The Good Fight

By Pastor John Mateos Ong

Timothy 6:12 says, “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Paul is encouraging Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith.

Fight. In Greek, this means to compete, struggle or strive. The opposite of fight is run or surrender. But why do you have to fight? We fight because we want to conquer something. Life is a battle, spiritual emotional, mental or relational. Paul is asking Timothy to fight because Christianity is not passive. You do not just go to church to wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” You need to fight spiritual laziness and temptation all the time. Do not be passive. Fight all the lies of the enemy. You don’t win by being perfect; you win by not quitting.

Fight the good fight. A bad fight is a fight that is not meant to be yours. You do not need to run all the races in front of you. You do not need to grab all the opportunities that are there too. Not all fights are worth fighting. Paul did not tell Timmothy to fight every fight. He told him to fight the good fight. When you are running your race, look straight ahead and do not look at your opponents. Bad fights are based on your pride, ego and useless arguments. Stop looking at your neighbor and comparing your battles to theirs. Stop fighting battles God did never assigned you to. Stop wasting your energy on drama, ego and competition. A good fight is one that grows you, purifies you and aligns you with the will of God. 1 Corinthians 10:23 says, “You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial.” Not because you can do it, you will. Philippians 3:8 says, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.” If you have everything that the world can give but do not know the Lord, it is worthless. Share His good news to everyone you know. Is He not that important to them? What if they suddenly pass away? You have no one to blame but yourself. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” Everything you can see in this world is temporary; what is important are those which are not seen. Hebrews 11:39 says, “All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.” You do not win all of your fights. You win some, you lose some. Do not be discouraged. Just continue because God has planned something better for you.

Fight the good fight of the faith. He did not say of faith or with faith. Paul is saying that the good fight comes with what you believe in. True Christians do not have Jesus as a part of their life - He is their life. Don’t compromise biblical truth. Don;t water down your convictions don’t trade your values for convenience. Don’t let culture redefine what God already defined. Fight to hold onto the truth that saved you. Jesus Himself said that heaven and earth will pass away but His words never will. You should work on things that will never fade.

At the end of Paul’s life, he told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:6-7, “As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.” The sands of your life are slowly dwindling. Make sure that you are fighting the correct fights to finish well. How? 1 Corinthians 9:27 says, “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.” Self-control is very important in fighting fights.