Strive earnestly [in] the good conflict of faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which thou hast been called, and hast confessed the good confession before many witnesses.
Paul has just warned Timothy about the love of money, and now he turns him the other way: fight, and take hold. Behind both commands stand a call Timothy received and a confession he made in public, and commentators ask how a life already given can still be grasped.
The charge does not start with battle. It starts with the character of the man sent into it.
As the confusion grew, the apostle gives the moral features that should mark the "man of God." These would fit him for his unavoidable conflict with the power of evil. No servant of Christ can hold up the standard of the truth unless the truth has formed him. If he tries, it will only end in disastrous defeat. In life, as well as in word, he must represent the Master whom he serves.
"The faith" here means more than Timothy's own trust. The same writer takes it as the body of truth handed to the saints.
The good fight of faith is contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. That means the truth which had been spread among the saints and received by them. So the faith is the thing believed. But remember: without faith at work in the soul now, this fight could not be won. Otherwise, however earnest the argument, "the faith" might be nothing more than a dead creed.
Another writer traces the fight to the enemy's presence.
Meanwhile there was conflict: he must fight the good fight of faith. If anyone represents God in the world, there must be warfare, because the enemy is there. Faith's energy was also needed to lay hold of eternal life among the temptations and difficulties that the "things that are seen" bring.
If eternal life is a gift, why command a man to seize it? One commentator separates having it from entering into it.
This life is a personal possession. So the command does not mean obtaining eternal life; that is the gift of God. You must lay hold of it in faith, enter into it and enjoy it. Many have eternal life, but what they need is a practical laying hold of all that it implies and all that goes with it.
Another writer makes this a matter of where you believe you belong.
We lay hold on eternal life as we realise in our souls that we do not belong to this sphere. Everything for us is tied to the scene we are going to... We realise that the true life is life in fellowship with God. In the Spirit's power we can then use this world without abusing it, walking as Christ walked, who alone fully showed eternal life in this scene of death.
The command comes right after the warning about money. One writer pictures Timothy refusing to let go of his catch.
Timothy was to lay hold of eternal life, and let nothing shake his prey loose... The world around him was content to take its portion in this life, and many through the love of it had wandered from the faith (v. 10). But Timothy was to flee this as he pursued eternal life. Faith knew its object from the word of promise; and Timothy was to embrace it at every cost.
The command rests on something God did first — a call. One writer says plainly what that call is not for.
Our calling as Christians is a high calling, holy and heavenly. Like Abraham, we are to be pilgrims and strangers while we wait for all that God has promised us. God has not called us to present ease and the enjoyment of the world's pleasures. He has called us to conflict with the powers of darkness, and to the present enjoyment of heavenly things.
Timothy had said something publicly, and Paul brings it back to mind. One writer notes how little visible support such a confession has.
But it is hard indeed to keep up a profession contradicted, as far as sight goes, by everything in us and around us... Timothy had confessed a good confession before many witnesses, and he needed reminding of it. And so do we. For we so easily forget that we are what we are in hope.
The confession is meant to show in conduct, not only in words:
If the man of God flees from evil, follows good, fights for the faith and lays hold of eternal life, his life will make a good confession before others. He becomes a living witness to the truths that he professes.
- Formed first. No one can hold up the standard of truth unless the truth has shaped him. Character comes before conflict.
- Fight. The good fight is contending for the faith once delivered. It is unavoidable: whoever represents God stands where the enemy is.
- Lay hold. Eternal life is God's gift, already yours. The command is to enter it, enjoy it and live it.
- Called. God did not call us to ease and the world's pleasures. He called us to fight the powers of darkness and to enjoy heavenly things now.
- Confess. A grip that outlasts the world's portion shows itself in a life that witnesses to what the mouth professes.
I enjoin thee before God who preserves all things in life, and Christ Jesus who witnessed before Pontius Pilate the good confession,
Paul gives his younger fellow-worker a solemn charge, and he names two witnesses for it: God, and Christ Jesus. Why these two names, and what did Christ confess at His trial before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate?
Paul does not just give advice. He sets Timothy in front of two Persons and leaves him there. One writer sets the moment beside an earlier commissioning, and shows what each name does for Timothy:
When Moses was about to leave this life, God told him to give Joshua a charge in the sight of all the congregation (Numbers 27:19). Now, before Paul left, he gave Timothy a charge — but in the sight of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, making Timothy aware that he stood in their presence. Timothy was to keep the commandment without spot and beyond reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ… Paul placed him before God, who keeps all things in life, and before Christ Jesus, who witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate. Mentioning God in this character would give him courage, and remembering Christ Jesus as a faithful witness would encourage him.
Commentators differ over how to read one word here. Some translations say God "gives life to all things." Others say He "preserves all things in life." One writer makes the case for the second sense:
"Quickening," or creating, is not the thought. The thought is "keeping alive"… The usage in the New Testament, and in the Greek Old Testament, clearly points to saving alive or preserving. And here it is "all things", not persons, that are in question, though some go so far as to teach the contrary. God, who is the source of life, is also the preserver of all things. The man who takes up His cause in a hostile scene can count on this, and needs to count on it.
That title matters when faithfulness turns dangerous:
The Apostle encourages us to keep this charge. He reminds us that we live in the sight of One who preserves all things in life. Can He not then preserve His own, however severe the conflict they may have to pass through?
