Meditation for Tuesday of Holy Week

Greetings in the Name of Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Epistle Reading for the Tuesday of of Holy Week is 1 Timothy 6:12-14, which reads as follows:

"Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ."

We are used to the idea of the Christian faith being a "good fight" - Fight the good fight with all your might. That's the familiar hymn. However, it is good to see the Scripture here -- the way the good fight is described is our Lord's Passion.

Consider our Lord before Pilate. How did He speak? He didn't speak in anger. He didn't rush to defend himself. He didn't revile or besmirch His accusers. Rather this - our Lord simply confessed the truth of His Kingdom, confessed the truth that Pilate had authority only because the Father allowed him to have it. In other words - Christ kept the focus upon God.

This is the life and faith to which we are called - the struggle, the fight which we are to fight. However, this fight is not some "glorious" rebellion, like the so-called Christian Militia folks in Michigan thought; nor is it a fight where we embarrass our foes. No - the fight is this - we struggle against our own sinful and selfish desires - we daily drown our old Adam so that Christ and Christ alone might arise within us and flow out from us in acts of love and kindness. The fight we fight is against evil - and the first and most common place any of us encounter evil is our own sinful nature.

Fight the good fight of faith this week - learn more and more to beat down your sin and trust ever more in Christ Jesus, Whose passion and death you make public confession of each week in the Creed.

In the Name of Christ the Crucified +