Fighting the Good Fight of Faith
Fight the good fight of the faith.
1Timothy 6:12
Paul described in these words the noble effort in the cause of the Christian faith. He compared it to a battle, and whether he had in mind an athletic contest or actual warfare the meaning is the same. We are engaged in a battle, in a fight, with an enemy and conflict. Every great church has a core of committed people who realize this fact. They see themselves not as a club of nice people with common interests, but as a spiritual army for God, committed to the fight. The words themselves are simple yet profoundly instructive for us.
“Fight” — there is a conflict around us and within us and we must fight. We cannot afford the luxury of allowing ourselves to slip into apathetic relaxation. We must conjure up within us the courage and determination to fight against all evil influences within us. We each have weaknesses that can be utilized by the dark forces to our destruction. We each have opportunities around us that we can use to make a difference for Christ. We each occupy an important part of the battleground and play an important role in this warfare.
“The good fight” — the fight is a good fight, which determines our weapons. In Ephesians 6:13–18 Paul described in more detail the weapons we fight with: truth, righteousness, foundations within the gospel itself, faith, salvation, and the word of God, and finally prayer. He listed six attributes, and then a seventh, but he did it in this way: 3, 3, and 1. In both of the lists of the three he emphasized our faith and being grounded in the truth. “Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” and “sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God” both refer to being grounded in His Word, established in His truth.
This spiritual battle is between truth and falsehood, between the goodness and righteousness of God and the evil of the fallen angel once called Lucifer that He created and who opposes Him. Our weapons are the weapons of light — we do not wage war as the world does. “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world,” they are better and stronger: “They have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4).
The battle is also against the world and even against ourselves, or against the sin nature we each possess. So we can expect no respite from this warfare as long as we are on this earth — though God does often grant us temporary moments of spiritual rest.
“Of Faith” — the battle is not in the physical realm, but in the spiritual. We cannot always see the progress of the battle, but by faith we can accept the truth that the outcome is not in question, that Christ has already won. The “fog of war” or the inability in the midst of a conflict to be able to see clearly is our reality in part. We have within ourselves the tendency to mistake allies for enemies and vice versa, the inclination to mistake the high ground, mistakes in judgment as to when to advance and when to retreat — so we need to fight this battle on our knees as much as with our voices and hands and feet.
Only God knows the best thing to do at all times. Only He can lead us in the right direction. So we need constant communication with Him, and constant dependence on Him.
There is a danger that we become worn out, or worn down until the spiritual strength of God that we need has gone and we only have our own strength to stand upon. Be careful here. Depend on God more than on your own wits. Pray to Him and rest in Him and learn the secret of letting Him fight for you and through you.
Watchman Nee wrote:
Satan has in fact a plan against the saints of the Most High which is to wear them out. What is meant by this phrase, “wear out”? It has in it the idea of reducing a little this minute, then reducing a little further the next minute. Reduce a little today, reduce a little tomorrow. Thus the wearing out is almost imperceptible; nevertheless, it is a reducing. The wearing down is scarcely an activity of which one is conscious, yet the end result is that there is nothing left. He will take away your prayer life little by little, and cause you to trust God less and less and yourself more and more, a little at a time. He will make you feel somewhat cleverer than before. Step by step, you are misled to rely more on your own gift, and step by step your heart is enticed away from the Lord. Now, were Satan to strike the children of God with great force at one time, they would know exactly how to resist the enemy since they would immediately recognize his work. He uses the method of gradualism to wear down the people of God.
May God ground you in His truth, grant you the courage to take the stand He has entrusted into your hands, and guide you with His Spirit as you fight the good fight of faith.
