Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith:
7. a good fight ] the good fight, see 1Ti 6:12, where the metaphor is discussed; the second clause here, ‘I have finished the course,’ certainly suggests that the foot-race is to be the chief thought in the ‘games contest,’ ‘the fair race ’tis run; the course ’tis finished; the faith ’tis kept’ may represent the perfect tense used: ‘per effectus suos durat,’ Poppo. The aspirations of Act 20:24, Php 3:12, have now been realised; the Christian athlete is all but ‘emeritus.’ ‘He stands almost alone under the shadow of an impending death; but it is the last effort of a defeated and desperate cause: the victory is already gained. With the assured conviction that the object of his life was fully accomplished, he might well utter these words on which seventeen centuries have now set their indisputable seal.’ Stanley, Apostolic Age, pp. 169 170.
the faith ] In the same objective sense as so often throughout these Epistles, the sacred deposit of historic truth and teaching, cf. 1Ti 6:20-21, &c.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I have fought a good fight – The Christian life is often represented as a conflict, or warfare; see the notes on 1Ti 6:12. That noble conflict with sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil, Paul now says he had been able to maintain.
I have finished my course – The Christian life, too, is often represented as a race to be run; compare the notes at 1Co 9:24-26.
I have kept the faith – I have steadfastly maintained the faith of the gospel; or, have lived a life of fidelity to my Master. Probably the expression means that he had kept his plighted faith to the Redeemer, or had spent a life in faithfully endeavoring to serve his Lord.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. I have fought a good fight] Every reader will perceive that the apostle, as was his very frequent custom, alludes to the contests at the Grecian games: I have wrestled that good wrestling-I have struggled hard, and have over come, in a most honourable cause.
I have finished my course] I have started for the prize, and have come up to the goal, outstripping all my competitors, and have gained this prize also.
I have kept the faith] As the laws of these games must be most diligently observed and kept, (for though a man overcome, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully,) so I have kept the rules of the spiritual combat and race; and thus, having contended lawfully, and conquered in each exercise, I have a right to expect the prize.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I have fought a good fight; my life hath been a military life, but I have not fought the evil fights of ambitious or quarrelsome men: my fighting hath been the good and noble fight of faith, a fight with the world, the flesh, and the devil, a contending for the faith delivered to the saints, a maintaining the lustings of the Spirit against the flesh, a warring with spiritual wickednesses in high places.
I have finished my course; God appointed me a race to run, as a Christian, as an apostle and minister of Christ; I have now finished it.
I have kept the faith; I have kept the doctrine of faith, upholding and maintaining it in and by my ministry; and I have lived in the exercise of the grace of faith.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. “I have striven the goodstrife”; the Greek is not restricted to a fight,but includes any competitive contest, for example, that of theracecourse (1Ti 6:12 [ALFORD];1Co 9:24-27; Heb 12:1;Heb 12:2).
kept the faiththeChristian faith committed to me as a believer and an apostle (compare2Ti 1:14; Rev 2:10;Rev 3:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I have fought a good fight,…. The fight of faith; the same as in 1Ti 6:10
[See comments on 1Ti 6:10]:
I have finished my course, or race; the race of life set before him, his course of years; his days were extinct, the grave was ready for him, and he for that; his last sands were dropping, and he was just going the way of all flesh; or else he means the course of his ministry, which he desired to finish with joy, and was now finishing;
Ac 13:25 he was now got to the end of his line, to Rome, where he was to be a martyr for Christ, Ac 23:11 so that he now concluded his work was done, and his warfare accomplished:
I have kept the faith; by which he means, not so much the grace of faith, that was kept by Christ, the object, author, and finisher of it, and through his effectual grace and powerful intercession; but rather the profession of faith, which he had held fast without wavering; and chiefly the doctrine of faith, which was committed to his trust, which he had kept pure and incorrupt against all opposition; unless his faithfulness and integrity in the ministerial work should be thought rather to be intended; and which sense is favoured by the Syriac and Ethiopic versions, which render it, “I have kept my faith”; or have been faithful to my trust, as a good steward of the mysteries of God; not concealing and keeping back any thing that was profitable, but declaring the whole counsel of God; and now what remained for him was the crown of righteousness; and this he says for the comfort and encouragement and imitation of Timothy and others. The phrase seems to be Jewish; it is said y by the Jews, that he that does not keep the feast of unleavened bread, is as he who does not , “keep the faith of the holy blessed God”.
y Zohar in Exod. fol. 51. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I have fought the good fight ( ). Perfect middle indicative of , a favourite figure with Paul (1Cor 9:25; Col 1:29), with the cognate accusative (Phil 1:27; Phil 1:30, etc.). The “fight” is the athletic contest of his struggle for Christ.
