Fight the Good Fight

Introduction

I don’t know about you, but I grew up in a very competitive family. No one likes to lose. We fight with vigor to win no matter what we play. It always seemed that what we were playing evolved as the competition increased. Take for instance, the card game spoons. We would begin with spoons and that would evolve to forks. Mom and dad would play with the neighbors, where it would evolve to knives, yes you heard that correctly. We just didn’t play the regular way of playing. It was a serious game where people were tackled and tables were thrown through the air to make sure you got that spoon or fork.

We played even harder and competed to an even higher grade when fighting, wrestling, and playing football in the yard. We did not lose at all cost. We were going to content to the nth degree.

As we come to our text, Paul tells Timothy to fight and give it all he has for the faith. Leave all on the field as my old peewee baseball coach would say. My fear is that most are not leaving anything on the field if they trying to contend at all.

Focus Passage

1 Timothy 6:11–16 NKJV

11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, 15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.

Outline

A Different Life (v.11)

1 Timothy 6:11 NKJV

11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

As Christians, we are called to live differently from those outside of the faith. We are not able to live this life within our own power, but because we are new creation in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

As Paul begins this doxology to his first letter, he brings a personal charge to Timothy. He begins with a simple truth, he was no longer who he once was. He was something different now.

1) Timothy was to live accordingly to the One who had called him - ‘O man of God’

2) Timothy was to live a life void of his old ways - ‘flee these things’

Paul instructs timothy to flee these things. When Paul tells Timothy to flee, what he is stating in laymen terms is that he, Timothy, was to run away from, avoid, shunt, and escape from these things. What are these things, that he his to run away from, avoid, shun, and escape? Whatever these things are, must be horrific. Paul has already addressed what these things are previously.

Timothy, contextually, and you and I, in the contemporary, are to avoid these same things. We are called to avoid, run away from, shun, escape false teachings, pride, envy, lust, greed. In essence, the ways of the old man.

May we understand that God never calls us to remove something from our life without telling us what we are to fill that void with. As we find in his epistle directly to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:22–29 NKJV

22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. 28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

3) Timothy was to live a life that pursued after His new life in Christ - pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness

When Paul told Timothy, pursue, he stating that he was to chase after with great intent and fortitude. He was to make his aim, his end game, to live a life that honored God God in all ways, purse righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

All these characteristics are fruits of the Spirit. They are to be calling cards of the child of God. As a Christ follower, as a child of God through Christ, Timothy (and every born again believer today) should chase after these characteristics in our day-to-day walk with the Lord. As Paul describes them elsewhere, the Fruits of the Spirit...

Galatians 5:22–23 NKJV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

It through these same fruits of the Spirit that we find our anticipation in the return of the Lord and our salvation being made complete in Him.

Romans 8:23 NKJV

23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

It is through these fruits of Spirit and not the flesh that we are able to contend in day-to-day spiritual warfare.

Contend for the faith (v.12)

1 Timothy 6:12 NKJV

12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Within our text, Paul brings to commands, without option, to Timothy. These two commands are to be executed with precision in his life daily. These two commands are a must to be executed daily with precision in each and every born again believer’s life. We must realize that we at war every day of our lives. The war we face is not with flesh and blood but takes place in a realm that you and I cannot see, the spiritual realm.

Ephesians 6:12 NKJV

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Understand that our fight is not physical, that is with flesh and blood, but is very much a spiritual battle, we must suit up for that battle. Paul writes to the Ephesian church...

Ephesians 6:10 NKJV

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Ephesians 6:11 NKJV

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Ephesians 6:13 NKJV

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

It is within this spiritual battle that Paul brings timothy these two commands that must be accepted and applied to his life (and any Christian’s life) with great accuracy and intent.

1) Timothy was to vigorously contend in this contest of faith - ‘Fight the good fight of faith’

There only three options that Paul could have in mind during this period of history…boxing, racing, or fighting (gladiator style). All of these contest required great stamina, perseverance, and fire within to content with an aim for victory. With that in mind, Paul tells Timothy, Fight. He was telling Timothy give it all you have and then some. Vigorously fight, campaign, and struggle to the end. The tense of this verb in the Gk is present tense. That is it is a struggle, a fight, that is before us daily not just a some point in the past or just for today, but is a daily fight in our relationship with God as we face a lost and dying world.

There is a reason why Jesus told his disciples that for one to follow Him they must pick up their cross daily. There is a reason why Paul said I crucify myself daily. This fight, this contest of faith, is a daily fight and a daily struggle. The only way to be victorious is to be strengthened in the Lord, suited up in the Lord, and placing our full trust in the Lord and His armor, as written directly to the church Ephesus, as we just read.

