1 Timothy 1:18 (ESV) — This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in
accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may
wage the good warfare,
NOTE: Paul uses a
military metaphor 6 times in scripture, 4 in letters to Timothy and twice in
his letters to the Corinthians. I suppose these set of letters were his most
emotional. The Corinthian letters may even be missing one because of the
emotion, but the other two are a deep pleading for the church to not go astray.
I guess Galatians is also very emotional but also very early in his ministry.
Corinthians and the letters to Timothy are late letters. But in Timothy, he
uses the military metaphor a lot. Timothy was his spiritual son. He was deeply
concerned for his spiritual son who was also in ministry. So, he uses military
metaphors. Why? It is a struggle. People get knocked off. You don't have a lot
of time to help the wounded before you have to get back in the battle and
fight. Our enemy is fierce with a wide array of destructive weapons. Sometimes,
you do not even see it happening before you are caught. He wounds us, he tries
to discourage our morale, he wants to knock us out of the battle, either by our
quitting or our failure that so completely destroys our witness as to be combat
ineffective. We need to train and we need to be a part of a strong combat unit,
a squad of men.
PRAYER: Father, I am
in a battle. I don't want to forget it. The enemy is targeting me and many
others like me. He has a wide array of weapons, tactics, and strategies. They
are designed to defeat me, and to render me "combat"-ineffective. I
pray that your Holy Spirit would protect me and strengthen me so that I would
not fail in the day of battle.
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