Sermon Text: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
Date: July 2, 2023
Event: The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 8, Year A
1 Timothy 6:11-16 (EHV)
But you, O man of God, flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life, to which you were called and about which you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who made a good confession as a witness before Pontius Pilate, 14that you keep this command without spot and without fault, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which he will make known at the proper time—the blessed and only ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16who alone has immortality, who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or is able to see. To him be honor and power forever! Amen.
Fight the Good Fight
One of the things that I’ve had to learn over and over again is that most problems only last for a season, but in the moment, they often seem like they will never end. For example, when you have a newborn and you’re getting barely any sleep, there are moments where it can feel like this your entire life now—you will never sleep again. Or more nonsensically and melodramatically, as your flight is delayed over and over again it can feel like you’re never going to get to leave that place and, in fact, perhaps you will have to live in the airport forever.
But what is true about those situations? Eventually, the flight will work out (or at least you’ll get out of that airport, even if it means driving away in a rental car). The kiddo will get bigger, and whether it takes weeks, or months, or even years, eventually the new parents will get something approaching normal sleep again. Bad things are rarely permanent.
As the apostle Paul wrote to young pastor Timothy, he was encouraging him toward faithfulness in the work God had put in front of him. With what attitude should he approach his ministry? This section addresses church leaders, but it also applies to all Christians. What does it mean to carry out the work God has given us in this world? What does it mean to function as forgiven sinners in a world still corrupted by sin? How does a Christian appropriately understand their role and task as “fight[ing] the good fight of faith”?
Our reading began in the middle of Paul’s line of thought. He said, “But you, O man of God, flee from these things.” The “these things” that Paul mentions here are false teaching, greed, and the love of money and material wealth in general which he had addressed earlier in Chapter 6. These things are not to be tolerated among pastors or other leaders in the church; they are not to be tolerated among Christians at large. But we can’t fully escape from them; we can’t be shielded from their influence or temptation. So, in part, the life of a Christian is literally running away from sin and its lies.
When we’re running away from sin, we’re not simply escaping, but we are running toward something. Paul’s encouragement to Timothy continues: flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. The life of a Christian involves not only avoiding sin but also pursuing good works that please God. This effort of avoiding sin and prioritizing God’s will is fight[ing] the good fight of faith.
But… how? We know that we will never be perfect, which is what God expects. We know that we will continue to fall short. No matter how well we run, sin will at least nip our heels. No matter how intensely we strive for those good, God-pleasing things, we will fall short.
Paul leaves some of this implied but encourages Timothy to what his motivation and strength in this fight will be based on: Take hold of eternal life, to which you were called and about which you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. How can you take hold of eternal life? What is the good confession that Timothy and Christians for millennia have made? It has nothing to do with how good we are. We don’t earn this; we don’t deserve this. Fight[ing] the good fight of faith always presupposes saving faith—trust that Jesus lived and died to take away my sins. It includes the comfort and assurance that in Jesus’ resurrection, we have the certainty of our own resurrections and of eternal life with him.
That means we no longer love sin—though it is still present with us on this side of eternity. Our joy in God’s free and full forgiveness motivates us to seek those things that please him and thank him for all he has done for us.
But this pursuit of God’s will may put us at odds with those around us. Family may dislike our actions; friends may mock our priorities; perfect strangers may insult us for our beliefs and thoughts (or at least, their perceptions of them). Jesus had some stark words about this conflict in our Gospel for this morning: “Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:34-39).
Now, it is important for us to note what Jesus and Paul are saying and perhaps more importantly what they aren’t saying. When Paul talks about the good fight of faith, this is purely a defensive fight, not an offensive one. We do not seek battles and conflict; we aim to protect the truth of God’s words and deeds from those who try to distort them. This is not a call for some sort of crusade that seeks to force people to confess Jesus as Savior. The good fight of faith is not really a battle against anyone else—it challenges the Christian internally to hold on to Jesus’ work for us.
When Jesus says that he brings conflict between the members of a family, maybe you can feel that. Maybe your faith divides you from some of the members of your immediate and extended family. But Jesus’ words are not meant to tell the Christian to seek conflict with those people or to cut them off. Jesus used even stronger language in the parallel account of this conversation in Luke’s Gospel when he said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). But even then, Jesus simply means that he must matter more to us than anything or anyone else. If there is a conflict between Jesus and any other part of our life, we must prioritize him over that conflicting part of us. We don’t compromise what we believe and share for peace in our homes. We do not alter our preaching and teaching here to appeal more to those who may disagree with it. No, we hold fast to the truth and, in love with gentleness and respect, share that truth with those around us.
Divisions may come, people may hate us, and we may lose freedoms or suffer hardships because of God’s truth. So be it. Fight the good fight in you, not with them. Stand boldly and lovingly on the truth for those who oppose you, not to prove yourself right and them wrong, but to show your care for all people, even those who resist God. You want everyone in heaven, and so you fight the good fight to persist in the truth and be a loving witness to those who reject this gospel message but still need it desperately.
The Christian will bear crosses in this life. Fight[ing] the good fight does not evoke peaceful images of days at the beach or in a hammock among the redwoods. The Christian will not have peace all the time in this life. In fact, peace may be rare. But this time of cross-bearing will end, like the horrid day at the airport or the sleepless nights with a newborn. Individual crosses may ease or end, but the real relief will come when the season of cross-bearing is over. That will happen when Jesus calls us home to himself and brings us into heaven because he forgave us and prepared a place for us graciously.
We long for and yearn for that day. But until that happens—fight the good fight of faith. Hold on to the truth of God’s Word. Hold on to your Savior as more important than anyone or anything. The one who made his confession to the truth before Pilate, rather than turning away to save his own skin, will bring you to his eternal mansions. For he endured not just crosses, but the cross for you and me. By him, we are freely and fully forgiven. Thanks be to God! Amen.