I have finished the course ( ). Perfect active indicative of . He had used this metaphor also of himself to the elders at Ephesus (Ac 20:24). Then the “course” was ahead of him. Now it is behind him.
I have kept the faith ( ). Perfect active indicative again of . Paul has not deserted. He has kept faith with Christ. For this phrase, see Re 14:12. Deissmann (Light, etc., p. 309) gives inscriptions in Ephesus of a man who says: “I have kept faith” ( ) and another of a man of whom it is said: “He fought three fights, and twice was crowned.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
I have fought a good fight [ ] . For a good fight rend. the good fight. For the phrase, see on 1Ti 6:12. Comp. Phi 1:27, 30; 1Co 9:25; Col 2:1; 1Th 2:2; Eph 6:11 ff.
Course [] . Metaphor from the race – course. Only here and Act 13:25; xx. 24; comp. 1Co 9:24; Gal 2:2; Gal 5:7; Rom 9:16; Phi 2:16; Phi 3:12 – 14.
I have kept the faith [ ] . The phrase N. T. o. For threin to keep, see on 1Ti 5:22; 1Ti 6:14.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “I have fought a good fight” (ton kalon agona egonismai) “The good struggle I have struggled;” 1Ti 6:12. Three athletic terms are here used to emphasize the living of a crowning life: 1) the fighter, (struggler or wrestler), 2) the runner on the race course, and 3) the sentry soldier or entrusted guard; like Paul one knows when he has done his best, 1Co 9:26; Heb 12:1-2.
2) “I have finished my course” (ton deromon teteleka) “The course (of me) I have finished;” the race course or track, I completed. I have not fainted, fallen out, or become a quitter, Gal 6:9. Let each run the full course of life well, all the way.
3) “I have kept the faith” (ten pistin tetereka) “The faith I have kept, guarded like a sentry- soldier;” the “faith” means the historic body of Christian and church truth, and teaching; so should every Christian treasure and guard it; Php_1:7; Php_1:17; Jud 1:1-3.
0 FOR A FAITH
0 for a faith that will not shrink,
Though pressed by every foe,
That will not tremble at the brink,
Of any earthly woe,
That will not murmur or complain
Beneath the chastening rod,
But in the hour of grief or pain,
Will lean upon its God
A faith that shines more bright and clear, Men tempests rage without, That when in danger knows no fear, In darkness feels no doubt. Lord, give us such a faith as this, And then whatever may come, We’ll taste even here the hallowed bliss, Of an eternal home.
-John B. Dykes
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7 I have fought the good fight Because it is customary to form a judgment from the event, Paul’s fight might have been condemned on the ground that it did not end happily. He therefore boasts that it is excellent, whatever may be the light in which it is regarded by the world. This declaration is a testimony of eminent faith; for not only was Paul accounted wretched in the opinion of all, but his death also was to be ignominious. Who then would not have said that he fought without success? But he does not rely on the corrupt judgments of men. On the contrary, by magnanimous courage he rises above every calamity, so that nothing opposes his happiness and glory; and therefore he declares “the fight which he fought” to be good and honorable.
I have finished my course He even congratulates himself on his death, because it may be regarded as the goal or termination of his course. We know that they who run a race have gained their wish when they have reached the goal. In this manner also he affirms that to Christ’s combatants death is desirable, because it puts an end to their labors; and, on the other hand, he likewise declares that we ought never to rest in this life, because it is of no advantage to have run well and constantly from the beginning to the middle of the course, if we do not reach the goal.
I have kept the faith (198) This may have a twofold meaning, either that to the last he was a faithful soldier to his captain, or that he continued in the right doctrine. Both meanings will be highly appropriate; and indeed he could not make his fidelity acceptable to the Lord in any other way then by constantly professing, the pure doctrine of the gospel. Yet I have no doubt that he alludes to the solemn oath taken by soldiers; as if he had said that he was a good and faithful soldier to his captain.
