Fight the Good Fight

1 Timothy 6:11-16

Immanuel – 2/1/26

          For me, this passage is the pinnacle of Paul’s first letter to Timothy. Our world is restless with fading promises. People everywhere are in pursuit of vanishing glories. But in verses 11-16, the Apostle’s charge to Timothy is a thunderous blast of the holy seriousness of this Christian life: we are called not merely to believe, but to obey.

Because grace does not produce passivity, but perseverance. The God who sovereignly gives life to all things also summons his redeemed people to flee sin, proclaim the pure gospel, and fight the good fight of faith. This is no self-made struggle, but a life anchored in a “good confession,” founded in Christ, sustained by Christ, and hoping in the appearing of Christ.

He is the blessed and only Sovereign—dwelling in unapproachable light and reigning in eternal dominion. Our obedience issues from worship, our endurance from hope, and our calling from the God who will finish what He has begun.

Read vs 11

          Hopefully you can clearly see that verse 11 begins with a contrast: but as for you.

          The Ephesian false teachers accuse true teachers of preaching for money, but their charge is pure projection: it is their own hearts that desire wealth, status, possessions, and ease. They have become trapped by their temptations, falling into destructive patterns, and their sinful desires mutate and multiply. Unless they repent, their unchecked desires will be their ruin. Their materialistic cravings reveal that their teaching is driven not by devotion to Christ but by greed dressed up as godliness.

          But as for you, O man of God, flee these things! Paul wants Timothy to live and minister in an entirely different way than the Ephesian false teachers. Timothy is a man of God! He must not conform to the worldly teachers that have infiltrated the church! Flee from their ways!

          When faced with the temptations of greed and materialism, the temptation to use position for personal gain; Timothy, flee from these things! If you are a man or woman of God, flee from these things! Soon enough, Paul will talk about sticking around and fighting; but when you’re confronted with these temptations, if you wonder which impulse is correct – fight or flight – it’s flight! When it’s something you can legitimately have – when it dangles, delicious, right in front of you so all you have to do is reach out and take it – your ability to resist the seductive temptations of greed and materialism is on the level of resisting a grizzly bear attack. You can’t fight! You’re not strong enough! Run!

          But don’t just run terrified into the dark. Paul says there is a path that cuts through the darkness, a road of safety leading to an everlasting fortress. Flee from temptation and take the path of righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.

          Six worthy pursuits.

Righteousness. In this context righteousness means moral uprightness, living in a way that pleases God.

Godliness is God-centeredness, or Christ-centeredness; orienting all of life around Jesus.

Faith is trusting that God has acted on your behalf, and the life he offers is a life better than what you can produce.

Love is the outflow of faith in Jesus, and it is the aim of Paul’s whole letter. It’s the opposite of self-centeredness. Love is self-sacrificially giving yourself unto God and unto others just as Jesus did.

Steadfastness is endurance. You’ll need endurance whilst running from temptations. This is not a short sprint, but a marathon at full pace. Steadfastness is needed to sustain faith through the many years and adversities of life. Steadfastness keeps love pumping even when the world around you seems loveless.  

          Gentleness. This is perhaps the most unexpected pursuit of the six. But consider that these pursuits contrast with the false teachers. False teachers maintain their position through deception, manipulation, bullying, distraction, and so on. A man or woman of God, conversely, is to pursue gentleness.

          Gentleness is not a weakness, far from it! Of himself, Jesus said he is gentle and lowly of heart (Matthew 11:29); and Jesus is anything but weak. Gentleness means having a generous temper; to be soft when you could be rough, patient when you could lash out, caring though you could destroy.

          O people of God, flee from temptation and run towards righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. When we run from danger, we don’t run screaming into the dark. We run an ancient path leading to a mighty fortress. And from that fortress we turn to fight.

          For there is a time to flee and there is a time to fight.

          Read vs 12

          Surah 9:29 in the Quran says, “Fight those who do not believe in Allah…nor comply with what Allah and his messenger have forbidden…until they pay the tax, willingly submitting, fully humble.” Don’t believe the lie. Islam is not a religion of peace. Allah commands Muslims to fight, to use force, to take up arms against unbelievers until they “willingly submit.”

          Christians too are called to fight, but not by force. As Jesus said,

          “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”                                                           -John 18:36

          Jesus’ kingdom is not a geopolitical entity like the kingdoms of earth. His kingdom is where the will of his Father is done, where the name of God is hallowed, where what is done in heaven is done on earth. Such a kingdom could never be established by violence.

