicals must continue to defend the truth Paul teaches in the very next chapter: “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

1 Timothy Fight the Good Fight

Third, the good fight is for justification by grace through faith alone. The Bible teaches that sinners are declared righteous in the sight of God solely on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputed to them by faith. The 1990s witnessed several attempts to bring “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” over the doctrine of justification. These discussions put the evangelical church in danger of denying the biblical doctrine of justification. Where the evangelical-Catholic documents failed was in their understanding of the gospel itself. D. A. Carson, who participated in the dialogues, concludes that the Roman Catholic Church has not moved a single step closer to the biblical doctrine of justification. He writes: “the official teaching of the [Roman] church is that we are as far apart on this doctrine as Protestants and Catholics were at the time of Trent—notwithstanding the formal agreements that can be forged by handfuls of scholars from the two sides meeting in New York.”5

There is a fight that is a good fight.

First, we see The Responsibility Directed.

II. The Responsibility Displayed (vs. 19a)