Title: Fight the Good Fight for the True Faith I Timothy 6:3-21 Introduction • The title comes from straight from (I Tim. 6:12). • This is one of 9 commands in chapter 6. • The command to “fight”, is the 5th command, and I think sums up the final challenge to Christians and to the church in 1 Timothy. Who is right? Tozer or Lewis? • “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” - A. W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy • “How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except in so far as it is related to how He thinks of us.” - C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory • The book of 1 Timothy tells us what God thinks of us, His people, His church and what true faith in Him looks like. The Purpose of 1 Timothy “… you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth.” - 1 Timothy 3:15 (NLT) • The Church is the true wonder of the world. • The church is God’s house, God’s family, God’s body, God’s bride secured on the foundation of God’s unchanging truth. • God’s people are the pillars of the community – lifting up truth – living out truth – for the good of the community, and the promise of eternal life. • There is no greater wonder than God’s view and plan for His church. Fight for True Faith 1 Timothy 6:2b (NLT), “Teach these things, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. 3 Some people may contradict our teaching, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These teachings promote a godly life…” • The first two commands are “teach” and “encourage.” • The best way to fight for true faith is to teach true faith and encourage everyone to know the truth, follow the truth, and obey the truth. • The problem in this church was these false teachers were heterodox. They mixed contrary/contradictory claims together. Heterodoxy would be like believing in married bachelors or square circles. Heterodoxy would say all religions are the same, but this is impossible, since they are fundamentally different/contradictory. • Paul describes these false teachers in v4, “… they lack understanding, they are corrupt, they have turned their backs on the truth.” • Orthodox = True • Unorthodox = False • Heterodox = Mixed (1:3; 6:3) • If you want a sound mind in truthless times, remember these two truths: 1. You can know the truth. 2. The opposite of true is false. • True faith is a fight for what is true and pointing out what contradictory and false. “He that is not zealous against error, is not likely to be zealous for truth.” - J. C. Ryle, Knots Untied “The church faces her biggest challenge not when new errors start to win but when old truths no longer wow.” - Trevin Wax, The Thrill of Orthodoxy Fight the Good Fight 1 Timothy 6:11 (NLT), “But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.” • Flee = “escape, shun” • Pursue = “hunt, chase” • If Timothy or any Christian wants to be a man of God, or a woman of God, we cannot be passive, or complacent. Old habits/addictions must go, and new virtues/freedoms must be pursued. • The whole key to Christian growth depends largely on what we are fleeing from and what we are pursuing. • There are 7 things to pursue in this chapter: We must pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, and contentment (these four are character qualities). And we must pursue love, patience, gentleness (these three are the fruit of the Spirit which the Sprit of God produces in the believer.) • There are 7 things to flee from in this chapter: We are to flee from pride, envy, greed, constant quarreling, trouble-making, slander and evil. • All these evils are the fruit of false teachers. SUMMARY: Flee from ungodliness. Pursue true godliness. God knows the difference, and we should too. • The false teachers in 1 Timothy were church leaders that drifted, they were found to be ungodly, greedy men who loved money and loved attention. Paul removed them from the church. What is true godliness? • “Godliness is an ongoing reverence for God and submission to His will that conforms us to Christ.” • The good fight is the fight to be godly. Fight 1 Timothy 6:12b (NLT), “Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses. 13 And I charge you before God, who gives life to all, and before Christ Jesus, who gave a good testimony before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you obey this command without wavering. Then no one can find fault with you from now until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again… 20… guard what God has entrusted to you.” • Fight, is the central command in chapter 6. • “Fight” comes from a gk word that means to “agonize.” • Timothy, and every Christian is commanded to agonize, to labor, strive, and not waver in true faith. • Two more commands explain how we must fight… • 1st – v12b, We fight by holding tightly to eternal life – that is the gift of God (salvation) and also the promise of eternal rewards in heaven. • 2nd – v20, We fight by guarding what God has entrusted to us – we guard the saving message of the Gospel, so it is not watered down, distorted, or corrupted in any way. • The Gospel is the greatest news we will ever hear, the greatest treasure in the world. • The church must safeguard the Gospel treasure so others can know the way, the truth, and eternal life in Christ. • All through this letter we have been reading continuous warnings of people loosing faith, drifting from faith, wandering from faith, denying the faith, turning from faith, shipwrecking their faith. • So, it is fitting at the end of 1 Timothy, to have these two positive commands to hold on and guard the message. • Charles Spurgeon, “Those who take hold of eternal life will have to fight for it.” The spiritual life is a constant contest “against the world, the flesh, and the devil,” demanding a daily warfare.” CONCLUSION “There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. 6 He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone.” - 1 Timothy 2:5 • This is a statement of true Christian faith. • We teach/encourage people to know it and believe it. • We pursue it and flee from anything that contradicts it. • We fight hold on to eternal life and guard this treasure of Good News – that Christ alone has come to save all who will believe in Him.