1 Timothy 6:12

Fight the good fight of faith St Paul has now mounted above the lower ground in which Timothy was to maintain the true pastor's rôleagainst his rivals. -The faith," i.e. the Christian creed, the Christian life, is now a -fight," -a strife," a -race," against time and sense, earth and hell. The metaphor is the most inspiring perhaps to the Apostle himself of all his metaphors as it is also his last; see 2 Timothy 4:7, -I have fought the good fight," -run the fair race." Taken from the Greek games, the word -fight" can be only mimicfight, if it be referred to the wrestling or the boxing contest; and if, as 2 Timothy 4:7, -I have finished the course" suggests, the running contest is meant, -fight" is misleading. Not much less so is Farrar's and Alford's -strive the good strife." But for the associations which have gathered round our familiar -fight," and which have prevailed perhaps with the Revisers, we should be surely nearest for a reader coming fresh to it with the rendering -contest." And the weighty verb, present in tense, placed at the commencement of the sentence, is better represented by Longfellow's - Be a heroin the strife" than by keeping too close to the identity of verb and noun. We may render then, Play thou the man in the good contest of the Faith.

lay hold on eternal life More force is given to the intended point by R.V. the life eternal. The verb and noun recur 1 Timothy 6:19, but the epithet is changed to -the true," -the real." (see note.) And this at once suggests to us that -eternal life" is not regarded by St Paul here only as -the prize," but as alsothe -straight course" to be nowvigorously laid hold of; that -the life eternal" in fact is exactly the same as -the life which now is, and the life which is to come" of 1 Timothy 4:8, where the metaphor is also of the games. See notes there. Christ is our -strength" as well as our -right"; -the path" as well as -the prize." The present imperative refers to the bearing of Timothy through the whole contest; the aorist is, as it were, the voice of the earnest friend standing at a critical corner of the course and rousing him to renewed energy, -now lay hold." What Cambridge athlete of the river or the path but knows the value of this? What Christian athlete of the heavenly course? In no way more beautifully could the view now given be expressed than in Dr Monsell's hymn:

-Fight the good fight with all thy might,

Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right;

Lay hold on life, and it shall be

Thy joy and crown eternally.

Run the straight race through God's good grace,

Lift up thine eyes and seek His Face;

Life with its way before us lies,

Christ is the path, and Christ the prize."

whereunto thou art also called Properly, omitting -also," thou wast called at thy baptism, and, more particularly still, at thy ordination, cf. 1 Timothy 1:18; 1 Timothy 4:14. Compare the present language of the Prayer-Book; Order for Private Baptism-Our Lord Jesus Christ doth not deny His grace and mercy unto such Infants, but most lovingly doth callthem unto Him"; the Catechism-He hath calledme to this state of salvation," -God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the electpeople of God"; Ordering of Priests-Thou hast vouchsafed to callthese thy servants here present to the same office and ministry." The direct metaphor is no longer probably continued.

hast professed a good profession Lit., as R.V. didst confess the good confession; -the good confession" like -the good contest" with reference to its spiritual character, the faith and obedience of Christ. See next verse.

before many witnesses in the sight of, the word being taken up in the appeal of the next verse to -a more tremendous Presence" (Ellicott).