Fighting is generally deemed to be not good. And even when it is right to fight – in just war and for the defence of the safety and rights of those who cannot defend themselves – it is usually in the sense of its being ‘a necessary evil’. So, when Paul explicitly describes the fight of faith as being a ‘good fight’, what does he mean?

It is fascinating to see how St Paul looks back over his Christian life in face of his fast approaching departure from this world. Writing to Timothy, he describes it as a race to be run, a faith to be kept and also as a fight to be fought (2 Ti 4.7). Each metaphor sheds its own light on how we understand our new life in Christ. It involves endurance: ‘The one who perseveres to the end will be saved’ (Mt 24.13). It requires fidelity – both to the doctrines to which we have been committed (Ro 6.17); but also to the kind of life to which they call us (Eph 4.1).  It is, however, also a life that entails combat.

The fact Paul describes this fight as being ‘good’ should give us pause for thought. When we were sent off to school for the first time, many of us can remember being told by our parents, ‘Don’t get into any fights! – Walk away!’ Fighting is generally deemed to be not good. And even when it is right to fight – in just war and for the defence of the safety and rights of those who cannot defend themselves – it is usually in the sense of its being ‘a necessary evil’. So, when Paul explicitly describes the fight of faith as being a ‘good fight’, what does he mean?

At the most basic level it was what had defined his life of faith from the very moment of his conversion. In a way that displayed the divine irony on the one hand and the depths of the conflict in which Paul was involved, on the other it is hard not to smile at the fact that victory in this conflict began with a decisive defeat. When he set out for Damascus, Saul of Tarsus was on the warpath against God. Although he had clearly persuaded himself he was actually seeking to oppose Jesus of Nazareth and his followers, his mission was born out of a heart refusal to bow God himself. So, when the exalted Christ appeared to him in blazing light and booming voice that day, his question was, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ (Ac 9.4). When the full force of that question struck him, Saul had no answer.

When Saul was led into the city and God sent Ananias to meet with him in his lodgings in Strait Street, as he was told in advance of the new mission God had in store for him. He was to exchange the conflict of fighting against his God and Saviour for the suffering that came from fighting for him and his cause. This prophetic glimpse of what this would mean became clear all too quickly. First in the opposition he faced from his fellow Jews in Damascus from whom he had to flee for his life because he preached Jesus as the Christ. Then from his newfound Christian brothers and sisters in Jerusalem who refused to believe he really had become a Christian, until Barnabas intervened. And on it went from there: harassed and tried by the Jews, beaten and driven out of cities by Gentiles, tried by the Romans and now facing death for the sake of Christ under Nero.

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