(198) “This word ‘Faith’ may indeed be taken for Fidelity; as if he had said that he was loyal to our Lord Jesus Christ, and that he never flinched, that he always performed what belonged to his office. But we may also take this word faith in its ordinary meaning, that Paul did not turn aside from the pure simplicity of the gospel, and even that he relied on the promises of salvation which had been given to him, and, having preached to others, shewed that he was in earnest in what he spoke. For, indeed, all the loyalty which God demands from us proceeds from our adhering firmly to his word, and being founded on it in such a manner that we shall not be moved by any storm or tempest that may arise.” — Fr. Ser.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) I have fought a good fight.More accurately, more forcibly rendered, the good fight. St. Paul changes the metaphor, and adopts his old favourite one, so familiar to all Gentile readers, of the athlete contending in the games. First, he speaks generally of the combatant, the charioteer, and the runner. I have fought the good fight, leaving it undetermined what description of strife or contest was referred to. The tense of the Greek verbthe perfectI have fought, is remarkable. The struggle had been bravely sustained in the past, and was now being equally bravely sustained to the end. His claim to the crown (2Ti. 4:8) was established.
I have finished my course.Or race, for here the image of the stadium, the Olympic race-course, was occupying the Apostles thoughts. Again the perfect is used: I have finished my course. How, asks, Chrysostom, had he finished his course? and answers rather rhetorically by replying that he had made the circuit of the world. The question is better answered in St. Pauls own words (Act. 20:24), where he explains his course, which he would finish with joy, as the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus.
I have kept the faith.Here, again, the metaphor is changed, and St. Paul looks back on his lived life as on one long, painful struggle to guard the treasure of the Catholic faith inviolate and untarnished (see 1Ti. 6:20). And now the struggle was over, and he handed on the sacred deposit, safe. It is well to compare this passage with the words of the same Apostle in the Epistle to the Philippians (2Ti. 3:12, and following verses). The same metaphors were in the Apostles mind on both occasions; but in the first instance (in the Philippian Epistle) they were used by the anxious, care worn servant of the Lord, hoping and, at the same time, fearing what the future had in store for him and his Church; in the second (in the Epistle to Timothy) they were the expression of the triumphant conviction of the dying follower of Christ, who had so followed his loved Master in life, that he now shrank not from following the same Master in death.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Fought fight The words include not merely allusion to real battle but palestric combats. I have contested the noble contest. Not a good fight, but the good fight, namely, the maintenance of the Christian faith.
Course An allusion to the prize runner.
The faith The doctrine of the cross.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith,’
But he was not discouraged for he knew that in spite of his weaknesses and his failures, he had fought a good fight and had completed the race. The picture is of both a soldier and an athlete (compare 2Ti 2:3-5; see also 1Co 9:24-26; Heb 12:1-2). He had been following his own advice, and had done it successfully. But even more importantly he had ‘kept the faith’ with which he had started out, and which he had called on his lieutenants to closely guard (2Ti 1:13-14). Not for him a straying into false teaching or loose living. Happy the Christian who can come to the end of his life with this sense of fulfilment.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2Ti 4:7. I have fought a good fight, &c. I have maintained the good combat, I have finished my race, &c. The apostle here again alludes to the agonistic games. See 1Ti 6:12. Two of the expressions in this verse are agonistic terms, and the third is perhaps an allusion to the citizen who was faithful as a magistrate, or in any public station, upon whom the Greeks used to bestow a crown for his fidelity and public usefulness. Unless this be admitted, the apostle starts from his figurative and beautiful representation in that expression, I have kept the faith; to which nevertheless he returns in the next verse, and carries it on throughout: but if this sense be admitted, the 8th verse follows with obvious and great propriety; for then the apostle does in effect say, that he expected, through divine grace, a crown upon both accounts, as a victor in the agonistic games, and as a citizen who had been faithful in a public station, and eminently useful to mankind.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Ti 4:7 . In the prospect of his approaching end, Paul expresses the consciousness of having been faithful in the career appointed to him, and the hope of the heavenly reward.
There is no ground whatever for de Wette’s assertion, that this expression is opposed to Christian humility.
