First Timothy 6:12a says, “Fight the good fight of the faith.” To fight for the faith means to fight for God’s New Testament economy. In particular, it is to fight for Christ as the embodiment of God and for the church as the Body of Christ.
In 6:12b Paul goes on to say, “Lay hold on the eternal life to which you were called.” The eternal life here is the divine life, the uncreated life of God, which is eternal. Eternal denotes the nature more than the time element of the divine life. To fight the good fight of the faith in the Christian life, especially in the Christian ministry, we need to lay hold on this divine life and not trust in our human life. Hence, in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus the eternal life is stressed again and again (1 Tim. 1:16; 6:19; 2 Tim. 1:1, 10; Titus 1:2; 3:7). To bring forth God’s dispensation concerning the church in 1 Timothy, to confront the process of the church’s decline in 2 Timothy, and to maintain good order in the church life in Titus, this life is a prerequisite.
We have been called to the eternal life of God. We were born of the human natural life, but we were reborn of the divine eternal life when we were called by God in Christ.
We fight the good fight of the faith not only objectively but also subjectively by laying hold on eternal life. We should not do anything apart from this life. As those who would fight the good fight, we need to lay hold on eternal life.
We need to realize that we have been called to eternal life. This eternal life does not mainly refer to blessings in the future. To be called to eternal life does not mean that we have been called to enjoy blessings in heaven. Eternal life should be our life today, a life for our present daily living. By our first birth, the physical birth, we received the Adamic life. But because we have been called to eternal life, we should no longer live by the Adamic life, the natural life. Although we should be truly human, even Jesusly human, we should not be human in our natural life. On the contrary, we need to live a human life by the eternal life. We have been called to this life, and now we need to live it.
As believers in Christ, we have been called uniquely to eternal life. This life, the divine life, is actually the Triune God Himself. Having been called to eternal life, we now should lay hold on this life, live this life, and have our whole being according to this life.
The subtlety of the enemy in bringing deviation from the faith is to keep the believers from the eternal life. Therefore, we, the genuine believers, must lay hold on the eternal life. Without the eternal life we are nothing. This eternal life is actually the processed Triune God being life to us.
Not only heretical teachings but even fundamental teachings may be used by the enemy to keep us from enjoying the eternal life. Teachings that are scriptural, fundamental, good, ethical, and moral, teachings about the improvement of character and about making up our mind to do good things, keep the believers from the experience of the processed Triune God as eternal life to them.
It is crucial for us to see that all the matters in the New Testament concerning the believers are related to the dispensing of the processed Triune God into us. To experience this dispensing is to enjoy eternal life. Some may teach according to the Bible without teaching the believers how to contact the processed Triune God and to receive His dispensing, which becomes the vital factor of our Christian life. Because even fundamental teachings may be subtly used by the enemy to keep us from enjoying eternal life, we need to lay hold on the eternal life. Then we shall be able to fight the good fight for the faith.
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