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Fighting the Good Fight
Fighting the Good Fight
Near the end of his life the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy encouraging and instructing him to guard the faith, fighting the good fight. The agony that Paul speaks of is the struggle that arises when we stand for, defend, and live by the faith. Fight1 the good2 fight of the faith, take hold of eternal life into which you have been called, and you verbally agreed the good confession before many witnesses, 1 Timothy 6:12.
“The faith” is the body of doctrine that Christians are to live by. As saints in Christ we are not under any quality of law, yet, today so many want to put arbitrary, restrictive, and un-Scriptural rules on the saints on how they are to live and please God, taking the Old Testament and miss applying it to Christians while denying in practice that the Church is under a different covenant based upon different promises. (But now He has obtained a different religious service, by as much as also He is a mediator of a better covenant which was legislated upon better promises, Hebrews 8:6).
Let us fight the proper fight. Let us stand up for the faith. Lets us take God at His Word and live out from faith, not out from law. We all have a course to run that God has set before us. Let us run it properly, not allowing those who would pervert the faith to hinder us. In doing so, perhaps at the end of our lives here on earth we can say, “I have fought the proper fight. I have finished the course. I have guarded the faith.3”
1. Struggling, contending, striving – used of competing in […]
Good Reads
Resources for learning and growing in your Christian life
Maturing in Christ focuses on Christian truth that relates to living a successful spiritual life. Before a Christian can realize a consistent victorious spiritual life some basic truths must be understood: the riches given by God at salvation to live Christ-like; who the spiritual enemies are and how they attack; and how to utilize divine enabling when resisting the enemies in order to live a successful Christian life.
ISBN-13: 9781609578381
ISBN-10: 1609578384 Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871 – 1952) was an American theologian who founded the Dallas Theological Seminary. Chafer was mentored by C.I. Scofield and became a key figure for Christian Dispensationalism in the early 20th century.
ISBN-10: 1519506619
ISBN-13: 978-1519506610 The subject of this book is a systematic study from Scripture of a believer’s Position and Possessions because he is “in Christ.” These truths are practical – divinely practical for the true Christian. They are the basis for all spiritual growth.
ISBN-10: 0967079608
ISBN-13: 978-0967079608 Entirely Christ-centered, Chafer’s work is a detailed discussion of the dispensational premillennial system of theology. This 4-volume edition contains the complete text and indexes of the original 8-volume set.
ISBN: 0825423406
ISBN-13: 9780825423406 On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God began immersing grace believers into the Body of Christ, the Church which is His Body. That Body is a kingdom of priests. As a result, there are unique provisions for the grace […]
Fight the Good Fight
1 Timothy 1:18-20
This is the message I set alongside you, child Timothy, according to the the prophecies having gone before upon you, in order that you should fight the good fight by them, holding faith and a good conscience, which some rejecting have shipwrecked concerning the faith, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, who I hand over to Satan in order that they should be child trained not to blaspheme.
The Message Paul set alongside Timothy, 1 Timothy 1:18-20
- According to the prophecies that have gone before him
- Timothy has a spiritual gift given to him through prophecy, 1 Timothy 4:14
- Prophecy is not by the desirous will of man nor of a single person’s interpretation, 2 Peter 1:20, 21
- Prophecy is not active today within the Church, 1 Corinthians 13:8
- He should fight a good fight
- Our fight is not a physical fight, 2 Corinthians 10:3
- We do not fight of our own accord, 1 Corinthians 9:7
- Getting oneself caught up in daily life, 2 Timothy 2:4
- Holding faith in a good conscience
- A quality of faith
- A quality of a good conscience
- Some reject a good conscience and shipwreck the faith
- Israel rejected God in the wilderness, Acts 7:39
- The Jews reject the salvation, Act 13:46
- God did not nor has rejected the Jewish nation, Romans 11:1, 2
- Their faith is shipwrecked
- Used metaphorically for something or someone that has been brought to ruin.
- Predominate example of its use outside of Scripture in the common language.
- Two of which Paul turned over to Satan
- So they should be taught (child trained) not to blasphemy
- They did not lose their salvation
- Hymenaeus and Alexander were falsely attributing things to God
To Hold Down (κατέχω)
To hold down (κατέχω) conveys the act of preventing, hindering, or holding onto something or someone.
In the parable of the land owner who planted a vineyard and leased it out so that he could go to a far away country, the vinedressers sought to hold down his son’s inheritance by killing him (Matthew 21:38). By slaying the heir, they perceived that they would be able to prevent the owner from taking what was rightfully his.
While talking about the Kingdom of the Heavens and how the message is impacting those hearing it, Jesus speaks the parable of the sower and the seeds. Unlike the message of salvation today, which holds an inherent ability to save a person (Romans 1:16), the good news of the Kingdom of the Heavens could be snatched out of the heart of those who heard it. However, those who heard the word with a proper and good heart, prevented the loss of the message in their heart, resulting in bearing fruit (Luke 8:15). Therefore, their lives were impacted by the message of the Messiah because they believed God.
A quality of the wrath of God is manifested today against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). The wicked do not succeed because they evade justice, but rather, because God gives them over to uncleanness and the strong desires of their hearts due to their rejection of the truth. As a result, their minds become depraved, calling good evil while being filled with all forms of unrighteousness, thus bringing upon themselves the fullness of judgment (Romans 1:32).
When we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our […]