] Luther inaccurately: “I have fought a good fight.” The definite article must not be overlooked; see 1Ti 6:12 . The perfect shows that the apostle now stood at the end of the fight to which he was called as the apostle of the Lord, [62] and that he had fought through it faithfully.
Baur, quite arbitrarily, is of opinion that Phi 1:30 was here made use of; as little was the passage at Phi 3:12 ff. used (de Wette).
] The same thought is expressed by the more definite figure of a race . The point chiefly brought out is that the apostle, after continuing it without stopping, now stands at the goal. Compare with this passage Act 20:24 ; the same figure is used also in 1Co 9:24 , and is indicated in Phi 3:12 ff.
] “ I have kept the faith ,” viz. against all inducements to deny it. Heydenreich wrongly takes this expression also as a figurative one, and expounds to mean fidelity in observing the laws of battle and rules of the race; comp. against this, 1Ti 6:12 .
] Bengel: res bis per metaphoram expressa nunc tertio loco exprimitur proprie.
[62] Hofmann wrongly maintains that the apostle is not speaking here of his labours in the calling of an apostle, but generally of his Christian calling. The context clearly points to the former.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2259
A CHRISTIANS DYING REFLECTIONS
2Ti 4:7-8. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
CHRISTIANITY adapts its comforts to every part of our existence; but its influence is peculiarly visible at the close. St. Paul, when expecting death, was not without the most comfortable reflections,
I.
In his review of the past
He had had different views of life from what are generally entertained
[Many think they have little to do but to consult their own pleasure; but St. Paul had judged, that he had many important duties to fulfil.]
He had devoted himself to the great ends of life
[He had maintained a warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil: he had run his race with indefatigable zeal and ardour [Note: 1Co 9:26.]: he had kept the faith with undaunted courage and constancy: he had disregarded life itself when it stood in competition with his duty [Note: Act 20:24; Act 21:13.].]
Hence the approach of death was pleasant
[He enjoyed the testimony of a good conscience: he could adopt the language of his Lord and Master [Note: Joh 17:4.]he was a prisoner without repining, or wishing to escape: he was condemned, and could wait with complacency for the tyrants stroke.]
In consequence of this, he was happy also,
II.
In the prospect of what was to come
He had long enjoyed the earnest of eternal blessings [Note: Eph 1:14.]. He looked forward therefore now to the full possession of them
[A crown of righteousness means a most exalted state of holiness and happiness in heaven; nor did he doubt but that such a reward was laid up for him.]
He did not however expect it on account of any merit in himself
[He speaks of it indeed as bestowed in a way of righteous retribution; but he expected it wholly as the gift of God through Christ [Note: Rom 6:23.].]
Nor did he consider it as a gift peculiar to himself as an Apostle
[The longing for Christs second coming is a feeling common to all Christians [Note: 2Pe 3:12.]. For them also is this crown of righteousness reserved [Note: Heb 9:28.].]
Infer [Note: If this were the subject of a Funeral Sermon, it might be improved in reference to the deceased and the survivors, to shew that the former resembled the Apostle, and to stimulate the latter to a due improvement of their time.] 1.
How does the Apostles experience condemn the world at large
[The generality are strangers to spiritual consolations: but there is no true religion where they are not experienced. Let all consider what would be their reflections, and prospects, if they were now dying: Let all live the life of the righteous, if they would die his death.]
2.
How amply does God reward his faithful servants!
