THE CONFLICT OF FAITH

1 Tim. 6:12

Morning Meditations 1/7/15

We looked at “What faith is” yesterday. Today I want to consider the Conflict of Faith. 1Timothy 6:12 says, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”

The word “fight” is from a word (agonizomai) meaning according to Strong: “to enter a contest: contend in the gymnastic games; to contend with adversaries, fight; metaphorically, to contend, struggle, with difficulties and dangers.” We get our word agony from this word. It is a present middle imperative verb. The present tense means it is an on going struggle in the present tense. The middle voice is where the subject (us) participates in the result of the action. This means that in the outcome we are personally benefitted by the struggle. The imperative mood means two things: first, it is a command. Second, it is urgent. Paul considers obedience to this appeal urgent. Our winning in the conflict of faith is imperative if God is able to use us.

Walking by faith is a struggle. One of the first conflicts in the life of faith is doubt. When Peter walked on the water and began to sink Jesus said to him: “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” Satan attacks our assurance. He cannot change the facts but he can make us doubt the facts. Faith is based on facts. God has spoken. It may be in the form of a promise or a command. But when God speaks it is a fact and that fact is what our faith rests on. God’s facts are the foundation on which faith rests. The author of Hebrews warns against “An evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God,” (Heb 3:12). Then he says, (3:14) “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” We do not hold the faith to be saved or to stay saved but we do hold the faith to be partakers of Christ. The word “partakers” means “to be a partner with in a work.” Peter was partaking of Christ when He was walking on the water. The word “confidence” is the translation of the same word that is translated “substance” in Hebrews 11:1. So faith is a conflict and Satan’s strategy is to cause us to doubt.

There is another conflict in the fight of faith. It is the conflict that we have when we compare our strength to the task. God charged the nation of Israel with unbelief at the borders of Canaan. This is the reason they did not enter the land. It was unbelief (Heb 3:19). What caused the unbelief? The giants! They said we cannot enter the land. There are giants over there. And we are no-match for the giants. They had no doubt that God had given them the task of entering the land. But they did not believe they were up to it.. And they were absolutely right. They were no-match for the enemy. None of us are. It is not wrong for us to recognize that we are no-match for the task that God has given. Where unbelief comes in is when we stop and act on that unbelief. What we need to say is, “God you have given us the task. We are trusting You to take care of the giants. It is Your battle. We will partake with You in the process and outcome. But we are trusting You for the victory. I have found this application to the walk of faith to be a real conflict. I must fight at this point to do the will of God. It is never easy for me. I wish that past victories would make this conflict easier. But it does not. Each time it is a new conflict.

There is another conflict in the fight of faith. It is the conflict of my own understanding. Prov. 3:5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” God knows how much we prize our own understanding. I am saved. My mind has been changed to accept What God has to say about all things. His word settles all the issues. But when I entered the Christian life, I brought into it my rationalistic mind. This mind of mine has been forming opinions all my life. Now the problem I have is that I read these things that seem right to me into the verses of Scripture. So that my thoughts are imposed on the Scripture. At the point the facts have been perverted by me. This is the reason we are warned in Proverbs to not lean to our own understanding. This means that we are not to count on our own understanding in any situation. We must seek His mind on the matter. He has the facts about every situation. We must trust those facts as truth no matter how much they are in conflict with our own understanding. That is a real conflict in my life. I have a struggle here. It is a struggle for me to discipline myself to accept that I have nothing to offer. I am a complete dependent. I am at His mercy and grace.

There is another conflict in this fight of faith that I will mention briefly. It is the conflict of operating completely on the new level of spiritual reality. I am a citizen of another world (Phil 3:20). I am to operate according to those principles. It is not a life feeling and sight. It is a life of acting on God’s facts in faith. The whole system of the spiritual life makes me act and look like a complete fool to the world around me (1Cor. 1:18; 2:14). The world does not accept that God created the world and all things. They have to find another answer as to the origin of this world. I simply tell them that God did it and give them a verse for it. In doing this, I reject all the so-called findings of science. I reject the billions of dollars that the world has spent in research. I simply without needing any research at all give them the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” They do not accept the Bible as an authority at all. They are amazed that in that simple statement of belief that we reject the billions of dollars in research. You see, we operate according to a completely different principle in the spiritual world while we live in the natural world. It is the principle of faith in God’s Word. There is always the temptation to adjust our views of the Scriptures so that we do not look like a complete fool. I have a conflict there. Operating on the new level of spiritual reality by faith is a conflict. I would much rather not look like a fool. But that is a part of the price we pay for walking with Jesus. We bear His reproach. It is a conflict, but it is a conflict where we have the victory through Christ.

May the Lord bless these words to your heart.

In Christ

Earl White