Fight The Good Fight

Last time we hurried over verse 17. Here in 1 Timothy, it stands like a banner over every bit of instruction Paul gave to Timothy.

1 Timothy 1:17: Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

In this letter, that verse is Paul's exclamation of doxology at the end of his description of his own salvation. It should be yours and mine as well. It gives you a four-fold description of God, and the right way to respond to Him.

King describes His sovereignty. God rules the universe He created. Eternal is the Greek idiom of the ages. The Jewish manner of viewing history was the current age and the age to come. God reigns over all of it. Eternal is not just "in all time." God knows all things about all situations at all times because He is not bounded by time in any way. See Isaiah 46:9-10.

Immortal is literally imperishable or never decaying. God never gets tired, His strength never wavers, and He will never know death or decay. Invisible means that the only way God is made known to us in this life is by revealing Himself. That comes through His word, and ultimately through His Son Jesus Christ.

The only God is the fundamental truth that there is only one God. All other so-called "gods" are not real. What do we say and do, in light of Who God is? Honor is what someone or something is deemed to be worth. There is no limit to the value of knowing God. Glory refers to God's brightness, splendor or radiance. You glorify God when you recite and ascribe to Him all the excellence which belongs to Him.

Forever is one of the rare instances in which we use one English word to translate 5 Greek words. It's the prepositional phrase unto the ages of the ages. That's the best way to signify that God is unbounded by time. Again, eternity is not a very very long time. It is outside of the limits of time. Amen is something like let it be so or let it be said. That's why we say amen when we pray.

Our text for today centers around a command to Fight The Good Fight.

1. It's A Command (18a)
2. It's A Fight (18b-19a)
3. There Are Casualties (19b-20)