Flee? Fight? Or both?
“But you, man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called…” – 1 Timothy 6:11,12, CSB
Turn. Shift. Run.
If we want to honor Jesus, there are things from which we all must flee. Here’s the challenging part: those deceitful and distracting desires are never meant to be our focus. Think about it… If we focus on what we’re fleeing, looking backward over our shoulder, we’re much more likely to trip! Instead, we turn our backs, shift our vision, and run toward something else. It’s the ‘something else’ that gives us a healthy focus, a pursuit to which we can give ourselves. “The faith,” Paul calls it. Fight the good fight of “the faith,” not just any nebulous faith! Our faith is centered on a Person, Jesus, and “the sound teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ… that promotes godliness” (1 Timothy 6:3).
Pursue. Partner. Pick up.
Pursuing Jesus is the key to successfully pursuing the righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness Paul references just a few verses later. Taking hold of the eternal life to which we were called is therefore not a passive thing, not something for which we wait to happen to us. Instead, we partner with Christ, focusing in the same direction He’s going, and picking up what he’s calling us to carry along the way.
Pursue the One who’s taken hold of you!
In our Bibles we find the teaching of Jesus of which Paul speaks, as well as examples of how to apply His teaching, how to pick it up, onboard it into our lives, and carry it with us. We find, just as importantly, the gospel itself, including the good news that He is my righteousness; He has already perfectly endured the cross and its shame; and He perfectly reveals the Father’s love for us. On this secure foundation we can pursue the things that are like Him, and we will become more and more like Him as we run together. Pursue faith; pursue love; pursue endurance; pursue gentleness; and pursue Jesus, the One who has already taken hold of us to help us run with Him.
Think:
Can you define what ‘the faith’ is? Why do you think Paul uses the word ‘fight’ regarding the faith? What are the implications for you personally? Why do we have to contend for it?
The list of things to flee in 1 Timothy 6 is extensive. Read 6:4-5,9-10. Are any of these particularly tempting to you? What will it look like for you to turn your back on them to focus on Christ instead?
Paul challenges Timothy to pursue faith, to pursue love, to pursue gentleness, and even to pursue endurance. Which of these is most compelling to you? (Personally, I find the idea of pursuing endurance really compelling, which is one reason I’m writing on this topic every day this year!) For whichever pursuit is most compelling to you – or maybe for the one you don’t really want to think about! – how is Jesus the perfect example of this?
If you lead or serve in a business or ministry, do you think your team is pursuing the right things? Is there anything that you’re trying to fight that you really just need to turn your back on so you can run toward the right thing?
Prayer:
“Jesus, thank You for taking hold of me and calling me into Your eternal life! Thank You for helping me to turn my back to the things from which You’ve called me to flee rather than to fight them. May my focus be fighting for the things Your people are called to pursue, not just fighting all the things we’re ‘against.’ Help me model and communicate this kind of a gospel focus among all those with whom You give me influence.”