The Past: The Course, In Which He was Faithful” (2 Tim. 4:7)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/25/2025 19:37 AM

My Worship Time                              Focus:  The Past:  The Course, In Which He was Faithful”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  2 Timothy 4:7

Message of the verse:  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;”

            In today’s SD I will begin by writing about five principles which are expressed or implied in this verse that were foundational to Paul’s life and his service.  The first one is that he recognized that he was in a spiritual struggle.  We read from this verse “have fought” is from the verb agonizomai and fight is from the related noun agon. Now as on would probably guess, they are the source of our English word “agonizing” and “agony.”  Now in the New Testament times both words were commonly used in reference to athletic contests, in particular public games such as the famous Greed Olympics, which had originated several centuries earlier, and in recent times this games have come back, but they are not totally like those games when Greece was more in the spotlight.  The words also were used of other types of struggles that involve great effort and energy, whether physical or spiritual.

            John MacArthur writes “Paul had used the same basic phrase in his first letter to Timothy, admonishing him to ‘fight the good fight of faith’ (6:12).  He reminded Corinthian believers that ‘everyone who competes [agonizomai] in the games exercises self-control in all things.  They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable’ (1 Cor. 9:25).  The same verb (italicized in the following references) was used by Jesus in calling men to ‘strive to enter by the narrow door’ (Luke 13:24).  In his letter to the church at Colossae, Paul testified that ‘for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me’ (1:29) and praised Epaphras, ‘one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, [who] sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God’ (4:12).  We are to labor and strive,’ he says, ‘because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially believers’ (1 Tim. 4:10).

            “The faithful and productive Christian life is nothing less than a fierce and relentless struggle ‘against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places’ (Eph. 6:12). Commenting on that verse, William Hendrickson writes,

It had been a fight against Satan; against the principalities and powers, the world-ruler of this darkness in the heavenlies; against Jewish and pagan vice and violence; against Judaism among the Galatians; against fanaticism among the Thessalonians; against contention, fornication, and litigation among the Corinthians; against incipient Gnosticism among the Ephesians and Colossians, against fightings without fears within; and last but not least, against the law of sin and death operating within his own heart. (New Testament Commentary; Expositions of the Pastoral Epistles [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1965], 315)

            “The faithful Christian constantly battles his own flesh, his own sin, his own ignorance and laziness.  He even has to battle temptation to do things that are perfectly good in themselves in place of other things that are immeasurably more important.  Every day there are new fronts on which the struggle continues.”

            In tomorrow’s SD, Lord willing, we will look at the second principle in this verse that are foundational to Paul’s life, and because they were in Paul’s life then they should also be in believer’s lives as well.

Spiritual Meaning for My Life Today:  I have to agree with the things that other believer’s battle with as mentioned in this section, that I too battle with them also.  I have the Holy Spirit of God in my life, and the Word of God to aid me in my walk with the Lord, and so I know that because of that that if and when I fall I have the greatest resources to help me in my walk with the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to give me strength as I walk with the Lord to do His will in my life.

7/25/2025 10:12 AM