O Man of God, Fight the Good Fight of Faith (1 Timothy 6:11–13)

1 Tim. 6:11. But pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

“Flee”—not heading into emptiness, but rushing toward the opposite of what you are fleeing: “pursue righteousness”—and the rest. There: “flee”; here: “pursue.” “Do both with intense zeal” (St. Chrysostom). “He did not say: step back and step forward, but: ‘flee’ and: ‘pursue’” (blessed Theophylact).

“Pursue,” he says, and indicates various virtues as the goal of the pursuit. Since this “pursue” is opposed to “flee”—and it is love of money that one is commanded to flee—all these virtues are to be understood here insofar as they are opposed to love of money, or insofar as non-acquisitiveness provides a broad field for their manifestation and exercise, or insofar as their acquisition leads to non-acquisitiveness and confirms one in it. “The Apostle commands the man of God to flee love of money and to run after righteousness, godliness, and the rest of what he mentions, because it cannot be avoided without cleaving to what is its opposite” (Ambrosiaster).

“Pursue righteousness.” Be hungry and thirsty for righteousness, as the Saviour also commanded (Matt. 5:6). Strictly observe the laws of justice in all things—in your thoughts about others, in your relations with them by word, in your dealings and encounters with them, and still more in judgments. Render to each what is his due. Mercy knows no law; but justice has its own definite measure, from which even slight deviation introduces injustice. Such a manner of conduct is impossible for you when love of money is present. It will at every step bind your hands and entangle your feet. With it your scales of justice cannot stand upright but will always tip toward injustice. Only non-acquisitiveness will give you full freedom of action; only with it can your righteousness flourish and your deeds flow unhindered in its path. “He enjoins righteousness—so as not to defraud anyone, as those who desire to be rich do” (blessed Theophylact).

“Pursue godliness. Godliness”—the disposition of the heart toward God in the spirit of faith. Since it receives its orientation from faith, it encompasses also “the holding of dogmas” (St. Chrysostom, Oecumenius, blessed Theophylact). But in itself it consists properly of feelings and dispositions toward God that arise and mature under the influence of sincere, heartfelt faith. Such a disposition comes naturally to the non-acquisitive person, while it cannot exist in the money-loving person—just as a bird cannot fly with frozen wings. In the non-acquisitive person the heart is detached from the material and creaturely and the spirit is free. Since by its nature it seeks to live in God, once freed it is drawn toward God and begins to live in Him, and, bending down from this height to the heart, fills it with reverent feelings toward God in many varied shades, depending now on the contemplation of God in different aspects (the divine essence, attributes, acts), now on one’s own various states before Him. The totality of all these is godliness—whose sign is nothing other than the presence and movement of those feelings. Love of money, by contrast, burdens the heart with “the cares of this life” (Lk. 21:34) and weighs down the mind with manifold care (Wis. 9:15). Attentiveness to the demands of the spirit departs and it grows deaf. Together with it all feelings toward God are stifled, and godliness remains only in the outward expressions established by the Church’s ordering. The entire inner structure of a person is then earthly: he crawls upon the earth with his chest and feeds on the earth.

“Pursue faith.” Faith here is not the confession of dogmas but the trust in God with which one who is filled with it believes that God will not abandon His servant who serves Him with his whole soul. Therefore he does not torment himself with anxiety about tomorrow, as the Saviour also commanded (Matt. 6:25–34). One who properly undertakes to serve God commits his life into God’s hands and no longer returns to care for himself. He is not idle; but he has no anxiety—he rests in God, content with whatever God provides—be it a piece of bread or even nothing at all. Care for oneself is the disease of an unbelieving heart. It develops out of the sense of necessary needs unguided by faith. It begins small, but does not stay at that—it grows and quickly grows into manifold care. As care grows, so love of money grows with it. When simple care becomes manifold care, at its foundation there is already full love of acquisition. In proportion to manifold care and love of money, faith is extinguished. In their final stages no trace of it remains. Faith does not take away labor and the obtaining of what is necessary, but sanctifies and guides them, keeping the heart free from attachment and clinging to obtaining and to what is obtained, while at the same time driving away sloth and idleness. In such a disposition, even if wealth flows in, faith will not allow the heart to cling to it. It will preserve the heart of the wealthy person in the feelings of a steward of God, a manager of God’s estate. It is in this spirit that the commandment to the wealthy is given below (1 Cor. 6:17–19).