[Poor and imperfect are the best services that they can render: yet how different is their state from that of others, both in and after death! Let all then devote themselves entirely to God.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Ver. 7. I have fought a good fight ] The nearer anything is to the centre, the more strongly and swiftly it moveth. The wine of the Spirit is strongest in the saints, when they are drawing to an end. His motions are quickest when natural motions are slowest, most sensible when the body begins to be senseless, most lively when the saints are dying. See this in Moses’ swanlike song; David’s last discourse to his son Solomon and his nobles; our Saviour’s farewell to the world in that last sweet sermon and prayer of his, Joh 13:1-38 ; Joh 14:1-31 ; Joh 15:1-27 ; Joh 16:1-33 ; Joh 17:1-26 , wherein there is more worth, saith Mr Baxter, than in all the books in the world besides. When excellent Bucholcer was near his end, he wrote his book de Consolatione Decumbentium, Of the Comfort of Sick People. Then it was that Tossanus wrote his Vade mecum; Dr Preston, his Attributes of God; Mr Bolton, his Joys of Heaven; and before them all Savonarola, the Italian martyr, his Meditations upon the 51st Psalm, Verbis vivis, animatis sententiis, et spiritus fervore flagrantissimis, in most lively expressions, and with most heavenly affections. (Sixtus Senens.) Indeed, the saints are most heavenly when nearest to heaven; like as rivers, the nearer they grow to the sea, the sooner they are met by the tide.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
7 .] I have striven the good strife (it is hardly correct to confine to the sense of ‘fight:’ that it may be , but its reference is much wider, to any contest , see note on ref. 1 Tim.: and here probably to that which is specified in the next clause: see especially Heb 12:1 ), I have finished my race (see reff.: the image belongs peculiarly to St. Paul. In Phi 3:12 ff. he follows it out in detail. See also 1Co 9:24 ff.: Heb 12:1-2 . Wetst. quotes Virg. n. iv. 653, “Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi”), I have kept the faith (not, as Heydenr., ‘ my plight to observe the laws of the race :’ but as Bengel rightly observes, “res bis per metaphoram expressa nunc tertio loco exprimitur proprie.” The constant use of in these Epistles in the objective technical sense, must rule the expression here. This same consideration will preclude the meaning ‘ have kept my faith,’ ‘my fidelity ,’ as Raphel, Kypke, al.):
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Ti 4:7 . : See note on 1Ti 6:12 . The following , . . ., makes this reference to the games hardly doubtful.
: cursum consummavi (Vulg.). What had been a purpose (Act 20:24 ) was now a retrospect. To say “My race is run,” is not to boast, but merely to state a fact. The figure is also found in 1Co 9:24 , Phi 3:12 . The course is the race of life; we must not narrow it, as Chrys. does, to St. Paul’s missionary travels.
: As in 2Ti 2:21 , St. Paul passes from the metaphor to the reality. For the force of here, see note on 1Ti 6:14 ; and cf. Rev 14:12 , . The faith is a deposit, , a trust which the Apostle is now ready to render up to Him who entrusted it to him. There is no real inconsistency between the tone of this passage and that of some in earlier epistles, e.g. , Phi 3:12 , sqq . St. Paul is merely stating what the grace of God had done for him. A man does well to be distrustful as regards his use of the years of life that may remain to him; but when the life that he has lived has been admittedly lived “in the faith which is in the Son of God” (Gal 2:20 ), mock modesty becomes mischievous ingratitude.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Acts
A FULFILLED ASPIRATION
Act 20:24
I do not suppose that Paul in prison, and within sight of martyrdom, remembered his words at Ephesus. But the fact that what was aspiration whilst he was in the very thick of his difficulties came to be calm retrospect at the close is to me very beautiful and significant. ‘So that I may finish my course,’ said he wistfully; whilst before him there lay dangers clearly discerned and others that had all the more power over the imagination because they were but dimly discerned-’Not knowing the things that shall befall me there,’ said he, but knowing this, that ‘bonds and afflictions abide me.’ When a man knows exactly what he has to be afraid of he can face it. When he knows a little corner of it, and also knows that there is a great stretch behind that is unknown, that is a state of things that tries his mettle. Many a man will march up to a battery without a tremor who would not face a hole where a snake lay. And so Paul’s ignorance, as well as Paul’s knowledge, made it very hard for him to say ‘None of these things move me’ if only ‘I might finish my course.’
Now there are in these two passages, thus put together, three points that I touch for a moment. These are, What Paul thought that life chiefly was; what Paul aimed at; and what Paul won thereby.
I. What he thought that life chiefly was.
To begin with, the metaphor regards life as a track or path marked out and to be kept to by us. Paul thought of his life as a racecourse, traced for him by God, and from which it would be perilous and rebellious to diverge. The consciousness of definite duties loomed larger than anything else before him. His first waking thought was, ‘What is God’s will for me to-day? What stage of the course have I to pass over to-day?’ Each moment brought to him an appointed task which at all hazards he must do. And this elevating, humbling, and bracing ever-present sense of responsibility, not merely to circumstances, but to God, is an indispensable part of any life worth the living, and of any on which a man will ever dare to look back.
