'Fight the good fight of the faith': duty, courage, and identity in Christ
1 Timothy 6:12a
“Fight the good fight of the faith …” [1]
Saint Paul’s words in his First Letter to Timothy might make some contemporary Christians rather cautious: can such military language be used about the Gospel of peace?
The answer must be ‘yes’ because this language is used in a number of places by the Apostle Paul in the Scriptures of the New Testament.
Our reading today was from Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. In his Second Letter, he also exhorts Timothy to be “a good soldier of Jesus Christ” [2]. In his Letter to the Ephesians, he encourages Christians to “put on the whole armour of God” [3]. In his Letter to the Philippians, he refers to someone ministering alongside him as his “fellow-soldier” [4].
The use of military language to describe Christian faith and life, then, is very clearly Scriptural.
What is more, it has resonated with Christians across the centuries. John Chrysostom, one of the influential figures in the 4th century church, said of the Christian, “Put on the spiritual armour, and you have become a soldier” [5]. There is a well-known prayer, “Teach us, good Lord, To serve thee as thou deservest …To fight and not to heed the wounds”. And there are quite a few popular hymns with this theme: ‘Onward, Christian soldiers’, ‘Soldiers of Christ, arise’ and ‘Fight the good fight with all thy might’ [6].
Such language then is deeply Scriptural and has encouraged Christians over centuries. What does it teach us about Christian faith and life? How are we to respond to Saint Paul’s call to us to “fight the good fight of the faith”?
There are three words which can demonstrate what this call means for us, words which bring us to see the relevance of the comparison between Christian faith and military service.
The first word is duty. Soldiers have duties, duties they must undertake, duties which are essential to military service; duties which, if not undertaken, mean that a soldier is abandoning their post.
As Christians, we too have duties that we must undertake. The Ten Commandments may be summarised as our duty towards God and our duty towards neighbour [7]. Assembling together for public worship on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, is a Christian duty [8]. We have a duty to pray - for the Church, for our community and nation, for those whom we love and those who are our enemies, for this world and its peace. We have a duty to forgive others, not bear hatred. We have a duty to give financially in support of the church’s mission at home and abroad, and to give to and care for the poor.
These are our duties as Christians. To “fight the good fight of the faith” is to faithfully fulfill these duties. To neglect these duties, or to flee from them, is to not be - in Paul's words - “a good soldier of Jesus Christ”.
To “fight the good fight of the faith”, then, is to faithfully undertake and fulfill our duties as Christians.
The second word is courage. Soldiers are expected to demonstrate courage - to put themselves in harm’s way for the good and security of others. To remain at their post even when it is dangerous.
Over the centuries, many Christians have exemplified courage. I want, however, to point to one example, one particular group of Christians who demonstrate courage.
All Saints’ Church is in the city of Peshawar, in north-west Pakistan. It is part of the Church of Pakistan, a sister church of the Church of Ireland. Last Monday, 22nd September, was the 12th anniversary of an attack on All Saints by Islamist terrorists. As the congregation was leaving the church after the Sunday service, suicide bombers murdered 127 of them, including 37 children.
Today, All Saints’ Church, Peshawar, will be full - a visit to their Facebook page shows this. Marking last Monday's anniversary, the Moderator of the Church of Pakistan paid tribute - in his words - "to the steadfast commitment of the survivors who continue to bear witness to Christ with courage and hope" [9].
Following the terrorist attack, they did not preach hatred. They did not attack the local mosque. They did not riot on the streets. Nor did they abandon Christianity for Islam, as a way out of persecution. No, they returned to worshipping in their church, they ministered to one another, they took care of the bereaved and wounded, and they demonstrated what it means to follow the Crucified and Risen Lord.
The congregation of All Saints’ Church, Peshawar, shows us what it is to “fight the good fight of the faith” with courage.
Duty. Courage. And identity.
Any military unit’s cohesion and effectiveness depends on a strong sense of identity. For Roman soldiers in the time of the Apostle Paul, this identity was found in the solemn oath they took when entering the army: an oath which bound them to faithfully execute all that the Emperor commanded, to never desert the service, and to not avoid death over service to Rome.
This identity-giving oath had a name - it was called the sacramentum.
And that is the word that the early Christian Church applied to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper - for these are the Christian sacraments, signs and pledges of our identity.
In Baptism, when water is poured over us in the Name of the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are united to Christ’s death and resurrection.
In the Lord’s Supper, in the signs of bread and wine, we are renewed in our communion with Christ Crucified and Risen.
Like the oath - the sacramentum - of a Roman soldier, so the Christian sacraments proclaim our identity.
Today we celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism, as N. comes to be baptised. Baptism bestows on us our identity as Christians, as those whose lives are to be centred on and rooted in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
During the baptism service, as a means of expressing this, we will see the Rector make the sign of the cross on N. forehead. As he does so, the Rector will say, “Live as a disciple of Christ, fight the good fight, finish the race, keep the faith” [9].
We “fight the good fight of the faith” by living out our duties as Christians, by confessing the Christian faith courageously, by knowing that our identity is not found in passing trends or earthly causes, but in Christ Crucified and Risen.
This is the calling that N. receives today as he is baptised; it is the calling each of us has been given by our Baptism. May we all, marked by the sign of the Cross, be those who “fight the good fight of the faith”.
__________
[1] The epistle appointed for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity in Year C is 1 Timothy 6:6-19.
[2] 2 Timothy 2:3.
[3] Ephesians 6:11.
[4] Philippians 2:25.
[5] Chrysostom, Homily 3 on the Statues (7).
[6] Church Hymnal, numbers 659, 487, and 566.
[7] "What dost thou chiefly learn by these Commandments? I learn two things: my duty towards God, and my duty towards my Neighbour" - Catechism, BCP 2004 p.768.
[8] "It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty" - Holy Communion One, BCP 2004 p.186.
[9] Statement of Bishop Azad Marshall, Moderator of the Church of Pakistan, on X, 22nd September 2025.
[10] Holy Baptism Two, BCP 2004 p.362.
(The photograph is from the Facebook page of All Saints' Church, Peshawar.)
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