At one point in the movie Braveheart, William Wallace (Mel Gibson) must rally his troops as they face likely death at the hands of a much larger English army. His brilliant strategy is an appeal to those who want to run. He points out that if they run, they will always live with regrets that they did not answer the call to fight. His words, "Fight, and you may die. Run, and you'll live...at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, do you think you would be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance—just one chance—to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!" The troops cheer and Wallace leads them into battle.
No Christian man I know wants to live with the regret that when the call to fight for his loved ones came, he deserted. In this episode from 1 Tim. 1, Paul charges Timothy and all of us who are spiritual leaders, Fight the good fight. “Timothy, here is your charge as a spiritual leader. FIGHT!” This episode digs into what Paul meant.
John Eldredge is right when he says “Behind the world and the flesh is an even more deadly enemy, one we rarely speak of and are even much less ready to resist. Yet this is where we live now, on the front lines of a fierce spiritual war that is to blame for most of the casualties you see around you and most of the assault against you” (Wild at Heart). Of course, Eldredge’s comments remind us of Paul’s assessment of life: We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph 6:11-12). This same spiritual conflict is behind Paul’s charge to Timothy when he says This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may fight the good fight (1:18).
NOTICE THAT THIS CHARGE IS PERSONAL
A. It is based upon Timothy’s unique gifts. Paul roots his charge to Timothy in the prophecies previously made about him. He goes back to Timothy’s specific calling, recognized by the church when Paul placed hands upon him. Though you may not hold a church office, it is as true of you as for Timothy that you have a specific calling based upon your natural and spiritual gifts, immediate family, vocation, family of origin, neighborhood, church, and friendships. Ephesians 2:10 explains. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. This verse is enormously important when it comes to understanding our personal mission from Jesus. The relationships we have in each sphere of our lives are no accident. In fact, you may be the only gospel some ever read. It is easy to miss what this verse actually says about our own calling.
We think that kingdom advancement happens on stage Sunday mornings, by media influencers, or other upfront Christians. One man holding this view said to John Eldredge, “I’d love to be William Wallace leading the charge with a big sword in my hand. But I feel like I’m the guy back there in the fourth row with a hoe.” Eldredge responded, “That’s a lie of the Enemy—that your place is insignificant, that you aren’t really armed for it anyway. In your life, you are William Wallace. Who else could be? There is no other man who can replace you in your life, in the arena you’ve been called to. If you leave your place in the line, it will remain empty” (Ibid). It is our loved ones who will be overrun by the Evil One, if we don’t accept the call to fight for them. If we are absent, there is no one else to take our place to protect them.
B. The charge is personal because it comes to us from the lips of our CO. “Calling” for a Christian isn’t just a job; it is personal response to Jesus. A disciple is, by definition, one who hears and responds to the call of a master, “Follow me.” A disciple embraces his master’s cause, in our case the spreading of his kingdom over the planet. Fighting for his kingdom is about allegiance to our Master. Os Guinness writes: Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service (The Call). It is our Lord, from whose lips comes the charge: Fight.
WHAT DOES FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT LOOK LIKE?
Answering this question requires jumping ahead to Paul’s explanation of what God desires Timothy’s work to accomplish. I Timothy 2:4: This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people 1) to be saved and 2) to come to the knowledge of the truth. There are 2 objectives to fight for.
A. Objective # 1. All people to be saved from their sins. Paul is referring to all categories of people, not saying that every individual will be saved. (See ESV footnotes). As we saw last week, Paul declared just 6 verses earlier, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1:15). The gospel is that after Adam aligned his heart and kingdom with Satan’s revolt against God and surrendered Kingdom Earth to the tyrannical rule of Satan, sin, and death, God sent a second Adam to invade earth and human hearts to overthrow the Kingdom of Darkness and establish Christ’s agenda of righteousness and wholeness. “Saving people from their sins” means much more than saving people from the punishment for their sin (justification). It means saving them from the power and brokenness of their sin. Fighting the good fight is fighting for the kingdom of righteousness to prevail over every part of a human’s life and every square inch of Kingdom Earth.
B. Objective # 2. God desires that all people come to the knowledge of the truth. Why is this the second objective? Here are some of the biblical answers.
- Because men, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth (Rom 1:16).
- Because we are to no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds, darkened in their understanding (Eph 4:17).
- Because the devil…does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies (Jn 8:44).
- Because the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (Jn 3:19).
- Because we are the light of the world. (Mt 5:16-17).