‘My course.’ O brethren! if we carried with us, always present, that solemn, severe sense of all-pervading duty and of obligation laid upon us to pursue faithfully the path that is appointed us, there would be less waste, less selfishness, less to regret, and less that weakens and defiles, in the lives of us all. And blessed be His name! however trivial be our tasks, however narrow our spheres, however secular and commonplace our businesses or trades, we may write upon them, as on all sorts of lives, except weak and selfish ones, this inscription, ‘Holiness to the Lord.’
The broad arrow stamped on Crown property gives a certain dignity to whatever bears it, and whatever small duty has the name of God written across it is thereby ennobled. If our days are to be full-fraught with the serenity and purity which it is possible for them to attain, and if we ourselves are to put forth all our powers and make the most of ourselves, we must cultivate the continual sense that life is a course-a series of definite duties marked out for us by God.
Again, the image suggests the strenuous efforts needed for discharge of our appointed tasks. The Apostle, like all men of imaginative and sensitive nature, was accustomed to speak in metaphors, which expressed his fervid convictions more adequately than more abstract expressions would have done. That vigorous figure of a ‘course’ speaks more strongly of the stress of continual effort than many words. It speaks of the straining muscles, and the intense concentration, and the forward-flung body of the runner in the arena. Paul says in effect, ‘I, for my part, live at high pressure. I get the most that I can out of myself. I do the very best that is in me.’ And that is a pattern for us.
There is nothing to be done unless we are contented to live on the stretch. Easygoing lives are always contemptible lives. A man who never does anything except what he can do easily never comes to do anything greater than what he began with, and never does anything worth doing at all. Effort is the law of life in all departments, as we all of us know and practise in regard to our daily business. But what a strange thing it is that we seem to think that our Christian characters can be formed and perfected upon other conditions, and in other fashions, than those by which men make their daily bread or their worldly fortunes!
The direction which effort takes is different in these two regions. The necessity for concentration and vigorous putting into operation of every faculty is far more imperative in the Christian course than in any other form of life.
I believe most earnestly that we grow Christlike, not by effort only, but by faith. But I believe that there is no faith without effort, and that the growth which comes from faith will not be appropriated and made ours without it. And so I preach, without in the least degree feeling that it impinges upon the great central truth that we are cleansed and perfected by the power of God working upon us, the sister truth that we must ‘work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.’
Brethren, unless we are prepared for the dust and heat of the race, we had better not start upon the course. Christian men have an appointed task, and to do it will take all the effort that they can put forth, and will assuredly demand continuous concentration and the summoning of every faculty to its utmost energy.
Still further, there is another idea that lies in the emblem, and that is that the appointed task which thus demands the whole man in vigorous exercise ought in fact to be, and in its nature is, progressive. Is the Christianity of the average church member and professing Christian a continuous advance? Is to-day better than yesterday? Are former attainments continually being left behind? Does it not seem the bitterest irony to talk about the usual life of a Christian as a course? Did you ever see a squad of raw recruits being drilled in the barrack-yard? The first thing the sergeants do is to teach them the ‘goose-step,’ which consists in lifting up one foot and then the other, ad infinitum , and yet always keeping on the same bit of ground. That is the kind of ‘course’ which hosts of so-called Christians content themselves with running-a vast deal of apparent exercise and no advance. They are just at the same spot at which they stood five, ten, or twenty years ago; not a bit wiser, more like Christ, less like the devil and the world; having gained no more mastery over their characteristic evils; falling into precisely the same faults of temper and conduct as they used to do in the far-away past. By what right can they talk of running the Christian race? Progress is essential to real Christian life.
II. Turn now to another thought here, and consider what Paul aimed at.
Look how beautifully we see in operation in these heartfelt and few words of the Apostle the power that there is in an absolute devotion to God-enjoined duty, to give a man ‘a solemn scorn of ills,’ and to lift him high above everything that would bar or hinder his path. Is it not bracing to see any one actuated by such motives as these? And why should they not be motives for us all? The one thing worth our making our aim in life is to accomplish our course.
