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I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ~ 2 Timothy 4:7
Many consider 2 Timothy 4:6-8 to be the epitaph of the Apostle Paul who lived his life allowing God to do great things through Him while on this earth. These three verses chronicle for us the works God accomplished in Paul in the present, in the past, and what He will accomplish for him in the future. Having considered v.6, the present, today we consider the words of v.7.
In the beginning of v.7 we read, "I have fought the good fight." The phrase "I have fought" is a perfect tense verb which describes completed action in the past with continuing results today, indicating that all the way along the Apostle Paul remained true to the Christian faith.
As Paul looked back on his life, he had no regrets. That which God called him to do, he did. And so, he faced death with complete satisfaction. He faced death triumphantly being confident that he had completed all that God intended for him to do.
The word "fought" we have considered before in 1 Timothy 6:12 where the Apostle Paul uses the Greek word from which we get our English word agonize. Whereas in 1 Timothy 6:12, the Apostle was challenging Timothy to agonize through the battle for the truth, in today's text, Paul is saying, "I have agonized." The idea is the Apostle Paul used excessive effort and energy in his struggle for the truth. The Apostle didn't call others to do something that he didn't do himself. He learned this from the Lord Jesus Himself. In all actuality, we are not the ones who render the outcomes, God does, and Paul understood this principle well. This is one of the greatest marks of a leader.
In this struggle that we are engaged in, we fight against lies, the father of lies and his cohorts. But, our greatest battle will always be against self. Battling against our own flesh (the sinful desires within us all) takes up the majority of our time, for the enemy is cunning and he knows when we are onto his schemes. So, he adjusts and uses that which we mistakenly have trusted all of our lives, our natural impulses he uses to try to trip us up.
It is only as we engulf ourselves in God's will that we are enabled to see the enemies diabolical plot. Then we will be engaged as we ought. It is then that we will stop looking for scapegoats and be used of God to trust Him fully, choosing to fight His way and in His strength.
Once we understand that, we will be ensconced in the most important battle of all times, the struggle for the advancement of the Kingdom of God in the hearts of people. And, once we know that our biggest battles are against self, it is then that we will engage effectively and we will see as God sees and we will fight as He fights, with eternities values in view.
We continue to read in v.7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race."
The Apostle Paul was self-discipline enough to finish the race. In Hebrews 12:1 we read, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."
There are two things that knocks us out of the race: The first is our hindrances, which are the unnecessary baggages that we all have in our souls. Things like our pursuit of the American Dream, or our advancement in this world in one way or another or what others think of us. Things that aren't necessarily sinful in and of themselves but are distractions to the goal. We must set as our goal, the Lord Jesus and His leading in our lives and then everything else will take care of itself.
The second thing that will knock us out of the race is sin. We get off course because we bite off the fruit that God has not deemed for us. At the root of this is covetousness. At the root of all sin is wanting that which was not intended to be ours.
At the end of v.7 we read, "I have kept the faith."
The faith refers to the will of God as learned in the Word of God. We are committed to the war because the Word of God calls us to it. The Word of God defines the battle as the will of God for us. "I have kept" is the verb guarded. The Apostle Paul reminds us that the purpose of the battle is to protect the Word of God. And, the best way to protect the Bible is by hiding it in our hearts through memorizing it, and then, by living according to its teachings.
The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It has the ability to cut between bone and marrow and it has the ability to discern between what is going on in our soul and spirit. The Bible is the instrument in the hands of the God with a two-edged action. It strips off the false. And, if we seek to obey it, we shall discover that it exposes the entrenched power of the flesh in our lives, and it exposes all pretense.
The Bible not only exposes the false, it unveils the true. When we get to the place of honesty with ourselves, God's Word will deliver the message we have always long for: the idea that we need no longer fight a battle that is already lost, but we can start living out of the battle that was won on the cross of the Lord Jesus. His victory is realized as we come to the end of self and choose to be defined by His definitions of all things.