          In 1 Timothy 1:18, Paul writes about “the good warfare.” The war is good because Christ has already won the decisive victory at the cross. It’s good because as we press forward, false teaching falls, sinners are saved, and the dead are raised from death to life. The warfare is good because our weapons are not those that destroy but those that lead to freedom and victory and life – the weapons of faith and love.

          Without a doubt, for the man or woman of God, fight the good fight of faith can take on lots of meanings. But right here in chapter 6 there is a meaning close at hand. Paul just lambasted false teachers, and the way they distort the gospel and sow corruption in the church. Timothy has come to make battle with them by proclaiming the gospel, teaching the apostolic message, all while aiming at faith and love.

          In other words, Timothy fought the good fight through proclaiming and upholding the word of God, toiling to cultivate God’s word in people’s hearts that faith and love would abound.

          Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling (fighting) with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.                            -Colossians 1:28-29

          Can you hear what fighting the good fight means? We fight to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. We fight for the life-giving Word of God to maintain its purity, that people would grow in wisdom and maturity, in faith and love.

          This is our good warfare. This is our life – our eternal life. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. Eternal life does not only mean our life after death. It can’t, because Paul is telling Timothy to take hold of it now. O men and women of God, so must we! Christ came to give life, and life abundantly (John 10:10). We are promised abundant life in Christ now and forevermore: Take hold of it!

          “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”                             -John 3:16

          The moment you believed this truth in your heart, and confessed it with your mouth (Romans 10:9), is the moment your eternal life began. And your faith in Jesus, when you confess the gospel to be true, that is evidence that you have been called. See that in verse 12, only those who are called are brought into eternal life, and if they are called then they make the good confession.

The good confession in the presence of many witnesses could mean a few things, but it certainly has meaning when a person is baptized. Normally, when a person is baptized, it is in the presence of the church – many witnesses. When you go beneath the water you identify yourself with Christ’s death: as he died, so does your old self die. When you come out of the water you identify with Christ’s resurrection: as he rose to everlasting life, so too do you rise.

Your eternal life began at the moment God called you into it, and then you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. If you have so generously been given eternal life, take hold of it, fight for it, wage war that you and others might enter into it – partially now, fully forever!

          Read vs 13

          I know it’s hard right now, but imagine being jolted awake by a midnight thunderstorm. In a spiritual sense, that’s the effect of Paul’s charge. If Timothy is drifting into apathy, or spiritual laziness, or hoping to somehow find a less confrontational way, Paul wants his charge to thunderclap Timothy to his senses!

He does this in four ways.

The first thunderclap of Paul’s charge: In the presence of God. Jesus himself has made Paul his Apostle. His words carry the same authority of Christ’s. “The Judge is watching, Timothy, do not discard my words!” The Judge watches us too. What will we do with Paul’s words?

The second thunderclap of Paul’s charge: who gives life to all things. The eternal life Timothy is promised, the life which he must take hold of, God is the one who gives that life. Life now, life forever, and all things that live, are sustained by him. Life is but a breath, how will you live it? Will you live it for the one who gave you life, and can give you everlasting life; or will you live for yourself – though you can’t even prevent your hairs from going grey?

The third thunderclap of Paul’s charge: and of Christ Jesus – meaning, in the presence of Christ Jesus. Just as we live under the watchful eye of God, and just as God sustains all life, so also does Jesus. Paul is placing Jesus on the same level as God. Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3), he is the exact imprint of the nature of God. He too watches. He too gives and takes away. What will you do with the command he has given you, O man of God?

The fourth thunderclap of Paul’s charge: who in his testimony to Pontius Pilate made the good confession. Just as Timothy confessed Jesus to be King, Jesus confessed himself to be King.

Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

                                                                   -John 18:37

Timothy might face hardship and persecution for confessing Jesus as Lord. Jesus faced the cross. If Jesus faced the cross on your behalf, will you be a coward when it is time to fight the good fight?

Read vs 13-15a

Keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach. The commandment is Paul’s shorthand for everything he has commanded in his letter. But Paul’s letter is directly tied to the words of Jesus. His letter is tied, also, to the Mosaic Law. I’ve demonstrated that a multitude of times as we’ve journeyed through this letter. Thus, in a much larger sense, keep the commandment is a reference of all of Scripture – all of God’s word. Keep it!