“Pursue love.” Love “seeks not her own” (1 Cor. 13:5); therefore it will not pull to its own side what ought to belong to another, and to the request of one in need will not say: I need it for myself. Its nature is entirely opposed to love of money and acquisitiveness: for it does not love to gather and hold for itself, but to scatter and give away. Therefore, if you acquire love, you will extinguish acquisitiveness, or, if you drive out acquisitiveness, you will open a path for love. Begin to help others from your own and to do good—you will loosen the bonds of love of money and receive the seeds of love. Continue to be rich in good works (below: 1 Tim. 6:18)—the bonds of love of money will fall away entirely and love will reign. Whereas, on the contrary, if you begin to be miserly, you will draw tighter the bonds of love of money upon yourself and take on a hardening of heart. Continue such a life and the heart will grow stony toward everyone, and those bonds will begin to choke you yourself, bringing you to the point where you will even begrudge spending anything on yourself. And whence come envy, enmity, scheming, lawsuits, mortal hatred, murders, and all manner of disorders? All of these come above all from love of money. Where love is, there is no place for any of this. By melting the bonds of love of money, it removes all these evil consequences as well.

“Pursue patience.” One who does not seek much naturally is content with little; and this requires patience. Therefore one who has resolved to be non-acquisitive must equip himself with patience, making it the foundation of his good resolution. Why do people seek much? From self-pity, from reluctance to deny themselves—and they are reluctant to deny themselves because denial causes grief; and grief at denial comes from an inability, unreadiness, and unwillingness to endure. One who has resolved not to chase after much has already foreseen all these sorrows, deprivations, and burdens—and the attacks of self-pity that will arise on account of them—and has resolved to endure all of them. Therefore no sorrowful circumstances arising from the lack of much disturb him, but are borne with good cheer and ease. This is why the Apostle said: “pursue patience”—with the thought that if you catch it and take hold of it, you will cut away all the germs of self-pity, and thereby ward off every arousal of impulses toward possessing much. — But the demand for non-acquisitiveness is not a demand for having nothing, but only for not being attached to having and to the means of obtaining it. Even one who has much can be non-acquisitive. But for such a person, to maintain non-acquisitiveness within himself and to act in its spirit, patience is needed all the more. And here love extends to him the most powerful helping hand—for love “endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:7).

“Pursue gentleness.” Gentleness is opposed to anger, irritation, and all manner of feelings of displeasure at others for whatever reason. This feeling arises from everything that in any way troubles our self-love; but love of money provides the broadest field for the proliferation of this weed. Touch it not—this is mine. Such is the law of acquisitiveness. Let someone touch it, and off go displeasures, irritation, anger, enmity, hatred. But whoever is not attached to his possessions is free from all such disturbances, even though he passes through the same vicissitudes of life that greatly disturb others. It is clear, therefore, that non-acquisitiveness naturally goes hand in hand with gentleness. Therefore in the words “pursue gentleness” one must see also the lesson: be non-acquisitive, because otherwise you cannot be gentle. But gentleness can have other sources as well—love, submission to God’s will, and the like. — And having entered the heart, along with its parents it also cuts down love of money. Therefore in gentleness one may also see a means against this passion. Pursue gentleness, and it, having settled in the heart, will help you to maintain non-acquisitiveness without disturbance.

