The Good Fight - 1 Timothy 1:18-20

1 Timothy 1:18-20

©Copyright January 12, 2020 by Rev Bruce Goettsche

It is likely you have met people who are always looking for a fight. They never met an argument they did not want to join. They love correcting people and pointing out to others the wrong they have done. Those people often don't have many close friends. People treat their arrival with a sigh that seems to say, "Here we go . . . "

There are other people who will avoid a fight at all costs. These are peacemakers. They abhor conflict. Because of this they will often be walked on and will stand quietly as error runs through and destroys a church.

This morning we look at three verses in 1 Timothy that give advice about when we should fight and when we should not.

18Timothy, my son, here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they help you fight well in the Lord’s battles. 19Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear.

The phrase translated "fight well in the Lord's battles actually says "fight the good fight" or "war the good war."

Fight the Good Fight

Before we look at how to fight the good fight we need to see by contrast that there are some fights that are not good. I learned early on in ministry that it is important to pick your fights. You need to decide which fights are worth taking on.

There are lots of bad fights among God's people

Fights over petty things (a color of paint, where the thermostat should be set, where you sit in the sanctuary.)

In 1 Timothy 3:3 we are told one of the qualifications for an elder is not being quarrelsome. We don't need leaders who are always looking to stir up controversy. We don't need parishioners who are like that either.

Arguing over non-essential doctrine. The problem with this one is: if we didn't think it was essential, we would not be arguing about it! Let's define non-essential doctrine as: that which, if changed, would not impact our salvation. This would include issues like: the version of the Bible you use, how much water was used in your baptism, the frequency of communion, the timetable of the second coming, your style of worship or your taste in music. We should seek and pursue all truth, but we don't have to go to war over items of personal preference or conviction.

Church Traditions - Any discussion that starts with, "but this is what we have always done it" is likely a battle that is a poor use of time.

Someone has written,

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 won’t matter then, it probably doesn’t matter much now, either. 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 thing to defend someone else’s spiritual interests, or the glory of God himself; it is very different to look out for your own interests. Do I find myself trying to justify my actions, either to myself or to others? Something really worth fighting about is too obvious to require much explanation.[1]

When do we need to stand and fight? It is when essential truth is being threatened. This would be when someone is denying the faith or teaching something that is contrary to the message of the gospel, or when someone is diminishing the glory of God. The history of the church is filled with such battles. These battles have allowed us to stand in the truth today.

The church had to defend the doctrine of the Trinity (that there is one God who exists in three persons) at the council in Nicea in 325 AD.

The church had to defend the truth that we are saved by God's grace alone.

Then the church had to defend those who tried to say Jesus was not really God who became man.

In the middle ages the whole notion of how we are saved came under attack. Things became so confused the Reformation came about.

Back in the 1970's there was a battle for the Bible between those who confessed the Bible to BE the Word of God over those who say it CONTAINED the word of God. (The Bible IS the Word of God; inspired in all its parts).

There was also a debate over what is called "Lordship Salvation." The question debated was whether or not a person can embrace Christ as Savior and not follow Him as Lord and Master. (The answer to that one is: He is Savior AND Lord . . . you can't have one without the other).

And there is currently a debate about the Sovereignty of God. There are some theologians who are "Open Theists," they believe God is learning as we are. He is watching to see what happens in the world. That is heresy! God knows all things and is over all things. God has ordained all things. He is not surprised by anything.

Paul is reminding us that the people of God have never been able to simply rest in the faith; we have always had to fight for it!

This is why the study of what we believe is so important. We believe it is important to teach doctrine (and not just tell great stories) because what we believe is the foundation on which everything else is built. Doctrine is not always easy . . . but it is necessary to make the effort so you can see the difference between truth and error. A good study Bible (one that contains notes on the text of Scripture) is a good start as is being in a solid Bible Study or Sunday School class. This is why we have so many Bible Studies during a week . . . we are focusing on training people for the battlefield.

In 1 Corinthians 10:3-5 Paul talks about how we are to wage war:

3We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 5We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

This is a supernatural battle and Paul says we need to use supernatural resources. This is not about us getting smarter, it is about us becoming more deeply anchored in the Lord. This is also not about us fighting as the world does: with power plays, nasty charges, raised voices, or personal attacks. We put our confidence in the truth! the truth can stand on its own. Ed Stetzer writes,

My friend saw that he might be right about some of the issues but understood that having a relationship was more important than scoring points. I learned this same lesson early in my marriage—the person is more important than the point. Then as I grew as a person, I saw that was true not only in my marriage; itwas true in all my relationships. You can insist you are right all the time, or you can have friends. But you can’t do both. (Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage P. 550-51)

The Weapons for Battle

Cling to your faith in Christ and keep your conscience clear.

Doesn't this seem odd to you. Wouldn't you expect Paul to say, "Sharpen up on your theology!" "Study hard in your logic and rhetoric classes." "Better go back and get another degree." Or even "Here is a list of books you need to read." But that isn't what he says: Cling to Faith and Keep a Clear Conscience.

Anytime we talk about faith we need to define what "faith in Christ" means. We have faith in everything today. It is an overused word and defined inconsistently.

When it comes to the faith there are three levels of faith. The first is AFFIRMATION. This is when you acknowledge the facts about Jesus. You affirm Jesus did live, die, and give His life for others. You affirm that the evidence shows He rose from the dead. At this point you understand the facts of the gospel.

