{"id":20696,"date":"2012-12-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracechristian.edu\/fight-the-good-fight\/"},"modified":"2012-12-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T00:00:00","slug":"fight-the-good-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gracechristian.edu\/blog\/fight-the-good-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Fight the Good Fight","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u201cFight the good fight of the faith.\u00a0 Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.\u201d\u00a0 (1 Timothy 6:12)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Why is it that we (sometimes) enjoy a good fight?\u00a0 A brawl at a hockey game, a bench clearing hullabaloo at a major league ballpark, or a fifteen yard penalty for a teeth rattling late hit between the gridirons?\u00a0 A friend of mine once told me, \u201cI had a great time last night, I went to a fight, and a hockey game broke out!\u201d\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t even need to be physical in nature, but a desire to really \u201ctell them off,\u201d or \u201clet \u2018em have it\u201d wells up inside us as well.\u00a0 Is this just another result of our sin nature and natural propensity to \u201cdestroy\u201d rather than \u201cbuild up\u201d? \u00a0Is there such a thing as a \u201cgood fight\u201d or is that an oxymoron?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Paul calls it the \u201cgood fight of the faith.\u201d\u00a0 But it is not so much the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">act<\/span> of fighting that is \u201cgood,\u201d rather the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">nature<\/span> of the fight and what it reveals about our character and our spiritual moorings.\u00a0 By nature we are selfish and passive, and only fight for what may be of value to us.\u00a0 But, the good fight of the faith is extremely important because it is an outgrowth of our personal beliefs and convictions.\u00a0 It is a fight for our core values:\u00a0 in other words, when we realize who we are as human beings in relation to God and what His Word describes as vital in our lives, we will not passively \u201cendure,\u201d but <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">fight<\/span>.\u00a0 That \u201cfighting\u201d will mean \u201cI live a life for a worthy cause which is greater than my own gratification.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Paul admonishes Timothy to fight the good fight and stand up for the convictions that Paul had taught and modeled for him.\u00a0 This leads to the second part\u2014by fighting, he would be able to \u201ctake hold of the eternal life to which you were called.\u201d\u00a0 We often don\u2019t live the \u2018eternal life,\u2019 but rather the temporary life and immediate needs gratification.\u00a0 God has \u201ccalled\u201d us for much more than this, but it may demand a \u201cgood fight\u201d against the eternal pressures of our society.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>ACTION POINT:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Where in your accommodation of the American Lifestyle that is so prevalent and often anti-Christian do you need to \u201ctake the gloves off?\u201d\u00a0 We begin by changing the culture around us, changing ourselves, and asking God to make us courageous for Him.\u00a0 Too tired?\u00a0 He who lives inside us isn\u2019t!\u00a0 (1 John 4:4)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">KBK<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFight the good fight of the faith.\u00a0 Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.\u201d\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[103,43],"tags":[],"dipi_cpt_category":[],"class_list":["post-20696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presidents-blog","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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