1 Timothy 6:12

Ver. 12. Maintain the good contest of the faith literally, contend the good contest; but this does not quite accord with English usage; and I deem it better to depart a little from the precise form of the original, than to use an unsuitable combination of words, or convey a wrong impression. This last is what is done by fight the fight of the Authorized Version, and strive the strife of Ellicott and Alford. Neither strife nor fight suggests to an English ear the kind of struggle here indicated under a form of expression that bears respect to the ancient games. These games were simply strenuous contests for the mastery in trials of strength and skill; and it is of importance to retain the term contest, though we can scarcely couple it with the cognate verb. The contest, however, is characterized as good, to distinguish this spiritual contest from the carnal and ambitious wrestlings on the arena. And it is further characterized as that of the faith meaning thereby the specific exercise of faith in the person and work of Christ. The adherents of this faith were like men contending for the mastery against the powers of evil working everywhere in the world around them; they must therefore quit themselves like men, in order to succeed in the conflict. Then the connection is indicated between the contest and the prize: lay hold of eternal life, which, as Winer notes ( Gr. § 43, 2), must mean, Do it in and through the contest; for the laying hold of eternal life is not represented as the result of the contest (though it might have been so), but as itself the substance of the contest: one must grasp the reality, in a measure now, in order to maintain the struggle aright, and reach the life in its full and final heritage of blessing. (The change of tense, too, is significant, the first imperative in the present, ἀγωνίζου, the second in the aorist, ἐπιλαβοῦ the former having respect to an action already commenced and to be continued, the latter to an action which is in a manner done at once (see Winer, § 43, 3).)

Having mentioned eternal life, the apostle now drops the figure, and brings the great reality into connection with the Christian calling: unto which thou wert called, and didst confess the good confession before many witnesses. The period referred to is undoubtedly that of his formally embracing the faith of Christ's gospel. Timothy was then called to receive the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23; 1 Peter 5:10); and then also made confession of his belief in the truth in Christ, though the precise moment of his doing so in public before many witnesses, as it is here put, might be either at his baptism or his ordination to the work of the ministry. These are the occasions that naturally present themselves to one's mind in connection with such a statement, and it is needless to think of any other.