The Letters to Timothy & Titus Pt. 4
“How God wants Leaders to Lead”
By Mark Bair
Timothy’s Job Description: “Fight the Good Fight” (1 Timothy 1:18; 1
Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7)
The Good fight is descriptive not only of a leader’s job, but also of spiritual
growth in general. The Christian as a fighter... Why a fight? Sounds mean and conflict
oriented—especially in light of
Paul’s standard of not being a “striker” (1 Tim 3 “not pugnacious, but gentle, uncontentious” See 2
Tim 2:24, 25
“And the Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to
all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those
who are in opposition…”
What is “the Good Fight”?
1. “The Good Fight” is a fight of faith (6:12)
It is not a physical fight, but a fight about the object (God) and subject
(me) of your trust.
Paul describes faith two ways: “your faith (1 Tim 1:5 sincere faith; 1:19 keeping faith;
2 Tim 1:5 sincere faith within you ) and “the faith” (1
Tim. 1:2; 3:9, 13; 4:1, 6; 6:10; 6:21;
2 Tim 4:7);
1 Timothy 4:1,6 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some
will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits…
a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the
faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.
-
The content of “the Faith”: Infinite-personal God who has
revealed Himself as both holy (just) and loving; humans made in His image, yet
alienated by sin (autonomy); the person and work of JC (the Cross and grace)
-
My faith: responding positively to the content of “the
faith”—namely, acknowledging my
moral need before God and trusting in His provision thru JC
So then, “Faith” is both the revealed truths of Scripture and our personal, existential
trust in them. It is both objective and subjective. Therefore, fighting
the good fight involves
knowing the truths over against counterfeits and cultivating trust over against
unbelief/self-sufficiency.
Sidebar on Biblical faith from Francis
Schaeffer:
Probably the best way to describe this
concept of modern theology is to say that it is faith in faith,
rather than faith directed to an object which is actually there.
Some years ago at a number of universities I spoke on the topic, “Faith
v. faith,” speaking on the contrast between Christian faith and modern
faith. The same word, faith, is
used, but has an opposite meaning. Modern
man cannot talk about the object of his faith, only about the faith itself.
So he can discuss the existence of his faith and its “size” as
it exists against all reason, but that is all. Modern man’s faith turns inward.
In Christianity the value of faith
depends upon the object towards which the faith is directed. So it
looks outward to the God who is there, and to the Christ who in history died
upon the cross once for all, finished the work of atonement, and on the third
day rose again in space and in time. This
makes Christian faith open to discussion and verification.
True Christian faith rests on
content. It is not a
vague thing which takes the place of real understanding, nor is it the
strength of belief which is of value. The
true basis for faith is not the faith itself, but the work which Christ
finished on the cross. My
believing is not the basis for being saved — the basis is the work of
Christ. Christian faith is turned
outward to an objective person: “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be
saved.”
The historic Christian faith is not
a leap of faith because He is not silent, and I am invited to ask the
adequate and sufficient questions and then believe Him and bow before Him
intellectually and bow before Him morally as needing His provision for me in
the substitutionary death of Christ.
You can take a step of faith
tonight
2. “The Good Fight” is a fight of faith (6:12). It is a fight
against forces that erode faith. It is struggle, an ongoing resistance to
these ideas and impulses.
Let’s think about having begun to have faith, how to fight on toward
deeper faith
1 Timothy 1:18, 19 "keeping a good conscience" Keeping a good conscience is the
willingness to act consistently w/ what you know is true.
"God has set it up so that in order to perceive & advance in this, we
must be willing to obey what we have learned to be true; if we learn but
refuse to obey, the whole mechanism for our guidance is damaged, & we become
self-deceived as well as deceiving others who are listening to us. This is underscored in
vs. 18 & 19: shipwreck;
Hymenaeus & Alexander were evidently Xian workers who damaged their faith by refusing to act
consistently w/ what they knew to be true." --Gary DeLashmutt
For this reason, it is urgent
to follow what we've learned from God to be true ; if you have wandered from
this, correct it now by confession & repentance - then get up
& go on.
