“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.”1 Timothy 6:11-12
I wonder how many times we are fighting the wrong battles. What I mean by that is shown here in Paul’s words to Timothy where he encourages Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith. Fight the good fight of the faith.
In saying this I am not saying that it is wrong to fight against injustice in all its forms. There are times to do that and we should do that in many ways both as Christians and as citizens. But I wonder if we are just as concerned about fighting for pure doctrine and the faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints as we are for our rights as citizens.
Again, be good citizens. Fight for those things that hamper our rights and also, we should embrace our responsibilities as citizens. But ours is not a mere dual citizenship. Citizens of the country in which we live and citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We are Christians and we strive to live in such a manner. We don’t embrace a two-kingdom idea that the civil magistrate is not bound by the moral law of God. He is bound by that law.
But even in the church we do not fight the good fight of the faith. We do not stand up against heresy like we should. We do not embrace the Lord’s Day like we should. We do not allow our doctrine to define us like we should. After all doctrine in its simplest form is teaching. And we cling to whatever the Bible teaches.
Verse 11 begins with a call to flee these things. What things? For that information you are going to have to go back and read more of 1 Timothy. For one thing we know in the immediate context to flee the love of money. And pursue instead, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. As we pursue such things, we are better able to fight the good fight of the faith.
Life in many ways is a battle day by day. But praise God we have been called to fight the battle of faith. Let us not sit on the sidelines but prepare for war.
“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 3