This message is how to fight and win the desperate fight of faith, the Apostle Paul talks about in 1 Timothy 6, where in verses 1-2, Paul commands servants, their slaves, to love and obey their masters, their owners; in verses 3-10, Paul reveals what happens when people refuse to love and obey those in authority over them, which is us giving ourselves to the control of satanic forces, and in verses11-16, Paul instructs people, especially Christians to “fight the good fight of faith, so we lay hold on eternal life, to which we were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses”, and continuing in verses 17-19, Paul commands the rich not to be pridefully haughty, since God “richly gives us all the things we enjoy, so let the rich share with those in need; Paul then concludes chapter 6 by commanding Timothy (and us) to guard and protect our thoughts, speech, and actions, so we refuse to deny the faith Romans 5:2-5 says it takes to access (get into) the grace (and truth) John 1:17 says, came through Jesus Christ.
This same Apostle Paul in Romans 14:23, shows us “whatever is not from faith, is sin; thus, we either desperately fight with the faith we have in God, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, to faithfully keep His word, or we as satanic slaves of sin, unknowingly fight a losing battle, with no hope of eternal life.
We might try to explain away the truth of Romans 14:23, by thinking this only applies to what we eat and drink that is offensive to what others eat and drink, but rather this applies to every area of life, for everything is either said or done in faith or in doubt, which is sin.
Second Timothy 1:7 might be a reasonably understood scriptural truth that fits all of us, for when we forget information stored in our mind, we blame it on “old age”; when we forget where we placed something we need, or go into a room forgetting why we came there, yet we blame it on “old age”, until these forgetful, “old age” problems become dangerously regular, and then we seek medical help, because we doubted or failed to believe and “guard our faith, so we fought the good fight of faith”, refusing to allow the satanic forces to use his spirit of fear to come between us and the Holy Spirit’s power, love, and sound mind, promised in 2 Timothy 1:7.
Galatians 5:6 shows us faith is not simply “what we believe”, but Mark 11:22-24 and Jude 1:20-25 shows us faith working through love must be solidly anchored in God, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, if we expect to keep sinners from going to the lake of fire, and innocent people from giving their minds over to the satanic forces’ Alzheimer’s and dementia, for this is what 2 Timothy 1:7 says, but we will read it the way we learned in English class: “When the first clause of a sentence has a subject, verb, and direct object, but the second clause does not, then we add the subject, verb, and direct object from the first clause into the second clause: therefore, it would read this ways: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but (God has given us a spirt) of power and of love and of a sound mind”. Satan uses the spirit of fear to block the Holy Spirit’s power, love, and soundness of mind, to control us, so we obey him instead of obeying God.
If we allow the satanic spirit of fear to take the “power, love, and sound mind” the Holy Spirit gives us, then it becomes impossible for us to “fight the good fight of faith”, because Galatians 5:6 says, “faith works through love”; thus, as 1 Corinthians 13:1-2, 8, and 13 shows, “we are helpless”, so we lose every battle with Satan, the devil, for we do not have the faith that works through love.
When the Apostle Paul, in 1 Timothy 6, explains the difference in the love for riches and the love for God’s spiritual knowledge and wisdom, he was seeing through God’s eyes, why God created people, and at the same time, Paul was seeing through God’s eyes, why majority of creation want riches rather than “fight the good fight of faith, to lay hold on eternal life”, but will we see this and “fight the good faith-fight”, knowing it might be a hard and desperate battle, but the Holy Spirit will be with us (Hebrews 13:5-6), helping us win the faith-fight, so we experience God’s promises, that 2 Peter 1:2-4 says, He has already given us, that is also promised in 1 Timothy 6:17-19?
We might wonder why are we not taught these truths in church? The reason is the Holy Spirit has not as yet revealed these spiritual truths to every church pastor and staff, and those He has revealed it to, very few are interested in a radical change in thinking, speaking, and doing.
Tim, Kim, and Jim Nabors