FAITH IS MORE OFTEN DAMAGED OR LOST BECAUSE OF MORAL REASONS THAN FOR
INTELLECTUAL REASONS. Another example:
1 Timothy 6:9-12 But those who want to get rich fall into
temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men
into ruin and destruction.10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of
evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith,
and pierced themselves with many griefs.
“We all tend to live ‘ash heap lives’; we spend most of our time and
money for things that will end up in the city dump.” –Francis Schaeffer
Drop down to: 1 Timothy 6:17
Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix
their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us
with all things to enjoy. [the last phrase is what the materialist doubts--that
God will give him what he would enjoy]
Back to 6:11
But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.12 Fight the good fight of
faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and
you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Flee (not hover, flee like Joseph) and pursue (chase, run)
“Take hold”: grip, grasp vs. letting it sit there; or a
limp, light
grip. Make your Eternal Life your main, unrivaled passion; focus your mind on it; get with
others who have it; share it
To "take hold" is to “let go” of two competing, counterfeit values:
Practical materialism is difficult to escape in any age, but it is
especially hard today because we all tend to be influenced by the spirit around
us, and in the United States and the Western world most people have only two impoverished values — personal peace and affluence.
Personal peace means just to be let alone, not
to be troubled by the troubles of other people, whether across the world or
across the city — to live one’s life with minimal possibilities of being
personally disturbed. Personal peace means wanting to have my personal life
pattern undisturbed in my lifetime, regardless of what the result will be in
the lifetimes of my children and grandchildren. Affluence means an overwhelming and ever-increasing
prosperity — a life made up of things, things, and more things — a success
judged by an ever-higher level of material abundance.
--Francis
Schaeffer
Will you fight, struggle within yourself so
that your faith is not shipwrecked by personal peace and affluence?
3. “The Good Fight” is fought
for the sake of people and so fighting the good fight must be with love
(cf. 1 Cor 16:14)
A Fight for truth is a fight for people—not against them.
Titus 3:2 “malign no one,
be uncontentious, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.
2 Timothy 2:24-26 And the Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be
kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 5 with gentleness correcting
those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to
the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from
the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
“The local church or Christian group should be right in
its teaching, but it should also be beautiful.
The local groups should be the example of the supernatural, of the
substantially healed relationship in this present life between people.”
--Schaeffer
Why fighting for truth benefits people: because "truth sets people free"
(Jn 8:32) and
“it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace” (Heb 13:9)
Fighting
the Good Fight is regularly choosing against a
life of “unfaith”
and apathy to have a truly
substantial and
sustaining faith.
Some Xians approach to spirituality could be more accurately described as
capitulation and non-resistance—a surrender and resignation. Some never took
up the fight, other withdrew to a more peaceful existence. Compare that with
Paul's charge to Timothy:
1 Timothy 4:15 Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them
(NAS)
1 Timothy 4:15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them
(NIV)
Schaeffer on "Unfaith"
So the Bible-believing Christian says, “Well, I believe it!”
The materialist says, “I don’t believe it!”
and he sits in unbelief. But
what shall we say about the man who says, “I believe it, I believe it,” but
then doesn’t act upon this in faith in his daily life?
I have made up a word for it. I
call it unfaith.
The Lord will not honor with power the way of unfaith in His children
because it does not give Him the honor. He is left out. That
is true in Christian activities, in missionary work, in evangelism, in anything
you name. Living supernaturally
does not mean doing less work; nor does it mean less work getting done, but
more. Who can do more?
We with our own energy and wisdom, or the God who created Heaven and
earth and who can work in space-time history with a power which none of us has?
God exists. And if we
through faith stay in the Bible-believing chair moment by moment in practice,
and do not move into the chair of unfaith, Christ will bring forth His fruit
through us. The fruit will
differ with each of us, but it will be His fruit.
--Francis
Schaeffer, from True Spirituality
Because fighting the good fight is to be the leaders focus, we can expect:
A major portion of a leader's time will be spent in study (of
the word and culture) and
teaching so he or she can facilitate the expansion of people’s threshold of
faith. To facilitate is to
provide the information and opportunities, but not to simply tell people what to
do or think for them. Thinking for people would not expand the threshold of
their faith—it would make the locus of their faith
the leader or the group.
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