1 Tim. 6:12. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.

The lesson continues. Therefore these words too must be considered in the same direction as the preceding ones—that is, in their relation to non-acquisitiveness or love of money. — “Fight the good fight of faith.” A contest presupposes not only intense labor, but also struggle to overcome internal and external obstacles—when what is required is not only to accomplish some task, but also to overcome oneself and everything within oneself that rises against it, to stand firm against others, and to prevail over the course of circumstances. In relation to faith, the contest is the act of believing—because one must submit both mind and will under the yoke of faith, depart from one’s former belief, and part ways with one’s former co-religionists; still greater contest is it to order both one’s inner and outer life in the spirit of faith—which always requires no small reorganization of the established patterns of one’s life; and thereafter the contest consists in standing firm both in belief and in life according to faith—which contest is especially difficult and sublime in time of persecution and assault upon the faith and believers. All of these are contests common to all believers; but there are also particular contests of faith that rest on only certain persons—namely, the spreading of faith and guiding others in the matter of faith—the Apostolic and pastoral contest. What contest of faith is to be understood in this passage? All of the above, except the contest of the act of believing; but especially the last—the Apostolic and pastoral contest. St. Timothy had long since believed and come to know the faith in all its breadth; there was no need to mention that. But the contest of preserving the faith and living in its spirit, the contest of enduring temptations on account of faith, and for a pastor the contest of teaching and guiding the flock—these never cease. All of them may be understood in this passage, as our commentators do. St. Chrysostom speaks here of the contest of preserving faith and living in its spirit. “What is required is not only the confession (the acceptance of faith, the act of believing), but standing fast in it, so as to abide constantly in the confession that has been received; and for this very justly are great contests and no small labors needed, so as not to deviate from the right path; for many temptations present themselves, many obstacles. Consequently the path is narrow and grievous. Therefore one must guard oneself from every side, one must arm oneself properly from every direction. From everywhere spring countless enticements that attract the eyes of the soul—pleasures, money, deception, sloth, glory, pride, power, love of dominance—and they appear with a bright and pleasing face, capable of attracting those who yield to their influence and do not greatly love the truth, for the truth is hard and contains nothing pleasant. Why? Because it promises all conceivable consolations only in the future, while these objects promise honor, pleasure, and peace already now—not true peace, of course, but one that has only its outward appearance. Consequently every pleasure-seeker, every soft and faint-hearted person clings to them, fleeing from the labors joined to virtue.” — Oecumenius writes on enduring temptations for the faith: “The contest of faith includes everything that was said (in verse 11: righteousness, godliness, and the rest), as well as courage in temptations for the faith.” Blessed Theophylact mentions also the labors of the pastorate: “‘Fight,’ he says, ‘the good fight of faith’—that is, stand for the faith firmly and unshakeably, and be zealous for it both by the power of the word and by the purity of your life.”

That contests of this kind serve as an antidote to love of money and a firm foundation for non-acquisitiveness is self-evident. The spirit of life according to faith is detached from everything and therefore non-acquisitive; temptations for the faith, like fire which by melting purifies metals from foreign impurities, burn away all attachments to earthly things; and pastoral cares, besides this, leave no time even to occupy oneself with acquisitions. Therefore the Apostle wrote of contests: “everyone who competes for the prize abstains from all things” (1 Cor. 9:25), and: “no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life” (2 Tim. 2:4).

“Lay hold on eternal life.” This directly negates love of money. To take hold of eternal life means to seek it with all one’s soul and all one’s heart. To seek acquisitions alongside this leaves no means to do so: both thoughts and desires have entirely emigrated to the realm of eternal life; no strength remains for acquiring anything temporal. The Saviour Himself said that one cannot serve God and mammon. These services mutually exclude each other. Therefore take hold of eternal life—and you will extinguish love of money, receiving non-acquisitiveness in its place. Moreover, having taken hold of eternal life, one must direct all one’s deeds exclusively toward its acquisition—and they all rest upon self-denial and active love—both of which are a “consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24) for love of money.

