1 Timothy 6:12 – Secure Sovereignty as the Flipside of Struggle
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called… 1 Timothy 6:12, New King James Version
"The hardest thing in the world," evaluates Charles Spurgeon in his sermon "Sovereignty and Salvation," "is to turn a man's eyes off himself. "As long as he lives," Spurgeon follows the habitual human gaze, "he always has a predilection to turn his eye inside, to look at himself; whereas God says, 'Look unto Me."
In 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul quickly pushes Timothy toward this pivot as well. He has blessed the idea of a strenuous spiritual life, told Timothy to run toward virtues, and has just specifically told him to lay hold of eternal life. He is deliberately teaching his young disciples what, and Who, is a worthy fixation of his mind and his muscles, and that God's grace works out through Timothy's decisions.
But almost as soon as he lets Timothy here the first century equivalent of stirring Rocky music, almost as soon as he has motivated the young pastor at Ephesus to take his sanctification and his work seriously because he is surrounded by temptations that would distract him from it, given a moment to see the agency in his predicament, Paul just as soon pivots to the sovereignty of God. With what grip you have, lay hold of eternal life, but just that readily reflect that your role is as secure as God's call and not based on your preferences and distractions.
Timothy is stirred toward this equipoise between his opportunities and the sovereignty of God in the spiritual locker room before an upcoming fight with entrenched spiritual pride, but we can also give praise for the God-centeredness of our predicament at halftime, or in the middle of what Paul has already labeled the good fight. Looking at the division within, Tenth Avenue North senses the same undercurrent as would distract Timothy. "My heart," they admit in "Shadows," "is an ocean reaching." Yet they pair this experience of turmoil with an expression of identity in Christ, realizing out loud to Him, "Your grace is all that keeps me from drowning."
We, Christian, walk in an ancient identity established before the foundation of the world. Even the obstacles to the full realization of that identity in Christ have been preordained. The fight to realize all we are in Him, says scarred Paul, is good. Knowing this, he invites Timothy, and us, into the same. Our hands don't secure us, but they can be animated by the amazing reality of His calling to do good which would otherwise harden our pride and burn up in His judgment. In Him, even a cup of water for a little child can have eternal worth.
"The hardest thing in the world," evaluates Charles Spurgeon in his sermon "Sovereignty and Salvation," "is to turn a man's eyes off himself. "As long as he lives," Spurgeon follows the habitual human gaze, "he always has a predilection to turn his eye inside, to look at himself; whereas God says, 'Look unto Me."
In 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul quickly pushes Timothy toward this pivot as well. He has blessed the idea of a strenuous spiritual life, told Timothy to run toward virtues, and has just specifically told him to lay hold of eternal life. He is deliberately teaching his young disciples what, and Who, is a worthy fixation of his mind and his muscles, and that God's grace works out through Timothy's decisions.
But almost as soon as he lets Timothy here the first century equivalent of stirring Rocky music, almost as soon as he has motivated the young pastor at Ephesus to take his sanctification and his work seriously because he is surrounded by temptations that would distract him from it, given a moment to see the agency in his predicament, Paul just as soon pivots to the sovereignty of God. With what grip you have, lay hold of eternal life, but just that readily reflect that your role is as secure as God's call and not based on your preferences and distractions.
Timothy is stirred toward this equipoise between his opportunities and the sovereignty of God in the spiritual locker room before an upcoming fight with entrenched spiritual pride, but we can also give praise for the God-centeredness of our predicament at halftime, or in the middle of what Paul has already labeled the good fight. Looking at the division within, Tenth Avenue North senses the same undercurrent as would distract Timothy. "My heart," they admit in "Shadows," "is an ocean reaching." Yet they pair this experience of turmoil with an expression of identity in Christ, realizing out loud to Him, "Your grace is all that keeps me from drowning."
We, Christian, walk in an ancient identity established before the foundation of the world. Even the obstacles to the full realization of that identity in Christ have been preordained. The fight to realize all we are in Him, says scarred Paul, is good. Knowing this, he invites Timothy, and us, into the same. Our hands don't secure us, but they can be animated by the amazing reality of His calling to do good which would otherwise harden our pride and burn up in His judgment. In Him, even a cup of water for a little child can have eternal worth.
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