1 Timothy 6:11-12 ( NKJV )
But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
As we have studied the woman with the issue of blood from Mark 5, we have seen the power of both conviction and decision where faith is concerned. Once again, we have looked at faith in light of a definition from Easton’s Bible Dictionary that describes faith as a state of mind where one is convinced that a certain thing is true. Although we will learn that faith is certainly more than a mental exercise, there is a strong mental component. The things in life or in our relationship with God that we are convinced are true will either free us or hinder us when it comes to believing God.
The woman with the issue of blood was convinced that if she could get to Jesus, if she could touch his garment, she would be healed. This was not a direction from God but a decision on her part. She made a choice and that choice carried her through some major difficulties until she saw her need met. The short term of faith was hard for her, but the end result was worth it. We are no different. Often our short term is difficult, but if we do not give up we will always see the right results in the end.
Paul tells Timothy to fight the good fight of faith. A good fight is one you win. Sometimes we are content to say, “We didn’t give up. We put up a good struggle. We lost, but it was a good fight.” In some sense that is true, but when we are talking about God, He never loses. A good fight is one that is fought properly. With God as our ally, if we fight the fight the right way losing is simply not possible. What are the elements, then, that make for a good fight of faith.
Paul gives Timothy some clues. He uses 2 very aggressive words. The first is flee. If we are going to fight the right way there are some things we have to flee. We find the first group in vs 3-5.
1 Timothy 6:3-5 ( NKJV )
If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness,
he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.
The first thing I want to highlight is pride. Faith is, by nature a matter of confidence. Confidence and pride are two sides of the same coin. There is a term that describes them well. Reciprocal. I was never very math oriented, but I know that reciprocal fractions are fractions that have the same numbers only in reverse order. 1/4 and 4/1 for instance. The thing about reciprocals is that they cancel one another out. If you multiply 1/4 by 4/1 you get 1. Put in any numbers for the numerator and denominator and the result will be the same.
Faith and pride are reciprocals. If they try to occupy the same space they will always cancel each other out. Where spiritual things are concerned this is always a bad thing. It always results in no results. If we are going to fight the good fight of faith we must eliminate pride from the equation. If I am in real faith I am absolutely confident of success. But I must always remember that the success I am confident of does not depend on my faith but on God’s power. My faith is simply the vehicle that enables God to move. If God does not move my faith means nothing. God can move without my faith, but my faith has no power without God’s moving.
This pride may manifest many ways, but Paul points to one we should be careful of. If we find ourselves arguing and caught up in disputes with our brothers or sisters we are allowing pride to work. We may think we are defending the truth, but Paul makes a rather harsh statement. He says that we know nothing when we give into this kind of thing. Why. Because the strife and pride cut off our faith and the “knowledge” we may be displaying is ignorance where it counts. This opens the door to a whole list of undesirable things that all cancel the effectiveness of faith. They must be done away with if we are going to fight properly.
The very last statement in verse 5 leads us to another major area we must flee. He says that people who are destitute of the truth think that Godliness is just a means to gain. We must withdraw from that thought.
1 Timothy 6:6-10 ( NKJV )
Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
I believe God delights in blessing His children. I believe prosperity in every area of life is the inheritance of the children of God. However the point of faith cannot be gain alone. In order to fight the good fight of faith we need to remember that this world is not the point of anything we do as believers. Money, wealth and prosperity are powerful enticements particularly in our society. He says that those who will to be rich, who make being rich the point of life, fall into many problems.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with being rich. I don’t think either having or not having wealth is a true gage of spirituality. The fight of faith, however, cannot be conducted if the pursuit of wealth takes the main place in our thinking. It leaves too great an opening for the devil to tempt us, deceive us and lead us into wrong thinking and wrong believing. He says this wrong focus causes people to be pierced through with many sorrows. As a pastor I have seen this first hand.
The blessings of God should be a result of our faith not the focus of it. Does that mean we can’t believe for specific things? Not at all. We must find promises in the Word, meditate on them and believe that God is going to bring them to pass in our lives. That should be the result. The goal must remain to please God in all things. To live as He would have us to live. We should spend more time focusing our faith on right living than on receiving blessings. If we won’t find promises that will help us overcome sin, walk in truth and love one another, we will find it difficult to receive the blessing of the ones that promise healing and prosperity. We must be willing to flee from the love of money if we are going to fight the good fight of faith.
That brings us to what Paul tells timothy to pursue. But, alas, that must wait for tomorrow.
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