1 Timothy 6:12
12 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.
Paul speaks of the faith as including a good fight. He commands Timothy to fight the good fight. As we may extrapolate from Paul’s use of this description of the Christian life, to be in a fight implies two outcomes. A winner and a non-winner, what was called a loser in years past! Is this a message that Paul crouches in this metaphor? I will leave that to my gentle reader to consider.
Moving on, Paul speaks of taking hold of eternal life. At the risk of sounding sarcastic, why would any believer need to take hold of something he already possesses, and that he has contractual agreements signed and sealed at his disposal? You see, while I was in the OSAS camp, I was under the impression that when I repented, and trusted in Christ, I entered into a binding covenant with God that could not be nullified. Now before someone blows up and starts claiming I am a heretic, God’s faithfulness in never-ending, keeping His covenant with a believer perfectly, protecting, guiding and providing for His child as the perfect Father. He is beyond our frail attempt to describe in terms of faithfulness to His child.
Paul’s topic is not God in this verse but the believer, and the believer’s faithfulness to God. Paul is telling the believer to take hold, to firmly grip, to grasp tightly or to seize upon eternal life.
Timothy had been called by God. Timothy had openly confessed a faith in front of witnesses. Now Timothy – wrestle with it, fight to understand and obey the message. Grab on and don’t let go for anything. Seize the message, hang on to the feet of Jesus and when the going get’s tough, is unbearable and you loose heart, remember two things.
- We are a faithless bunch, weak and willing to walk. We cannot consider ourselves to be up for the challenge, outside of the grace of God.
- He is faithful, and willing to strengthen, direct, teach, encourage and discipline us, for our good, in order that we may mature and become the people of God.
Look to Him. Fight to focus on the goodness of God and not the evil of man. Struggle with the truths of the Scripture, to understand the message He has provided and to not simply accept a teaching. Prove yourself to be a believer in your thoughts, attitudes and actions.
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