by Edwin Crozier<\/p>\n
“Flee these things<\/em>,” 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\nWhen 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. 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[498],"class_list":["post-96705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-effort"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":97429,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/three-steps-to-usefulness\/","url_meta":{"origin":96705,"position":0},"title":"Three Steps to Usefulness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier We've been told Christ's church is God's household (I Timothy 3:15). Usually, when we read that metaphor, we think of the people involved in a household. But in II Timothy 2:20-26, Paul thinks about dishes. The fine China versus the Tupperware. In every great house, Paul says,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88203,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/fight-the-good-fight-of-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":96705,"position":1},"title":"Fight the Good Fight of Faith","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Keith Crews Christians are soldiers in the Lord's army. \"You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier\" (II Timothy 2:3). As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91750,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-bible-only-say-to-flee-from-lust\/","url_meta":{"origin":96705,"position":2},"title":"Does the Bible only say to flee from lust?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it true that the only sin the Bible tells us to flee from is lust? Some Christians make the claim that I shouldn't fight lust and that I should flee from it instead. I don't see anything wrong with saying that Christians should fight against lust, but apparently,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57790,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-last-fight\/","url_meta":{"origin":96705,"position":3},"title":"The Last Fight","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert F. Turner via Plain Talk, January 1971 On the ruins of a theater in Ephesus, there is a memorial to an athlete of the 2nd century A.D. which reads: \"He fought three fights, and twice was crowned.\" Watch out for that last step! You see, those \"athletes\" fought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/01\/EphesusTheatre-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":96804,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/storing-up-treasures-in-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":96705,"position":4},"title":"Storing Up Treasures in Heaven","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier On the surface, it may have seemed Paul had moved on from talking about a relationship with money. But I Timothy 6:17-19 brings us right back to it. Having explained to Timothy how the craving for money had ruined other teachers and Christians and then directed Timothy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66872,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/study-to-show-yourself-approved\/","url_meta":{"origin":96705,"position":5},"title":"Study to Show Yourself Approved","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh Fulford \"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth\" (II Timothy 2:15 KJV). The preceding verse as cited from the King James Version of the Bible has been what I sometimes refer to as an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThat 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.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"