In the previous blog, we saw that the good fight of faith is not the struggle to come to faith, but the struggle to hold fast to what God has spoken. Whoever believes what God says and stands up for it will inevitably face opposition. Paul himself is the prime example of this.
lay hold of the aeonian life
1 Timothy 6 ISA
12 Fight the excellent fight of faith. Lay hold of the aeonian life to which you were called and [for which] you made the excellent confession before many witnesses.
Following the call to fight the good fight of faith, two further instructions follow. Timothy was to lay hold of the aeonian life and make the excellent confession.
By “the aeonian life” (other translations: eternal life), Paul does not refer to a life without end, but to the life of the coming aeons. Timothy had already been called to this. Paul therefore does not say that he had to obtain this life, but that he had to lay hold of it. He was to live — even now — based on the future God had promised him.
This fits the context as well. Whoever places their expectation in the living God not only looks forward to what God will do in the future but also allows that expectation to guide them today. The good fight is fought from that position of expectation.
the excellent confession
Next comes the second instruction: Timothy had made the excellent confession before many witnesses.
The Greek word for confession (homologia) literally means: saying the same thing. Confessing, therefore, is not about devising or formulating something new, but about repeating what God has spoken. The excellent confession, therefore, consists of openly standing up for the sound words and the gospel that Paul received from the glorified Christ.
In this, we once again see the central theme of this letter. Paul warns against a different doctrine, calls for holding fast to the sound words, and then speaks of the good fight of faith. The good confession is not separate from this; rather, it is the public expression of it.
the battle becomes visible
The good fight, therefore, is not confined to the heart. Faith is confessed. Paul writes elsewhere:
Romans 10 ISA
9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Believing and confessing go hand in hand. Whoever believes what God has spoken will also stand up for it. That is precisely where the conflict arises — not because the believer seeks confrontation, but because the truth is contradicted.
Paul experienced this throughout his life. Yet, opposition never deterred him from proclaiming the gospel. On the contrary; it is precisely for this reason that, at the end of his life, he can look back on a fight well fought.
In the next blog post, we will see how Paul looks back on this. He does not say that he overcame many opponents, but rather that he fought the good fight and kept the faith.