Denise and I have enjoyed our European tour to Paris, Rome and Barcelona as we were talking through what we enjoyed about each and the differences it dawned on me that they each had one unique similarity….they each hosted a modern Olympics game in fact Paris has done so three times. When we were in Rome we visited the jail where Paul was held and thinking through his letters I believe he was fond of athletic competition.
In his second letter to Timothy 4:7 when he was held in that very jail he writes this admonition: Using three phrases that look back upon his 30 years of service and what had accomplished:
1“I have fought the good fight”: He doesn’t say he fought “a” good fight but “the” good fight. The importance was not the fight but that the fight was given him by the Lord. There are a lot of folks that go down swinging, but many take the fight to windmills instead of what the Lord has called them to. In Ephesians chapter 6, Paul said that battle was not against flesh and blood, people. No, it was in the spiritual arena! Satan is forever trying to get us to drop THE FIGHT for A FIGHT, which will keep us from fighting what we should have been fighting all along.
2“I have finished the race”: In Philippians chapter 3 verse 14, Paul talked about this race when he said, “He pressed towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ.” The race is the Christian life lived moment by moment, step by step. Every moment of our Christian life is engaged in this race, and the finish line is our death, where we will be given the prize of eternal life in a glorified body.
3“I have kept the faith”: Paul is speaking of the whole body of truth, the Word of God, what he called in 1 Corinthians 2:7. “The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages…” Paul is in his final hours, looking back upon 30 years and the journey that God had placed him upon, with all the twists and turns. And he says to Timothy, “I have kept the faith.” When others did not and turned away, Paul stayed with the truth. When others tried to beat the truth out of him, they found an inexhaustible supply. When some had tried to distort or mistreat the truth, Paul was the standard bearer of truth. Oh to at the end of our race to stand at our finish line with such confidence is our gold medal!
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