- Because the weapons of our warfare have divine power to destroy mental strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Cor 10:4-5).
So, fighting the good fight means fighting 1) for sin to be overthrown by righteousness and 2) for truth to overcome Satan’s lies. In short, fighting the good fight is seeking Christ’s kingdom of righteousness and light to prevail over Satan’s kingdom of sin and darkness.
TWO ESSENTIALS FOR EFFECTIVE FIGHTING
Paul identifies two essentials for successfully fighting the good fight. Vs 1:18-19. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may fight the good fight, holding 1) faith and 2) a good conscience.
A. Essential # 1 for leadership: faith—the habit of trusting God. You can be sure that every launch you make against the kingdom of darkness will provoke a counter assault from the Enemy, whether a small incursion, like walking on the treadmill, or trying to get up earlier to pray more, as well as a major effort for the kingdom, like reaching others for Christ. The flaming arrows will come reigning down. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one (Eph 6:16).
At the highpoint of a youth ministry I led, we slammed into opposition from the Evil One. Our summer staff members were actually going through quiet time material with the kids to help them build the habit of meeting with God daily. We had a great year-round staff and had hired four summer interns. But one Saturday night in August, on the only weekend of the summer that my senior high staff members all had to be out of town, I got a call from my Middle School senior leader, who was in tears. He confessed that he had been sleeping with his girlfriend, a single adult member of our church, and she was now pregnant. He wanted to, himself, confess his sin to the middle school kids and parents the next night at the regularly scheduled middle school youth group meeting.
Sunday morning during the worship service I was mulling over what I was going to say at that meeting, when it dawned on me that I was scheduled to lead the senior high youth group meeting that met at the same time, because all my senior high leaders were away. I returned home from church, not quite knowing what I was going to do. The topic of the meeting had been pre-determined to be Christian friendship, which would be followed by handing out six quiet time studies on the topic of Christian friendship to be used the following week. As I pulled into our driveway, I noticed that my brother, who had worked with our senior high group in past years, had just returned from his summer of discipleship training with the Navigators. As we ate lunch, he explained that part of his training was to design a small group study lesson and lead it on a particular discipleship topic. I asked, “What was your topic?” He answered, “Christian friendship.” I said, “Scott I think I know what God’s will is for you tonight!” Efforts to further the kingdom always bring down Satan’s fiery darts. But God will come through, if we just keep trusting him.
B. Essential # 2 for leadership: a good conscience. A good conscience can mean a clear conscience, i.e. seeking forgiveness when necessary or a conscience that has not been violated, i.e. a conscience that is listened to. I learned the importance of listening to my conscience the hard way. At one point while serving as a church planter, our normal harmony as a congregation was eroding and I didn’t know why. Our session had been united in planting a daughter church to our north, which required me to travel up to that church and preach at a 9:15 service and then return to the mother church to preach at 10:45. We had also been united in going forward in our building program at the same time. Our session was united in our plan to sell bonds to the congregation and friends to fund the building construction. We patiently answered concerns and objections at a congregational meeting about the bond sales but the disharmony seemed to be spreading.
Needless to say, these nights found me not sleeping well. One morning, about 4:30, I began pleading with God, “Is there something I have done that is preventing you from bringing harmony on this issue.” Immediately I thought back to our application to sell bonds. When I filled out the total church’s income, my conscience had prompted me—"You are including the income from the daughter church in this number, but they are going to separate from the mother church.” But I had ignored my conscience. So, I gathered the elders, confessed my sin of ignoring the Lord’s promptings and the sin of deception. We decided to put a sticker on our bond package which gave full disclosure that the mother church was planting a daughter church, which would require significant loss of funds to the mother church. Proverbs 11:3 says, The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. Of the six unhappy families, three left. There is a cost to sin. Three remained, one of which later told us they became more committed to us because of this confession of sin and our integrity. Leadership responsibility in our homes and churches should weigh heavily on us. If we ignore our conscience those under care suffer.
STEP # 1 IN THE GOOD FIGHT: DESTROY THE ENEMY'S STRONGHOLDS BY PRAYER
It is common knowledge that any country with a strong air force planning to invade another country will first use air power to soften up the enemy before the land invasion. In the Iraq war, the United States began a "shock and awe" bombing campaign which lasted 24 hours before the ground invasion began.
As we seek to dislodge the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience from his hold on the lost and this fallen world, our primary weapon is prayer. When Peter, James, John, and Jesus returned from the Mount of Transfiguration, they encountered some of the other disciples who could not cast out a demon in Jesus’ name. They asked why not and Jesus answered, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer" (Mk 9:29).
