In this message we shall consider two further aspects of the believers’ experience of the dispensing of the divine Trinity: fighting the good fight and running the course of the race.
In 2 Timothy 4:7a Paul says, “I have fought the good fight.” This good fight is against Satan and his kingdom of darkness for the interest of God’s kingdom. In 1 Timothy 6:12 Paul refers to this fight as “the good fight of the faith,” that is, a fight for the contents of the complete gospel according to God’s New Testament economy.
The believers fight the good fight by receiving the apostle’s charge. First Timothy 1:18 says, “This charge I commit to you, child Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that in them you might war the good warfare.” We need to consider Paul’s use of the word “charge” here in the context of the chapter as a whole. The charge in verse 18 covers the main points presented in the previous seventeen verses. On the positive side, the main point of these verses is God’s dispensation; on the negative side, it is the differing teachings. Hence, the charge given by the apostle to his spiritual son concerns the dispensation of God positively and the differing teachings negatively. Because of different teachings, the church had already become degraded, and a deviation from the faith had taken place. Paul charged Timothy to fight against this deviation from the faith, that is, to fight the good fight for the faith.
In verse 18 Paul says that he committed the charge to Timothy “according to the prophecies previously made” concerning him. It may be that some prophetic intimations were made concerning Timothy when he was admitted into the ministry (Acts 16:1-3). Paul charged Timothy to war the good warfare in the prophecies. This means in the sphere, support, and confirmation of the prophecies.
Paul told Timothy that in the prophecies previously made he “might war the good warfare.” To war the good warfare is to war against the differing teachings of the dissenters and to carry out God’s dispensation (1 Tim. 1:4) according to the apostle’s ministry concerning the gospel of grace and eternal life for the glory of the blessed God (vv. 11-16).
On the one hand, Timothy was to war against the differing teachings of the dissenters. On the other hand, he was to carry out God’s dispensation according to the apostle’s ministry. If we wish to carry out God’s dispensation, we must not do it according to the teachings of traditional Christianity nor according to systematic theology but according to the apostle’s ministry. All true apostles teach and preach the same thing, even the one thing-God’s New Testament economy. The focus of our preaching and teaching is Christ and the church. To teach and preach God’s economy concerning Christ and the church is to war a good warfare.
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