“But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:11-12)

Today’s verse comes out of Paul’s closing statements sub-titled “Final Charge to Timothy.” I love the words “Fight the good fight” because they speak to the importance of what Paul is saying. We are all in a battle and the most important fight of our lives. And it is a fight. It has been said that the most dangerous people are those with nothing to lose.  And that is exactly the situation for the prince of darkness, who is Satan. Satan lost the war the moment Christ Jesus died on the cross. The war was over for him, but there are still many battles to fight. Satan has nothing to lose, so he just throws everything he has against humanity; addictions, lust, anger, jealousy, and any other thing he can use to win our souls. So Paul is absolutely right, we are in the battle and the fight is worth fighting. Paul urges Timothy to hold onto his faith and focus on the Godly things. He even opens the door to the idea that sometimes the only way to fight is to flee from the situation. But in the end, whether we are in a fight or flight mode, we are to chase God and His way over ours. Specifically, we are told to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” These are the weapons we carry into our fight, and as enlisted soldiers [or Marines if you wish] in God’s army, we need to grow in our proficiency with each of these weapons to stay constantly vigilant against the enemy’s attacks. Today the prayer is this; that we may all see the enemy coming (as cunning as he is) and “Fight the good fight of the faith.”