1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are also called… War is a terribly earnest business which will not bear to be trifled with. Of all things under the sun, this work of fighting, if it is to be done at all, is one that must be done with all our heart and mind. It is no mere holiday affair of plumes and epaulettes, and drums and trumpets, and flags and fine parade. Only certain ruin will come to those who go into it in that spirit, with a light and careless heart. Well, now, it is to such a work that Paul likens the Christian life, and it is in the same earnest spirit that he would have us to deal with it. Of course, there are many points in which it differs altogether from the warfares of this world: they work sorrow and desolation and death, but this brings joy and fruitfulness and life. They doubtless call forth heroic qualities of courage and devotion, which, however, are often sullied by fierce and pitiless passion; but this conflict of ours, while it demands equal courage and devotion, is gentle also, and merciful, ready to suffer loss, but not to inflict loss. Oh, very true, in times like ours this conflict differs materially from that which Paul and Timothy had to wage in the early martyr ages of the Church's story. The wild beasts at Ephesus, the stonings in Jerusalem, the prison and the stake and the cross of those days, all have vanished from the warfare, which you may think, therefore, now hardly deserves so great a name. Yet a warfare it is still, not without its peril and its privation, and its enemy, and its conflict, partly within and partly without; and it needs now, as ever, a brave and an earnest heart. Is our religion at all like a real, earnest battle? Were I speaking to you of your common everyday life, with its labour and weary wrestle to keep the wolf from the door, I might call it a hard battle for the poor man; and some of you, I daresay, would be ready enough to reply, "Ay, that it is, and we know it well enough, too — a hard, weary, ceaseless struggle; and sometimes we could almost wish we were well through it, and could be at rest." So, then, the words have clear meaning to many of us — I daresay to most of us. But could you say now as much about the affairs of your spiritual life? That is what Paul had in his eye. But have you ever maintained any such battle for integrity and truth, for the soul and for God, as you have often done for meat and drink, and raiment, and a respectable position. Assuredly, if we are true followers of Christ we shall find plenty of enemies to contend with — enemies who are ready to take advantage of every opportunity, and who are not to be overcome without long and resolute battle. You shall find these foes at the outset within yourselves. And the first part of every man's battle is to overcome and master these. I do not much value a warfare which is chiefly to get the better of other people. I do not believe that there is much good fighting in any one till he has first conquered himself. The battle begins, therefore, in our own heart and life. It is well to know that, for some are far more alive to their neighbour's danger than they are to their own; and so long as they are of that mind they will never fight to any purpose the fight to which we are called. The nearest foes are those that are first to be dealt with, and there is no victory for us until these are overcome, and our nearest foes are those within ourselves. There are doubts, perhaps, perplexing your mind and chilling your faith, and you must fight your way into clearness, facing them like a thoughtful, earnest man; for if you do not you may well chance to settle down in chill indifference to all that is at stake. Then there are lusts and appetites of the flesh which perhaps hotly assail you, and you must contend with them, and beat them into subjection, for otherwise they will grow just as they are gratified, and bind you in a bondage of shame. And there are still more malignant lusts of the mind, as envy, pride, malice, hatred, uncharitableness, revenge; and we must do resolute battle with these and slay them, for if we let them live on they will soon leave no life in us. And there is the love of the world and the things of the world, and we must set ourselves to deny and resist that; for oh, how many heartless souls there are that succumb to these allurements, and never strike one blow or win one victory in the good fight, because their hands have been weakened and their arms have been blunted by the world which they had folded to their hearts. But our warfare is not confined to these inward wrestles with deceitful lusts and hurtful snares; it is not our own souls only that have to be saved. You might be religious after a fashion, and yet rather a selfish kind of man, if that were all that you were caring for. And the selfish man, no matter even though his self-seeking concerns his highest interests, the selfish man is not the true Christian man. Our battlefield is the world. We may not stand neutral in any righteous cause. Is there ignorance, breeding its poisonous crop of superstition, which we can in any wise help to remove? Is there injustice done which we can either arrest or redress? Then it will not do for you and me to stand by and say it is no concern of ours. This is called a "good fight," and surely with good reasons. Sometimes we are in the way of saying, "that was a good fight," when all we mean is that it was well and stoutly contested; we praise the combatants simply because they did their part well. But here the phrase has afar deeper meaning than that. This is a good fight, whether we do our part in it well or ill. It is the cause that makes it good, as it is the cause alone that makes any warfare right. Alas! how few of the world's wars can lay any claim to that name. And to do all this by persuasion, by pity, by tender sympathy, by bearing each other's burdens, by the truth spoken in love, by meek and patient suffering for righteousness' sake, by faithful example, by brotherly kindness and charity. So with good weapons the good fight is to be fought. Not with wrangling and bitterness, not by malice and cunning, not by persecution and hatred, but by the gentle drawing of all cords of love. Think not to gain the victory here by ways or by forces which Christ has never used. But it is also called a fight of faith. And for that, too, there is good reason. It is a fight for faith, but specially and still more it is a fight by faith. Only by faith can the victory be won. It is a fight for the faith. Always the Christian has to do battle for the faith once delivered to the saints, to retain it for himself, and to hand it down to his children, and to maintain it for the world. Sad it is to think that after so many centuries of Christian history, it would almost seem as if the enmity to the gospel only grew more intense and more bitter. The culture and highest education of this age has, alas! largely drifted away from it into atheism agnosticism, esoteric Buddhism, and what not. What we have to contend for is faith in God, and for Christ as the revelation of God, and for faith in the immortal spirit and the life which is eternal; in short, for faith in its essential truth and in its purity, as Christ lived it and taught it, and as the apostles proclaimed it by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And as our good fight is for the faith, so also it is by faith that it must be carried on. It will not be well if we take to other weapons. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." He who said that was a master of clear and convincing reason. Very far was he from despising the intellect which God had given him for ordering all his thoughts aright. Always the soldier must have faith in his commander, faith in his skill, his courage, his loyalty, his capacity; and if he cannot trust these he is sure to be beaten. The rank and file, amid the smoke and dust of the conflict, perceive nothing but what lies close at their hand, and they may not be able to understand why they are ordered to keep this post or retire from that, why to rush on one peril, why to avoid another; but if they have faith in their leader they will say, He knows best; it is our business to be where he would have us to be, and to do what he would have us to do, and if we fall what matter, so long as the fight only be won?" Without such a faith there would be no battle gained. There is nothing for us, then, but to fight on in faith: and if we do not, if we choose our own way and not Christ's, does not our past experience tell us that that way leads to sorrow and disaster? When was it that you fell before the tempter, and were brought, perhaps, to shame? When was it that your efforts to do good to others proved barren and fruitless? Was it not then, when you were full of self-confidence and had lost your faith in God? And when were your victories won, when did you make any progress in godliness? Was it not then, when you put your trust in Christ and did His will, and left Him to make it all Clear in His own good time? (W. C. Smith, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. |
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