One writer defines confession by what it stands against, and by what it costs:
Confession stands by the truth of God against the lie of man, and it stands by it at the risk of everything. Our Jesus bore this witness. Throughout His life and ministry it was the way of the Son of God to hide Himself… He had come in His Father's name and not in His own. He sought not His own glory, but the glory of Him who sent Him. But the time was to come when He must openly stand confessed.
Why single out this one trial? Look at who faced whom, and at how few words the Lord needed:
Here was God's true Representative in the world, standing before the man who represents the world. How precious and clear His witness, though His words were few. He bore witness to the truth. His kingdom was not of this world, but He was a King indeed, God's King, high above everything that only lasts for a time. He sought no prominence in this world, but the glory of His Father (John 18:33-37). This gives precious character to the commandment Paul tells Timothy to keep: "without spot, beyond reproach." There must be no lapse, no tarnishing of this testimony.
Christ is more than an example. He went that way first, and He supports His servants now:
He is on high to support His servants. But here He was, as no one else, "the faithful Witness," the good Confessor. What cheer for the man who might lose heart through timid advice, or through the demoralising effect of compromise… He has to follow His steps in this as in all things. And if he knows his weakness — as he surely will, more and more, in the hard conflict — he has only to spread it out before the One whose grace is enough and whose strength is made perfect in weakness.
- Two witnesses. The charge is a commission, not private advice. Paul gives it in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, with Timothy aware that he stands before them both.
- Preserver. The first witness is God, who holds all things in life. His servant in a hostile place can count on Him to preserve His own.
- Confession. The second witness is Christ, who stood by the truth of God against the lie of man, at the risk of everything.
- Pilate's hall. There God's true Representative stood before the world's representative. In a few words He owned that He was King, though His kingdom was not of this world.
- Untarnished. Such a Model stands over the charge. So keep the commandment without spot and beyond reproach, leaning on the grace that is made perfect in weakness.
that thou keep the commandment spotless, irreproachable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Paul does not simply advise Timothy here; he places him under a formal charge, spoken as if in a courtroom where God and Christ Jesus are looking on. One writer sets the moment beside the day when Moses handed his commission to Joshua, his successor, in front of the whole nation.
When Moses was about to leave this life, God told him to give Joshua a charge in front of the whole congregation (Numbers 27:19). Now, before Paul left, he gave Timothy a charge too. But it was in the sight of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He set Timothy in their presence, aware of it, and told him to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ... Thinking of God in this character would make him bold. Remembering Christ Jesus as a faithful witness would give him courage.
The word is not narrow. It covers everything Paul has laid on Timothy in this letter. Timothy keeps it by refusing every human improvement on it.
This commandment no doubt covered everything the apostle charged Timothy with in this letter. It covered all that concerns behaviour in the house of God, all he was to avoid and all he was to pursue. Timothy was to surrender nothing. He was not to stain the commandment with human tradition, with compromises, or by bringing in anything that came from the heart or mind of man.
Christ's own testimony before Pilate, the Roman governor, sets the standard for Timothy's witness.
Here was God's true Representative in the world, standing before the man who represents the world. How precious and clear His witness, though His words were few. He bore witness to the truth. His kingdom was not of this world, yet He was a real King, God's King, far above everything that only belongs to this passing age... This gives precious character to the commandment Timothy is told to keep unstained and free from reproach. There is to be no lapse, no tarnishing of this testimony that would leave him open to rebuke, because it is all in view of the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Two different events are in view, and Paul names one of them on purpose. One writer shows that Christ's public appearing, not His coming to take His own out of the world, is what settles the question of a servant's faithfulness.
The coming of the Lord does not display us before the world; it takes us right out of it to be with Christ... There the apostle urges his faithful fellow-worker to keep this commandment unstained and free from reproach, until — the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? No; but "the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." The coming of our Lord will not prove whether Timothy has been faithful. His appearing will prove it completely. The appearing of the Lord Jesus therefore is the right and proper word, and none other.
Some read the verse as though Paul expected Timothy to live until that day. Another writer answers that the appearing marks the finish line of responsibility, whatever happens to the servant before it.
Timothy is urged to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of Jesus Christ. This verse is often used to argue the opposite, but it in fact shows how such words are to be taken. The appearing is the goal of responsibility. Whatever fills the time between now and the end of his path here would not change the exhortation. And no one would claim the apostle meant to guarantee that Timothy would live until the appearing.
What keeps a grip like that firm? One writer points to the faith of Christ Himself, and to the promise Timothy was told to hold on to.
The brightness of "the joy set before Him" never dimmed in the perfect faith of Jesus, even though the cross tested His hold on it to the very limit. In the same way, Timothy was to keep his grasp of eternal life, whatever else he might give up. God had set that promise before him. He would bring it out in all its promised blessing and glory at the appearing of Jesus. Timothy was to cling to it despite the whole world.
- Charged — Paul sets Timothy in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, as Moses commissioned Joshua before the whole nation.
- Entrusted — "the commandment" covers all Paul has told him about conduct in God's house. Timothy surrenders nothing and adds nothing of human origin.
- Unstained — Christ's clear witness before Pilate sets the pattern. No lapse, no stain on the testimony, nothing that leaves the servant open to rebuke.
- Until the appearing — Paul names Christ's public appearing, not His coming to take His own out of the world. Only the appearing will show how faithful a servant has been.
- Not till death, but till that day — the appearing is the goal of responsibility, not a promise that Timothy would live to see it. Hope of that day keeps his grip firm against the pull of the world.