Keep God’s word unstained, above reproach. The false teachers had so stained the word of God that it was unrecognizable, leading people to shipwreck their faith (1 Timothy 1:19). Timothy, along with every man and woman of God – as if we are fighting earth’s the most significant battle, as if in our ears resound claps of heaven’s thunder – with all of our might we uphold the purity, magnificence, and transformative power of God’s word! For are we not, church, the household of God, the pillar and buttress of the truth?!

Let us not tarnish Scripture by living in contradiction to what it says. Let us not ruin the gospel for others by weaving lies into it. Keep it unstained, above reproach! Proclaim the pure gospel, that God’s name be hallowed, his kingdom come, his will be done!

In such a way we shall fight until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus is returning! Just as he ascended into the clouds, so shall he return (Acts 1:10-11). Everywhere Scripture attests that Christ will return in glory, in the body, at the end of the age, at the time when the Father has appointed.

And with Christ’s return the church shall be saved, resurrected and glorified, and the wicked shall be judged. We who have longed for Christ’s appearing will be with him, and he with us; and he will wipe away every tear from our eye, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. The former things will have passed away and the new, come! (Revelation 21:3-4) Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

And upon these heights, as we all should do, Paul erupts in worship!

Read vs 15b-16

Let’s take each of these attributes one at a time.

The blessed and only Sovereign. To be blessed is to have a fortune of happiness, redounding joy. He is the only Sovereign. There are no other gods before him. He is the first and the last, seeing the beginning from the end, possessing all things, above all things, beyond all things. And there, dwelling in ineffable joy, he is the living God!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the Son who came from the Father, Jesus Christ. (John 1:1,14) Jesus is God!

The King of kings and Lord of lords. Casaer thought himself to be king of kings and lord of lords, but he is an ant before the true King and Lord. Every ruler of the earth is subject to the Lord. All forces in the universe are subject to this great King!

And because Jesus lowered himself from heaven, to take to form of a sinful man on earth, and went to the cross in place of sinners, The Father has given Jesus the name of above every name. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings, possessing all authority in heaven and on earth. (Philippians 2:6-11)

Who alone has immortality. God is the very essence of life, and death cannot touch him. The great fear and horror of humanity is death: to lose all that is precious, even our selves, lost to the abyss of nothing, is terror. Yet God exists above human desperation, and in love has entered our desperation to save us.

Jesus died our death to defeat our death, and never again shall he die. He has immorality, and whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life! (John 3:16) God alone has immortality, and through Jesus he shares immortality with all who believe.

Who dwells in unapproachable light. As one commentator says, “God’s association with light is nearly ubiquitous in Scripture as is insistence on his uniqueness.”¹ He is transcendent, infinitely beyond, holy, holy, holy! But even the light he dwells within, radiating from him, is unapproachable. The outer rim of his glory is instant death for the impure; for our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).

But Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:3). For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). Light, once unapproachable, shines in our hearts! Now, as Jesus said, we are the lights of the world (Matthew 5:14)!

Whom no one has ever seen or can see. In other words, God is so beyond, so otherly, he is unknowable. He is beyond human sight and human minds. Though certain elements may be naturally discerned about God, knowing God is beyond us. Thus, any revelation he gives of himself is more precious than all of earth’s treasures!

But as we read in John 1:18, No one has ever seen God; the only God…[Jesus] has made him known. Jesus has made the Father known to us (John 15:15). Jesus is the Father’s nature in human form. Jesus is God in the flesh, and he can be seen! Without parallel, he is earth’s greatest treasure!

To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. If we are to honor one another with in the church, how much more Jesus?! May all the earth lift its voice in honor of such a great King! His kingdom come, his will be done, one earth as it is in heaven!

What should we know? Our battle is to keep the word of God unstained from hypocrisy and falsehoods.

What should we believe? On your own, you are too weak to resist temptation. Flee! Believe that your only hope is to pursue the things that lead to Jesus. Run to him! God’s word is your refuge!

What should we do? If you are in Christ, fight the good fight of faith by proclaiming the gospel and upholding purity of God’s word. Toil to cultivate God’s word in people’s hearts, that faith and love would abound.

¹Yarbrough, R. (2018). The Letters to Timothy and Titus. Pg 332. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.