Wage the Good Warfare

“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (1 Timothy 1:18-20 ESV)

What was the charge given to Timothy? The first one recorded here, as far as I can see, is that he was to charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine (of the Christian faith and practice, of the gospel of our salvation). He was to charge them not to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. In other words, they needed to be those who were testing the spirits, rejecting the lies, and then following the truth.

And why was he charged with that responsibility? Because certain persons among them, by swerving from love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith, had wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the word without understanding of the things that they were saying or proclaiming. They lacked knowledge, in other words, but that didn’t keep them from speaking, and speaking lies and not truth, because they weren’t listening to the Lord but to other humans.

So, Timothy was to wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. And what does that mean? It means that we are in a spiritual battle between evil and good, and wrong and right, and lies and truth. And in our Christian culture in America today, from my observations over many years, I see so many (the majority) have gone the way of the world and of the flesh and have so diluted and altered the message of the gospel that it barely resembles the gospel of Jesus Christ anymore.

So many have changed the gospel that Jesus taught and have reduced it to praying a prayer to receive Christ or to a mere verbal acknowledgement of who Jesus is and what he did for us on that cross. Or they are just saying that we should receive God’s grace, his forgiveness of our sins, and now we belong to him and all our sins are forgiven, and heaven is secured for us for eternity, but regardless of how we live. But that is not the biblical gospel and it is not biblical faith if it doesn’t involve death to sin and obeying our Lord.

So many have gotten so far away from the gospel that Jesus taught and that his NT apostles taught, and so they have continued in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord, and not in walks of holiness and in obedience to our Lord and to his commands. But they are still claiming salvation from sin and eternal life with God because they are believing the lies over the truth, and they are believing these “certain persons” who are swerving from truth and righteousness to follow after myths (man-made gospels).

Now Timothy is not the only one called to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.” All of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ are to stand on the truth of God’s word and to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to follow him in obedience to his commands and to forsake sinful practices and to live godly and holy lives to the praise of God. And we are all to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light and to expose the fruitless deeds of darkness.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Eph 5:11-14; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 John 2:6]

All of us should be putting on the armor of God daily with which to fight against the devil’s schemes against us. And the biggest scheme he has going right now is to convince people who profess faith in Jesus Christ that they don’t have to repent of (forsake) their sins, and they don’t have to walk in obedience to God and to his commandments, for all they have to do is “believe” and now all is forgiven, and no matter what they do or how they live, it won’t be held against them, and heaven is secured for them.

But Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to (save) our lives of sin, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin (lose our lives), and follow him in obedience to his commands, then we have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to our Lord, then we don’t have eternal life with God, regardless of what our lips profess.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Eph 6:10-20; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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