“To which you were also called.” The promise of eternal life was among the subjects of the initial instruction given to those approaching faith. Preachers on the one hand presented to the mind: “the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven” (Rom. 1:18); on the other: “we proclaim to you eternal life” (1 Jn. 1:2). Fear from the one side, sweet hope from the other drew people to faith, offering in it the means both to be delivered from wrath and to become heirs of eternal blessedness. And at all times these two incentives have attracted and attract to faith, have kept and keep in it not cold but zealous lovers of it. The Apostle reminds St. Timothy: remember what drew you to the faith? The sweet hope of eternal goods. They were promised to you in the name of God, so that you were called directly into eternal life, and, having been baptized, enrolled among the heirs of that life—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). Being such, it is unfitting for you to love money—for this would mean exchanging gold and precious stones for rubbish and weeds. — This may be recalled to all. For “everyone who comes to baptism is called into eternal life” (Oecumenius).

“And have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.” — “Confession”—of faith is understood, which is good when it is made without fear, with boldness, without any wavering, with complete conviction in the truth. Of what confession does he speak? Confession is made at baptism; it is proclaimed before tormentors; it is also given before ordination. Which is it here? The last is least likely. The first is apt—it is suggested by the preceding: “you were called”—and by the circumstance that St. Timothy had been recommended to the Apostle Paul by all the believers in his homeland as an ardent zealot of faith (Acts 16:2). The second is even more apt. Accompanying the Apostle, St. Timothy everywhere showed forth his confession of faith—so that the whole world was witness to his confession. St. Chrysostom says: “The Apostle here praises the boldness and courage of St. Timothy; you, he says, everywhere showed forth your good confession.” Blessed Theophylact writes: “He praises his boldness and courage, as one who confessed Christ amid dangers. Or he speaks of the confession made at baptism, when we confess that we renounce Satan and are united to Christ.”

What is such a confession for love of money and for non-acquisitiveness? The same as the good contest of faith. Moreover, one who confesses Christ in the face of death is inwardly and essentially detached from everything; but at the same time is filled with inexpressibly blessed feelings from the active communion with the Lord that comes at that moment—for the Lord is near. The memory of this does not afterward depart; and deliberate recollection of it each time restores in full force both the complete detachment and the all-blessed tasting of the Lord. For one such as this—where would he find a taste for corruptible acquisitions?!

Y) A solemn charge in God’s name (1 Tim. 6:13–16)

1 Tim. 6:13, 14. I charge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, to keep the commandment.

The charge is given in the presence of the omnipresent, all-vivifying God. This is equivalent to an adjuration in the name of God, which binds the conscience and obliges one to the exact fulfillment of what is charged. In this passage it is intensified further by the reminder of the second coming of Christ and of especially impressive attributes of God—His omnipotence, unapproachability, and invisibility—the All-seeing. St. Timothy hardly needed such an intensified injunction. It is made to show the importance of the matter—the non-acquisitiveness of pastors—in which context the Apostolic spirit, through the person of St. Timothy, embraced all pastors to the end of the age, and among them very many who stand in extreme need of such an injunction. Ambrosiaster writes: “With great impressiveness and far-sightedness does the Apostle give instruction to the pastor of the Church; for in his person lies the salvation of the whole flock. It is not about St. Timothy that he speaks so forcefully, but about his successors—so that, guided by the example of St. Timothy, they might faithfully observe what their ordination obliged them to, themselves passing this example on to the successors who follow after them.”

“I charge you before God.” “Again he calls God as witness, just as he did a little before (1 Tim. 5:21)—at one and the same time multiplying fear, rendering his disciple steadfast, and revealing that these are not human dispositions—so that St. Timothy, receiving this commandment as from the Lord Himself and always having in mind the witness from whom he heard it, might by the recollection of this shake his own soul” (St. Chrysostom).

