Andrew Gass
10/17/14
Paul, in his consistent zeal for the Word of God, constantly found himself in conflict with false teachers. This battle was evidenced throughout his Epistles to the churches and his personal friends; Paul’s communications with his protégé Timothy were no exception to this. Following discussions on the practical aspects of preaching, Paul ends his first letter to his pseudo-son by imploring Timothy to avoid being like those who advocate different doctrines; those who are “conceited and understand nothing…who want to get rich [and] fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.” Yet Paul does not end there. The Apostle calls for Timothy to “flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness,” (1 Timothy 6:11).
What powerful language! I believe Christians so often misunderstand what God calls us to be as Soldiers for him. We read of being powerfully armored by God (Ephesians 6:11-17), of being led by an already-victorious King and Conqueror (Revelations 19:11-16), and our call to be strong and courageous…and we believe ourselves to be stronger than we truly are.
One of the most impressive battle tactics is the organized retreat. Oftentimes we see defeated soldiers blindly running away from combat, forsaking friends and comrades and honor for the sake of pure, animalistic survival. Much more difficult is a calculated withdrawal, where soldiers cover one another while slowly pulling back; keeping order and fighting while retreating to a more defensible position. I think we often try to fight our sins with this ordered retreat. We believe that we can win our battle with sin by giving ground slowly, fighting against Satan even as we move away from him.
This is not the fight Paul calls us to do. Paul says Timothy is to FLEE. Retreat, run away, take flight…Paul tells Timothy to do whatever he can to get away from the situation. This was not a fight Paul believed Timothy should take on. Paul told Timothy that he had to remove himself from the situation, and avoid it completely.
Similarly, Christians are often too quick to try and fight their sin by testing themselves or trying to do good in bad situations. We try to fight against our sins when we need to flee from them.
Paul, however, does not just instruct Timothy to flee from his sins. He doesn’t instruct him to give up. Paul tells Timothy that his flight from evil must also be a pursuit of good; of righteousness and holiness and love. Merriam-Webster defines pursue as “to follow and try to catch or capture (someone or something) for usually a long distance or time.”
The way that Timothy is to fight sin is not by some heroic stance against sin. It is instead pursuing good works and good morals with every fiber of Timothy’s being, for as long as he lives. We are called to the same lifestyle. We need to flee completely from our sins; remove ourselves from temptation, and put as much distance between us and Satan as possible. Then, when we have fled, we have to wrap ourselves completely in God’s will and lifestyle so that Satan can’t worm his way into our hearts. That is how we fight sin; by living such Godly lives that sin isn’t able to breach the armor we have enveloped ourselves in.
Let us now flee from the sin in our lives, and pursue the righteousness of God with all the zeal we can muster. Onward to the true fight, brethren!