Fight the Good Fight of Faith

by Edwin Crozier

“Flee these things,” Paul tells Timothy. Which things? He says this in the context of warning Timothy about the love of money and the craving to be rich. Don’t just avoid it. Flee it, Paul says. Instead of pursuing riches, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. After all, these are the kinds of things that will not only benefit us in this life but also bring blessings in the next.

Fight the good fight of faith, Paul says. But why call it that? Because walking by faith is a struggle. It is a fight. The pursuit of finances is full of sight. We can see the bottom line. We can see the benefits and blessings. Pursuing God instead of money is often counterintuitive. Pursuing God takes faith in the unseen. Pursuing God means trusting Him to provide when we cannot see how or when He will. Pursuing God means trusting that the next life, the one we can’t see, is worth more than this life, the one we can.

When we fight the good fight, we may find ourselves in the same shoes as Jesus, who made the good confession before Pilate, right before Pilate had Him nailed to a cross. Talk about walking by faith. Talk about fighting by faith. When we fight the good fight of faith, we will keep the commandment of Christ unstained and free from reproach until Christ appears. All the while, walking by the faith that Christ will one day appear. Fighting the good fight of faith means holding on to the faith that God is the blessed and only Sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords. He alone has immortality. He dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him or can see Him. But we believe in Him even in the face of those who mock us for doing so. And we give Him honor and trust in His dominion even if it leads us to our deaths.
That is fighting the good fight of faith. Let us wage this good warfare together. And let us together take hold of the eternal life to which we have been called.