Active Faith

The Christian life is not a playground but a battleground. However, it is not a violent fight against those who do not believe. Jesus said, “Love your enemies. Do good to them that hate you” (Luke 6:27). The fight of faith is against unseen enemies, not other people or religions. Ephesians 6:12 says that our struggle is against unseen foes: Satan and his demons who manipulate the world to reject Jesus and persecute believers, tempt people to disbelieve God’s Word, and stir up our fleshly nature to please ourselves rather than God who made us.
 
How do we ‘fight the good fight of the faith’? 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 says, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” As we ‘lay hold’ of eternal life, clinging to the Lord and claiming our eternal inheritance in Christ, so we can live with new confidence in the face of evil. We confront evil powers every time we refuse to be intimidated by the lies of Satan, or give in to his temptations. The Holy Spirit assures every believer that we belong to Christ for ever, giving inner strength to confess our relationship with the Lord and live in His power.
 
Romans 10:9 says, “… if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Christian faith is not a secret inner piety. It is an actively different lifestyle with unashamed verbal confession that Jesus Christ is our Lord. But the Evil One tries to shut our mouths and accentuate our failures so that we give up. We need Paul’s advice to Timothy - “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called”. ‘Take hold’ is the opposite to ‘letting go’. Whatever the pressure, do not let go of Jesus because He has promised to hold you for all eternity!