Fight the Good Fight—2

Now to 1 Timothy 6.  We need to see and acknowledge exactly we find in these verses, without any theological prejudice.  In verses 7-10 Paul warns us that loving material things is very dangerous.  The love of money can easily become the ruling desire of our lives.  The apostle warns of those who have “wandered away from the faith” in verse 10.  This is very sobering, especially in our time of immense prosperity.  Material things are not evil in themselves; it is the love of them that is so deadly.  It is when this love captures the heart, and drives out any desire for God, that eternal life is at peril.  Those who proclaim the “health and wealth” gospel must cut many verses from their Bibles.  We must take Paul’s warning seriously.  Loving material things destroys the heart’s desire to respond to God; it makes saving faith impossible.  Loving the world is so tempting that Paul exhorts Timothy to “flee from these things” (verse 11).  The apostle expands on that in the following verse.  Fleeing destructive desires requires us to “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called” (verse 12).  Look at how these thoughts connect.  In order to take hold of eternal life, the believer must fight.  But if we love the world, we will not flee its destructive influences.  The result is wandering away from the faith and failing to take hold of eternal life.  Wealthy Christians especially must not ignore this or take it lightly.  Too much is at stake.  Paul continues his instruction on how to fight the good fight by solemnly charging Timothy to be diligent to obey God’s commands until Jesus Christ returns.  We must continue to pursue holiness all the days of our lives (verses 13-14).  The importance of this is seen in the way the apostle formally charges Timothy “in the presence of God, who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus.”  Paul’s unique reference to our Lord’s testimony before Pontius Pilate carries great significance.  I think the point is that nothing should keep us from obeying God, no matter how costly or painful to us.  The passage comes full circle in verses 17-19, in which the emphasis returns to those who “are rich in this present world.”  And again they are warned that in order to “take hold of that which is life indeed” their wealth must be at God’s disposal.  Paul concludes with yet another reference to those who have “gone astray from the faith” (verse 21), and a plea to Timothy to guard himself from the worldly ideas that could pull him in the same destructive direction.