Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession before many witnesses.Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.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.Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal, whereunto thou wast called, and didst confess the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.
8 sermons cite this verse
… to God the Father—in the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who, while testifying before Pontius Pilate, made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command. Now, I've found it difficult to hurry through these verses because they are so packed with material. And I'm not sure but that we need to back up even a phrase or two beyond where we have gone this evening and deal with the matter of God giving life to everything. But there is a whole series of study within this little charge that is given to Timothy. And I determined that since we are where we are in the church's calendar, that we would go from the point of reference here concerning Pontius Pilate to one of the gospel records that provide for us the very thing to which Paul is referring as he calls Timothy to make sure that he keeps this good confession without spot and without blame. And so it is from 1 Timothy 6 that we find ourselves in John chapter 18, rather than simply because of the time of year. And what I want to do in the time that is available to us is to look with you for a moment or two about how the Lord Jesus made this good confession before Pontius Pilate. …
forever. Amen. Let's pause in a moment of prayer. Make the book live to me, O Lord. Show me yourself within your Word. Show me myself, and show me my Savior, and make the book live to me. For Jesus' sake, amen. Do not be like them. That was Jesus' statement to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount when he encouraged them to be radically different from those who were their pagan neighbors. These individuals were concerned about all kinds of things on a very natural level, and Jesus said to his disciples, If you're going to follow me, and if you're going to declare your trust in me, then do not be like them. Now, that simple phrase could so easily have been taken up and employed by Paul as he comes to this particular point in his exhortation of Timothy. Because he has been pointing out to Timothy and to Timothy's readers the fact that the false teachers who had made such an impact in the community in which Timothy was ministering, were themselves involved in fruitless squabbles. They were greedy, double-talking, troublemakers. And it was imperative that if Timothy's ministry was going to have the kind of impact that God intended, then Timothy mustn't be like these folks—individuals who, by their very lifestyle, had indicated the fact that they saw ministry and godliness as a means to financial gain. And between verse 3 and verse 10 of chapter 6, although not for the first time, Paul is pointing out the vices of these individuals. …
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Father, I pray that you might take my words and speak through them, that you will take our minds and help us to think through them, and that you will take our hearts and set them on fire with love for the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. The directive of Paul can be seen in these two verses by focusing on the imperatives, the verbs which he uses to call Timothy to a particular life of action. We do well to remind ourselves, incidentally, as we move towards the close of our studies, that Paul gives the context of his writing in the fifteenth verse of chapter 3, where he talks about how people should conduct themselves in the house of God. And in Philip's paraphrase of those verses, we have these words, At the moment of writing, I hope to be with you soon, but if there should be any considerable delay, then what I have written will show you the sort of character men of God's household ought to have—the sort of character and conduct which should mark men and women within the framework of God's church. And to that express purpose, Paul has ordered under the direction of the Holy Spirit the material in this letter, and has spoken regarding the conduct of various groups, …
… well something's probably wrong if you don't feel the fight just just do some homework with god First Timothy chapter six, verse 12 says, fight the good fight. I love this. The good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. Fight it. Not only do we fight it, we do something else. We identify evil. Hebrews chapter five, 14 says, solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. you've got to know your opponent. Did you watch the game last night? I'm talking about the game. Texas versus Ohio State. What if, okay, okay. What if when Texas hit the field, what if they were like, who are we playing? I mean, what if it was just the University of Texas and their opponent didn't show up and their entire schedule this year was just question marks? You would go, oh, that's ludicrous, Ed. Well, that's how ludicrous a lot of us are when it comes to fighting the good fight of faith. …
… your life will head toward ugliness. in 1 Timothy 6 verses 8 through 12. But if we have food and clothing, we'll be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people. The word that's translated plunge there is often translated drown. That drown people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith, pierced themselves, that's, I've run out of fingers on my hands. So go to the next one, have pierced themselves with many griefs. God has, there's actually 12 things that are in this passage. warnings about what will happen to us if we are lovers of money, if we desire to be rich more than anything else. If that's our driving motivation, then we're going to have disastrous consequences. But then turn it around. Eight verses later, in 1 Timothy 6, 18 through 19, Paul urges the rich, quote, be rich in good works, be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasures for yourself as a good foundation for the coming age. And obviously he's thinking of Matthew 6, what Jesus said about storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Now, the thing that's so encouraging about that is that if you look at James, weep and howl, you rich, for the judgment that's going to come down on you. …
… can't see. Well, they can't see our faith, but they can see us fight for faith. And I say that because Paul says two chapters later, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 12, fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. What does it mean to fight for faith? well it means being prepared to fight a lot of Christians don't want to fight they want Christianity to be easy they want to sit back and they're just going to wait for God to do something but mature Christians they take hold of this life that God has given them in Christ they expect obstacles and opposition to come They know it's going to be hard at times. They make time to meet with God even when it's not convenient, even when they're tired, even when they're working extra shifts at work or when there's deadlines coming for school. They commit to a local church even while they're in college, and then they keep showing up and showing up to serve her in all the ways that they can. …
… love, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Command those who are rich in this present age, in this present world, not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life, the best of both worlds, laying up treasure for the coming age, but taking hold of life that is truly life here and now. He says, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith. …
… Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you are called, about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6, 11 and 12. Stretch and guard those many gifts God has given to you and the ones yet to come. So be active. Stretch your legs as you guard what's been given to us by God. But now there's another stretch for the mature. Stretch your mind. Paul spoke of this in Philippians 3 when he described his own moving forward. Paul said, Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3, 13-14. What a great picture of a mature man of faith stretching forward. After all Paul had done, he still wasn't done. It was time in his later years to lean forward, to know fully the upward call and mercy of God, knowing that his understanding and his thanksgiving weren't done yet. Isn't that a wonderful picture of our own mature years? Are we completely finished in our understanding of the work God has done for us? …