I Timothy 6:11-16
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called… (v. 12a) Paul gives Timothy two admonitions here – that he (and we?) need to fight for “the faith” and that we need to more regularly consider that we are called to eternal life. I’m not sure what Paul means by “the faith”. If he had not included the definite article “the”, I would have thought that he was talking about Timothy’s (our?) personal faith. But “the faith” is different from “faith” – I think “the faith” is a more corporate expression, something related to the entire church’s body of belief. Think of the title, “Defender of the Faith” assigned to the King/Queen of England. “The faith” there is a much more corporate usage. And as for our taking hold of eternal life… That’s something we need to do every day, to know that we are called to eternal life – not just after we die, but also a special life that we are to live day to day, a life that begins anew every day and will last eternally. What a concept!! Glory!
Slava Bohu!