PAUL’S RACE WINNING PRINCIPLES 2Titus 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 1. I have fought a good fight. The Christian life is often represented as a conflict, or warfare. That noble conflict with sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil, Paul now says he had been able to maintain. The kalov agwn, “good fight,” was used among the Greeks to express a contest of the most honourable kind, and in this sense the apostle uses it. He fought for crown not one of fading leaves, but a crown of righteousness; the reward which God, in his kindness, has promised to them who are faithful to the grace he has bestowed upon them. Apostle Paul went through all the agonies when preaching the gospel, but he remained steadfast. The more he was harnessed and tortured, the more he remained humble. He was threatened at Damascus Persecuted at Antioch Stoned at Lystra Assaulted at Icomium Beaten at Philippi Despised at Athens Blasphemed at Corinth He was thrown out of the temple Bound by chains at Jerusalem Beaten and torn by mobs Interrogated by Herod, Felix and Agrippa Beaten by rods and stripes time and again Shipwrecked several times Acquainted with almost every jail in the country. What was his reaction to these things, “these light afflictions”? Not once do you find negative confession and word of discouragement in his letters from jail. His message to his associates was” be strong,’ and “endure hardships. 2. I have finished my course I have started for the prize, and have come up to the goal, outstripping all my competitors, and have gained this prize also. The prize of the race was a crown of righteousness. A crown of righteousness. A crown won in the cause of righteousness, and conferred as the reward of his conflicts and efforts in the cause of holiness. It was not the crown of ambition; it was not a garland won in struggles for earthly distinction; it was that which the appropriate reward of his efforts to be personally holy, and to spread the principles of holiness as far as possible through the world. STAY AND FIGHT A GOOD FIGHT
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 08:45:03 +0000
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