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. 1 Tim 6:12 (ESV)
Fighting Fit – Part 6
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Paul wrote to Timothy and encouraged him to,
“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.” – 1 Tim 6:11-12 ESV
Paul was speaking with Timothy about the pursuit of wealth and how the status of being rich can cause you so many troubles. In The Message Bible, 1 Timothy 6:6-8 says,
“A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough.”
There are so many things that beckon for our pursuit. And if we don’t know who we are, individually and collectively, we can fall into following anything. It's that conquest for significance, security and control that we talked about a few days ago. It pits man against man in the never ending pursuit of who is the strongest, richest, wisest, bestest… It’s a sad, sad war that sees much unnecessary destruction. It begins in marriages, and then into children, into schools, workplaces, streets, towns, cities, districts, states… the world, and then back again. We spend too much time, money and energy fighting with each other – in and out of faith. We cast blame, we accuse, point fingers, aim guns, raise fists… and all the while we are fighting the wrong war.
A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God.
The good fight of faith. The battle for your own soul, the struggle for peace and hope and wisdom that is wrestled within. Don’t let yourself get distracted by who and what seems to be our enemy. When we know our true identity in Christ, we KNOW that our identity is mirrored in every other living soul. We are all connected. We are each one, made of dust and to dust we will return. Our spirits originated in the heart and mind of God and with love and longing he birthed us unto the world with the grand hope that we may WAKE UP and see him. See him for who he really is. And keep on discovering him until the day we move from this life to the next.
Don't pursue your vindication. Don’t chase after significance, or fame or fortune, or hatred, greed, fear, lust, anger…
But with your whole life pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Don't fight others. Don’t raise your arms against each other, strengthen them to hold one another. And together we can fight the good fight of faith.
The fight to love, the fight to hope, the fight for peace.
Ecclesiastes tell us that eternity has been hidden in the heart of every man, woman and child. Let's spend our energy, not fighting to win, but fighting to awaken people to the truth that lays dormant, but very much alive, within them. The eternal, the infinite, the homing beacon for our land of origin… the love of God.
That's something worth fighting for.
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