“Before God, who gives life to all things.” The thought of God who is present everywhere, who contains all things, who gives being and life to all things, provides the most powerful stimulus to moral energy; for it enlivens the sense of total dependence on God, upon which the fear of God is established and by which it is nourished—the source of active wisdom. If we take non-acquisitiveness as the subject of the charge, we may hold that the reminder of the all-vivifying God is given in order to restore the conviction that “man does not live by bread alone” (Matt. 4:4), and thereby to remove the strongest prop of concern for acquisitions; for it is sustained above all by fears for one’s life when one has nothing. “The Apostle speaks here as if saying: do not fear death, for you are a servant of God who is able to give life to all things” (St. Chrysostom). If we take the faith of Christ and zeal for its spread and maintenance as the subject of the charge, then the reminder of the all-vivifying God is given “as encouragement in the dangers joined thereto: for if God gives life to all, what need we fear from contests for the faith?” (Oecumenius). Perhaps it was also intended to prompt the thought of the future resurrection (St. Chrysostom, blessed Theophylact) and to recall the word of the Lord: “he who believes in Me, though he may die, shall live” (Jn. 11:25). It is not inopportune to allow this as a prelude to what follows, where the second coming of the Lord is spoken of.

“And (before) Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate.” This is the second reminder for the arousal and strengthening of moral energy. Christians live and breathe in Christ the Lord. Therefore the reminder of the Lord and Saviour always evokes a most stirring and enlivening thought. With this aim it is made here. “He also takes a guiding instruction from the example of the Teacher. What he has said has this meaning: as He did, so you also, he says, ought to do. For He testified (the good confession) so that we might follow in His footsteps in (this) good confession. The same thing the Apostle enjoins also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying: ‘looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Heb. 12:2); and again: ‘For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls’ (Heb. 12:3)” (St. Chrysostom).

But toward what does this reminder arouse, and what does it present for imitation here? The good confession itself—that is, its content—or the unshakeable courage with which it was given in the face of death? Both. The content of the good confession of the Lord is the assurance that He is the incarnate Son of God, who came to establish truth among men. St. Chrysostom asks: “What does the Apostle here call the good confession of the Lord?” And he answers: “The fact that, when questioned by Pilate: ‘Are you then a King?’ — He answered: ‘For this I was born and for this I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth’ (Jn. 18:37). Or he says this for this reason, or because, when asked whether He was the Son of God, He said: ‘You say that I am’ (Lk. 22:70). Such testimony was given before Pilate as well—only not in word, but by not answering the question or by silence and the words then spoken (Jn. 19:7–11).” Oecumenius directly understands by confession here the fact that the Lord “testified that He is Christ, the Son of God.” But in this lies the very substance of our faith, which accomplishes the salvation of men. Therefore blessed Theodoret writes: “By the good confession of the Lord, the Apostle called the salvation of the world. For it was for that salvation that the Lord endured suffering.” Hence Ambrosiaster draws the conclusion: “He recalls the suffering of Christ the Lord to instil fear, suggesting that the one who despises what Christ suffered for is justly to be held guilty of that suffering.” After this, the Apostle’s intention in the reminder of the good confession of Christ Jesus before Pilate may be expressed thus: confessing Christ Jesus as the Son of God incarnate and having suffered for our salvation, be yourself also ready to endure everything, even death, for faith in Him and for life in His Spirit. This is the same as what St. Peter writes: “since Christ therefore suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind” (1 Pet. 4:1). Applying this to the subject of the discourse, we see here the most powerful incentive both for non-acquisitiveness, and for fearless confession of faith in word and deed, and for good pastoral ministry. The last is what blessed Theodoret sees here—writing: “Such testimony (of Christ) the Apostle sets before his disciple (as an example), so that he too, with greater zeal, might instruct his own disciples”—fearlessly and tirelessly testifying before them and before all where the truth lies concerning Christ Jesus our Lord.