Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord's Appearing -1

Message Title: Fighting the Good Fight

according to the background when the apostle Paul wrote the book of 2 Timothy, Paul wrote a word of both warning and encouragement, to show the believers how to live a proper Christian life, to follow the Lord, especially in a corrupted age. 

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.

2 Timothy 4:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day, and not only me but also all those who have loved His appearing.

as revealed in 2 Timothy 4:7, a proper Christian life is threefold; it involves fighting the good fight, running and finishing the course, and keeping the faith. These three all are related to God's economy. here Paul first mentions "fighting the good fight" because throughout the whole period, the Christian life is a life of fighting this good fight. therefore, as a Christian, we need to have a spirit of fighting. as shown in the exodus of Israel people, Jehovah God refersed to them as the army of Jehovah. as Christinas, the purpose of our gaining Christ and experiencing Christ, is to prepare us to engage in this fight. 

I. "I have fought the good fight"

1 Timothy 1:18 This charge I commit to you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you might war the good warfare,

the word "charge" comes with aughthory and command.  the apostle Paul here is charging Timothy with the authority of the Lord to war the good warfare. God's economy charges us to fight, because God has an enemy in this universe. in order to defeat the enemy, we all need to be equipped to fight the good warfare. 

to war the good warfare is to war against the different teachings of the dissenters and to carry out God's economy. the different teachings will distract people and cause people to deviate from God's economy. therefore, we need to war against these different teaching so that we can be kept in the central line of God's economy. 

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold on the eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.

the eternal life is actually the processed and consummated Triune God being life to us, the divine life, the uncreated life of God. to fight the good fight of the faith in the Christian life, we need to lay hold on this divine life and not trust in our human life. without the eternal life we are nothing. 

Matthew 12:28 But if I, by the Spirit of God, cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

we are fighting the good fight against Satan and the kingdom of darkness. we should not only be able to preserve ourselves whole but should also challenge the devil. today, at the end of the age, the evil powers are more intense than befofe, because Satan knows that his end is coming soon.the strategy of the enemy is to corrupt and ruin man's mind. we should be God's soldiers, fighting the good fight, overthowing the devil's strongholds, and taking captive man's thought unto the obedience of Christ. 

when Moses sent out 12 spies to spy the good land. 10 spies came back with the evil reports because they were scared of the giants in the good land. but there were Caleb and Joshua who were encouraging Israel people not to be discrouraged or dismayed, but God has promised to give this good land to His people. today we are in the same situation. we should not be discouraged by the outward world situation right now. Rather, we need to be stregthened to stand firm for the kingdom of God, for the glory of God. 

we are fighting the good fight for the truth. what is truth? truth is not doctrine or teaching. truth is the Triune God with His word. the divine truth is absolute, and we must be absolute for the truth and uphold the absoluteness of the truth. we need to have the truth wrought into us and constituted into our being.