A Good Church Fight (1 Timothy 1:6-11; 18-20)

Big Idea: Christians should defend core biblical truths and the gospel with sound doctrine and pure motives, avoiding conflicts over minor issues.

I know that some of you saw the title of the sermon tonight, "A Good Church Fight," and assumed that we were having a business meeting. But no, instead we'll be looking at 1 Timothy 1. We're going to focus on verses 6 to the end of the chapter, but we'll leave the middle part of the chapter, verses 12 to 17, until next week.

Read with me verses 18 to 20:

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Military wisdom advises to "Choose the mountain you're willing to die on very carefully," a principle that applies to church life as well. Don't waste your time – your life – on battles that aren't worth the cost. Be careful what you decide to fight for. People can get hurt; families can be divided; children turned against their parents; churches can even be split. Don't squander something precious over a molehill; it's not worth it.

Let me ask you: Is there a place for a good church fight? Rephrased a little differently: Are there some mountains worth dying on in church life? Are there some non-negotiables that are so essential that, when threatened, we must do battle? Some battles within the church merit our steadfast defense, chief among them is the gospel itself. This truth highlights God's endless mercy, grace, and love, providing eternal life to everyone who believes in Christ. Paul wrote to Timothy:

Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. (2 Timothy 1:13-14)

Timothy's important responsibility is to protect the gospel, which is sound doctrine. Don't you think that's worth fighting for?

Now, let's pause for a second. When you hear about doctrine and theology, what do you normally hear? Perhaps the odd yawn – or somebody saying that it doesn't really matter. It's become fashionable to downplay the deposit that has been entrusted to the church in favor of application.

But let's back up a little and think about that. John 8:44 tells us that Satan is a liar. God is a God of truth, but Satan is active sowing falsehood and error into the church. One of Satan's most persistent attacks on the church has been in the area of false doctrine.

Think about some of the warnings in Scripture:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7:15)

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. (2 Peter 2:1-3)

The church has an enemy intent on destroying truth. He is the driving force behind every false doctrine that infiltrates a church. This is how the devil defeats the Christian – by lies. The truth about Jesus Christ and about salvation and eternal life is worth fighting for. That's why Paul writes in this passage, "Fight the good fight."

Three Features of a Good Church Fight

I want to look at three features of a good church fight, before I give you a case study.

The first feature of a good church fight is that:

It's a serious fight.

“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare…” (1 Timothy 1:18)

This is no little skirmish. It demands all the commitment of a dedicated soldier. Paul says, "Don't compromise. Don't give up ground. When it's a good fight, never give up. The stakes are eternal."

This is the directive Paul gives to Timothy. Last week we read verse 3: "As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine..."

The evangelist D.L Moody disliked Ira Sankey using "Onward Christian Soldiers" in his campaigns. Moody felt that the church was a poor excuse for an army. But the church is in the middle of a serious spiritual fight. And it is to be on guard against lies.

What kind of lies? Lies about the core of the Christian faith. Lies that suggest that the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ wasn't enough to save you. Lies that say that faith alone won't do it. That there is a code of rules you must obey. Deadly lies that pollute and dilute and twist the Christian message – which is the only hope of eternal life.

A second feature of a good church fight is found in verse 19:

It's a righteous fight.

Verse 19 says, "holding faith and a good conscience." There are two ingredients that Paul mentions for a good church fight in verse 19: the first is faith, and the second is a good conscience. In other words, this fight takes right doctrine – truth – and right motives. But if you are battling for the truth, and you have both good doctrine and right motives, then you're fighting a good church fight.

Let's pause here for a second. It's been my observation that in most church fights, one of these two has been missing. I've witnessed many church disputes where the doctrine is correct, but there is a lack of a good conscience. It's not enough to be right – you also have to be pure. Before you go to battle on a doctrinal issue in the church, ask yourself, "Where are my motives? Am I acting out of anger, or are my motives really pure? Am I a hothead? Do I have a little too much fun going into battle?" You have to hold on to both faith and a good conscience if you're going to go to battle for God.

And there's a third feature of a good church fight found in verses 19 and 20:

It's a dangerous fight.

...holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:19-20)

Let me go through 1 Timothy 1 and quickly list the false teachers and what they were teaching. Verse 4 says that they were teaching myths and endless genealogies. They were likely creating legendary interpretations of the Old Testament focused on the patriarchs' pedigrees. Verse 4 also states that they were argumentative – they promoted controversies rather than God's work. Verse 6 says that they had wandered away and had turned to meaningless talk. Verse 7 says that they claimed to be "teachers of the law," without knowing what the law was about.

In verses 8 to 11, Paul reminds the people of the purpose of the law. The law doesn't exist for the Christian, who is righteous before God. No, the law exists to point out the sins of the unrighteous. These individuals appear to be using the law in a legalistic manner against Christians. Verse 19 says that their errors were shipwrecking the faith of some. It was a serious enough error that it was causing severe damage. So much so that in verse 20, Paul says he's going to turn two of them over to Satan so that they may be taught not to blaspheme. In other words, he's going to expel them from the church with the hope that this church discipline will snap them out of their error. We'll discover other characteristics of their errors later in the book, but their teaching was a perilous one. It held real danger for their own souls, and for the church.

Spurgeon defined a preacher's role like this: "To know truth as it should be known, to love it as it should be loved, and then to proclaim it in the right spirit, and in its proper proportions." He said to his students, "To be effective preachers you must be sound theologians." He warned that "those who do away with Christian doctrine are, whether they are aware of it or not, the worst enemies of Christian living . . . [because] the coals of orthodoxy are necessary to the fire of piety."

Two years before he died, he said:

Some excellent brethren seem to think more of the life than of the truth; for when I warn them that the enemy has poisoned the children's bread, they answer, 'Dear brother, we are sorry to hear it; and, to counteract the evil, we will open the window, and give the children fresh air.' Yes, open the window, and give them fresh air, by all means... But, at the same time, this ought you to have done, and not to have left the other undone. Arrest the poisoners, and open the windows, too. While men go on preaching false doctrine, you may talk as much as you will about deepening their spiritual life, but you will fail in it.

Friends, we're in a perilous fight for people – to keep them from spiritual shipwreck. What's the alternative to fighting the good fight? Only one thing: thrusting away from faith and a good conscience.

Three Applications

Let's apply this lesson to us today.

Realize that we're in a war.

Don't be surprised when Satan attacks. Satan is cunning and the father of all lies. Of course he's going to attack! Of course there are going to be false teachers! What did you expect? Jesus prophesied it…yet we seem almost surprised when his prophecies come true! We need to understand that we are in a battle, and that the stakes are eternal. We need to fight the good fight ourselves.

Become a theologian.

Resist the trend towards pragmatism. Defend the truth. Get to know the truth. Reject the modern belief that your beliefs and doctrine don’t matter and that only application is important. There are serious dangers lurking if we don't become students of God's Word, who can discern error. Paul wrote:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness... (2 Timothy 2:15-16)

Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:

I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. (Acts 20:29-31)

Be willing to die for some things.

Don't be a pacifist when it comes to God's truth. Cling to the truth that God's grace is for unworthy sinners, salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, and there is forgiveness for sins and the gift of eternal life. Be willing to fight, and if necessary, to die for it.