On another occasion, Jesus said to Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you” (Lk 22:31-32a). Jesus was very clear about how his kingdom of righteousness and light overcomes the kingdom of evil and darkness. After casting out a demon, he said, “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil (Lk 11:20-22).
Paul understood this power of prayer over the Kingdom of Darkness. Ephesians 6 reveals that because we wrestle against spiritual forces of evil, Paul gave two fundamental commands—not just one. 1) use your spiritual equipment but 2) PRAY. He says the same thing here when he explains fighting the good fight. FIRST OF ALL, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people (1 Tim 2:1). Let’s look at these four categories of prayer.
A. Supplications: DESIS. At the core of this word is a sense of need. It is a request for help. I love the JB Philps translation of Philippians 4:6-7 Don’t worry over anything whatever; tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer, and the peace of God which transcends human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus. Remember the core principle for receiving spiritual riches is recognizing our own need, i.e. spiritual poverty. Prayer warfare begins with making sure our own needs are taken care of, so we can concentrate upon fighting for others.
B. Prayers: PROSEUCHE. This word is only used to describe conversation with God, never with man. This word reminds us who the being is to whom we are speaking. The verse just before Paul began his charge to Timothy to fight the good fight was, To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. There is a strength that he alone can give, a forgiveness that only he can grant, a certainty that he alone can bestow. There are promises that he alone has the power to keep, and challenges that he alone can help us overcome.
C. Intercessions: ENTEUXIS. This word meant to come into a king’s presence with a petition. This prayer answers the call to FIGHT. We ask in the name of the true king of Earth’s Kingdom, Jesus, who began his call to make disciples with the historic fact that he has taken back Adam’s kingdom, Earth, from its slavery to Satan sin and death. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, Therefore, go and make disciples….This prayer word describes kingdom warfare.
D. Thanksgivings: EUCHARISTA. This is a combination of the word EU “good” and CHARIZOMAI “to give freely.” It combines a heart of gratefulness with the habit of verbalizing such gratitude by giving thanks. To understand how important the virtue of gratefulness is to God, it is useful to remember that Paul traces the root of human sin to a refusal to honor God and give thanks to him. Romans 1:21, For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. Paul understands the insulating value of a thankful heart. Fighting the kingdom of evil and darkness is disheartening and exhausting. We will wear out emotionally unless we train our hearts to continually give thanks to our God. David urges us to enter God’s presence with thanksgiving: Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations (Ps 100)
HOW TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT
A. Objective # 1 God wants us saved from enslaving power of sin.
- Strive to replace sinful attitudes and behavior with righteousness. Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:21-23).
- Pray effectively for loved ones by considering what God might be teaching your loves one and ask: “Please, by your spirit empower my loved one to overcome their sinful nature and produce in them love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness or self-control (Gal 5). Make my wife inwardly beautiful by empowering her to be a husband lover, children lover, meek, self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind (Titus 2:4-5)
- Pray for work associates, neighbors, and family members to come to faith.
B. Objective # 2 God wants us to come to a knowledge of the truth. Pray for God’s spirit to tear down Satan’s strongholds of lies & empower our loved ones to:
- Know that abundant life is in Jesus (John 10:10b)
- Know that God is good (Psalm 34:8)
- Know that God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Heb 11:6).
- Know that love of God that surpasses understanding (Eph 3:19).
- Know that if we sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption but if we sow to the Spirit, we will reap life (Gal 6:8).
- Know that God’s design of male & female differently to complete each other with different roles in the home and church is glorious and perfect (Gen 1-2).
- Know that the wisdom of God’s Word is more precious than gold and nothing we desire compares with her (Pr 3:14-15).
Men, let’s answer the call to fight for our Lord’s honor and loved one’s wellbeing!
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- If I am called to fight the good fight for those God has sovereignly place around me, and I desert from the battle line, what does it mean for those I’m called to fight for?
- How does Paul’s statement that God desires humans to be saved from sin and come to a knowledge of the truth related to Jesus’ teaching that we are to seek to dispel the kingdom of evil and darkness from our lives and the world and replace it with the righteousness and light of his kingdom?
- Why battle for people to see truth?
- Why are a good conscience and faith prerequisites for successful fighting?
- How might the things we ask for in prayer for ourselves and others, be impacted by realizing that the good fight is for the fruit of righteousness to be formed in us and others as well as for Satan’s lies to be torn down?