The second level of faith is ACCEPTANCE This is when you not only affirm and acknowledge the facts, it is when you make it personal. You recognize that Jesus died for YOUR sin and through His death and resurrection you can be saved. At this point you truly understand the personal nature of the gospel. However, still you are not a true follower of Christ!

The third level is when you ALTER your life or COMMIT to these facts. You embrace Christ as your Savior and Lord. This is when you surrender your life to Him in trust and follow Him as your Lord. This is what we call saving faith.

It is important we remain IN the faith. If we forget how we came to know Christ, if we forget that He was God become man, if we start to change some of the facts or "re-imagine" them we are loosening our grip on the faith.

Think about this in terms of marriage. You can say you believe marriage is good. You can say you believe marriage is something you desire for yourself. But those things are not the same as actually committing to another individual. Only this last belief is being married.

So this is what it means to believe: it means to be committed to and walking with Jesus on a daily basis.

Second, we are to maintain a Clear or Good Conscience. The kind of conscience Paul is talking about is a conscience that has been trained by the truth.

I believe God gave us our conscience as the amplifier for the whispers of God's Spirit. God gives us direction and imparts wisdom to us through our conscience. The problem is: there are many other voices out there whispering to us.

The whispers of our friends

Our desires

Our culture

Instructors

Lawmakers

The media we consume

These whispers may be persistent and loud. This is why we study the Scriptures, come to worship, attend Bible Studies, Read books, watch videos. This helps us to strengthen the volume of God's whispers.

When we neglect to be diligent in listening to the whispers of conscience (or the Holy Spirit) we find other voices taking center stage in our life and thinking. We may defer to a talk show host or a news channel we watch rather than the Holy Spirit. That is trouble for the soul.

This is why you can have a "clear conscience" and "feel good" about your choices and be yet be racing down the highway in the wrong direction! Your conscience has become dulled and can no longer distinguish between truth and falsehood.

Illustrating the Principle

For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked. 20Hymenaeus and Alexander are two examples. I threw them out and handed them over to Satan so they might learn not to blaspheme God.

People who deliberately violate their conscience are those who know something is wrong, but they do it anyway. If you continue to do this, your conscience starts to get numb in that area in your life. You no longer hear the whisper of your conscience.

Don’t you sometimes tune out certain people in your life? We can do that to the Holy Spirit!

We read about Hymenaeus in 2 Timothy,

But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. (2:16-18)

The Life Application Commentary explains their error,

These believers in Ephesus grew up under Greek philosophy and a Greek understanding of the world. Greek philosophy viewed the spirit as immortal and the body as evil. Thus, a doctrine that taught the resurrection of the body was especially difficult to believe. So, the false teachers tried to combine the doctrine of the resurrection with Greek philosophy in order to make it make sense to them. They taught that when a person became a Christian and was spiritually reborn, that was the only resurrection he or she would ever experience. To them, resurrection was symbolic and spiritual, not real and physical.[2]

We know much less about Alexander. He may also be referred to in 2 Timothy,

Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. ( 2 Timothy 4:4 ESV)

Alexander is a very common name so it may not be the same guy. The point is that because their false teaching (and undoubtedly their refusal to repent of their teaching) Paul says he has thrown them out (of the church) and handed them over to Satan so they might learn not to blaspheme or to disrespect God. From these troubling words notice several things:

Satan is real

When you do not walk in the Lord, you are "delivered over to Satan."

Those who do not teach correctly; those who violate faith and conscience; should be removed from the church so they cannot hurt others.

This is known as church discipline. The purpose of church discipline is always to wake someone up so they will repent before it is too late. It is redemptive, not punitive. This is difficult today because, quite frankly, if you discipline a false teacher by telling them they were no longer welcome as part of the church until they repent . . . they will simply go down the street and find another church willing to welcome a new member. And this is one of the problems in the church today: we are more concerned about having more people, than we are about guarding the truth of God.

We have heard too many stories of leaders in the church who developed dulled consciences. Instead of taking action to try to help these people return to the Lord, they have simply been moved to a new location where they can victimize others. This is to the church's shame.

APPLICATIONS

So what do we learn from these verses? Let me give you some take home points. First, we should cherish what is true. We would do well to go back to the children's song that says, "I stand alone on the Word of God; the B-I-B-L-E." God's truth is our foundation. Anything that takes us away from that foundation is error and we must stand firm against it. We must monitor our doctrine closely.

Second, we must not be afraid to address possible doctrinal error in those around us. We must be careful. We can become "heresy hunters" looking for any little variance with what WE believe. It is right to question things that clearly contradict the teaching of Scripture. But even here we must do so with kindness yet with resolve.

Third, we must keep an eye on our "set-apartness." The follower of Christ is to be set-apart. We should be living differently than the rest of the world. When we start looking too much like everyone around us it indicates our values are most likely being compromised and our conscience is being dulled. When you can "party like the best of them" there is a good chance you are losing your ability to distinguish the voice of God's Spirit. This is a very serious condition. The remedy is to repent before the Lord and return to following Jesus and the study of His Word.

We live in an increasingly post-Christian world. Our most persuasive argument for the gospel is when people see the change the gospel has made in us. When we surrender this, we have joined the enemy.

[1] Philip Graham Ryken, 1 Timothy, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Daniel M. Doriani, and Philip Graham Ryken, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2007), 47.

[2] Bruce B. Barton, David Veerman, and Neil S. Wilson, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1993), 193.