2) Timothy was to seize his new life in Christ - ‘lay hold on eternal life’

This new life in Christ, which Timothy had, was not of his own choosing. It was a life he was called to and given by God through Christ, to which you were also called. The One that called Him unto Himself, was also the One that now dwelt in Him. That One was greater than the one within the world. May we take these same truths and apply them our lives.

We were invited to the throne of God by the blood of Christ. It is this same blood that saves us today. It is this same that God that drew us to Himself and lives within each and every Christian, that gives us the ability to fight the good fight of faith and be victorious in that fight. For as John writes...

1 John 4:4 NKJV

4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

It was this same Jesus, who saved Him, that Timothy made a great confession in.

I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon C. Christian Character and Life (6:11–16)

This new kind of life is what every believer is called to. It is not reserved for the elite. It is available to all who make the good confession—that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, delivered to death for our sins and raised from the dead to secure eternal life for all who trust him.

This new life that Timothy had and every new believer has, was one that he had already made a confession of having, and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. He did this as every other believer before him, through public profession of Christ as Lord and Savior through believer’s baptism. For he and us to not content vigorously for a faith that we have made a public profession of, is to blaspheme the name of God and the testimony of Christ just as those who were teaching false doctrines within the church at Ephesus.

Romans 2:21–24 NKJV

21 You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? 22 You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? 24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

1 Timothy 6:1 NKJV

1 Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed.

Paul reminds Timothy that we all have an example of faith and what it means to contend for the faith.

Our example: Christ at the cross (vv.13-14)

1 Timothy 6:13–14 NKJV

13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing,

Paul tells Timothy that what he is calling him to do is non negotiable. It is a must, I urge you. He calls two witnesses to this call to fight.

1) Paul calls God, the author of life, to be a witness to this charge to fight - ‘I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things’

2) Paul calls Christ, the ultimate example of one who fights for the faith, as a witness to this charge to fight - ‘before Christ Jesus’

Jesus, when he was in Garden of Gethsemane went a little further. When he had his mock trial, He stood confident in the Father and His will. When He stood before Pilot, He testified to the truth knowing that the cross was His destiny and fight.

John 18:37 NKJV

37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Fight to remain faithful through the strength of our Lord (vv.14-16)

1 Timothy 6:14–16 NKJV

14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, 15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.

1) Fight till the Lord returns - that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing

We have no time to stop. We have no time to play. We are called to contend for the Lord as if the Lord will today, which He will manifest in His own time. The Lord is sovereign. The Lord is in charge. The Lord has already assured victory, but we are to contend for the Lord faithfully and with two truths in view: 1) God is sovereign and 2) Jesus’s return, while the when is unknown, is certain to happen.

2) Fight within the assurance of who God is

As we content daily for the faith daily, we do not do this own our own. We do this through strength and power of our God. As Paul describes to Timothy the traits of God alone, let us find assurance in these same traits to daily contend for the faith.

God, is beyond description and finite human comprehension, yet He, the infinite, has given us characteristics of Him, the infinite, to see a glimpse of who He, our Lord, is.

As described in the Holman New Testament Commentary...

This greatness was not evident at his first appearing, however. He came as a baby, naked and vulnerable. He served God and man, learning obedience through suffering (Heb. 5:7–8).

But at his second appearance he will come with might, with the word of his strength, invincible, clothed with majesty and glory. No king or president has any power except as given by God. Even this delegated authority is weak in comparison to the commanding strength of God.

The purpose of Jesus’ first coming was to rescue sinners; the purpose of his Second Coming will be to save believers.

Paul stretched to describe this God who is beyond the created order. He began with God’s transcendence: he alone is immortal. No one else and no other thing can claim this eternal existence. God has no beginning, no ending, no progression of growth or decline. Out of his life comes all other life. Out of his immortality he grants eternal life to others. - Knute Larson, I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, vol. 9, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 248.

In the end, let us not forget the purity of our Lord. His purity is such a purity that we cannot begin to obtain that holiness on our own merit and beyond us, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see.

Because of His holiness and that he has given us the ability to be holy, He, God, calls us to holiness in a day-to-day life. He has called us to fight the faith within His given strength. Part of contending for the faith is a pursuit of holiness and answer His call to holy...

1 Peter 1:16 NKJV

16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Because of His holiness, his righteousness, his affording of strength to us to victoriously contend for the faith, that He alone is to receive all one honor, glory, and praise, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.

Conclusion

Are you fighting for the faith? Are you fighting daily? Are you leaving it all on the field? Are you truly fighting to remain faithful or are you on the verge of giving up under the continuous attack of the enemy?

Our ability to fight begins and ends within the bounds of our relationship with God through the blood of Jesus Christ. If you do not know Jesus, let me answer for you, you are not contending for the faith but rather contending against the faith. For those that know the Lord and you are weary, I bring you the same call that Paul brought to Timothy...

1 Timothy 6:12 NKJV

12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.