Now notice that the word in the original here, ‘finish,’ does not merely mean ‘end,’ which would be a very poor thing. Time will do that for us all. It will end our course. But an ended course may yet be an unfinished course. And the meaning that the Apostle attaches to the word in both of our texts is not merely to scramble through anyhow, so as to get to the last of it; but to complete, accomplish the course, or, to put away the metaphor, to do all that it was meant by God that he should do.
Now some very early transcriber of the Acts of the Apostles mistook the Apostle’s meaning, and thought that he only said that he desired to end his career; and so, with the best intentions in the world, he inserted, probably on the margin, what he thought was a necessary addition-that unfortunate ‘with joy,’ which appears in our Authorised Version, but has no place in the true text. If we put it in we necessarily limit the meaning of the word ‘finish’ to that low, superficial sense which I have already dismissed. If we leave it out we get a far nobler thought. Paul was not thinking about the joy at the end. What he wanted was to do his work, all of it, right through to the very last. He knew there would be joy, but he does not speak about it. What he wanted, as all faithful men do, was to do the work, and let the joy take care of itself.
And so for all of us, the true anaesthetic or ‘painkiller’ is that all-dominant sense of obligation and duty which lays hold upon us, and grips us, and makes us, not exactly indifferent to, but very partially conscious of, the sorrows or the hindrances or the pains that may come in our way. You cannot stop an express train by stretching a rope across the line, nor stay the flow of a river with a barrier of straw. And if a man has once yielded himself fully to that great conception of God’s will driving him on through life, and prescribing his path for him, it is neither in sorrow nor in joy to arrest his course. They may roll all the golden apples out of the garden of the Hesperides in his path, and he will not stop to pick one of them up; or Satan may block it with his fiercest flames, and the man will go into them, saying, ‘When I pass through the fires He will be with me.’
III. Lastly, what Paul won thereby.
Now some hyper-sensitive people have thought that it was very strange that the Apostle, who was always preaching the imperfection of all human obedience and service, should, at the end of his life, indulge in such a piece of what they fancy was self-complacent retrospect as to say ‘I have kept the faith; I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course.’ But it was by no means complacent self-righteousness. Of course he did not mean that he looked back upon a career free from faults and flecks and stains. No. There is only one pair of human lips that ever could say, in the full significance of the word, ‘It is finished! . . . I have completed the work which Thou gavest Me to do.’ Jesus Christ’s retrospect of a stainless career, without defect or discordance at any point from the divine ideal, is not repeated in any of His servants’ experiences. But, on the other hand, if a man in the middle of his difficulties and his conflict pulls himself habitually together and says to himself, ‘Nothing shall move me, so that I may complete this bit of my course,’ depend upon it, his effort, his believing effort, will not be in vain; and at the last he will be able to look back on a career which, though stained with many imperfections, and marred with many failures, yet on the whole has realised the divine purpose, though not with absolute completeness, at least sufficiently to enable the faithful servant to feel that all his struggle has not been in vain.
Brethren, no one else can. And oh! how different the two ‘courses’ of the godly man and the worldling look, in their relative importance, when seen from this side, as we are advancing towards them, and from the other as we look back upon them! Pleasures, escape from pains, ease, comfort, popularity, quiet lives-all these things seem very attractive; and God’s will often seems very hard and very repulsive, when we are advancing towards some unwelcome duty. But when we get beyond it and look back, the two careers have changed their characters; and all the joys that could be bought at the price of the smallest neglected duty or the smallest perpetrated sin, dwindle and dwindle and dwindle, and the light is out of them, and they show for what they are-nothings, gilded nothings, painted emptinesses, lies varnished over. And on the other hand, to do right, to discharge the smallest duty, to recognise God’s will, and with faithful effort to seek to do it in dependence upon Him, that towers and towers and towers, and there seems to be, as there really is, nothing else worth living for.
So let us live with the continual remembrance in our minds that all which we do has to be passed in review by us once more, from another standpoint, and with another illumination falling upon it. And be sure of this, that the one thing worth looking back upon, and possible to be looked back upon with peace and quietness, is the humble, faithful, continual discharge of our appointed tasks for the dear Lord’s sake. If you and I, whilst work and troubles last, do truly say, ‘None of these things move me, so that I might finish my course,’ we too, with all our weaknesses, may be able to say at the last, ‘Thanks be to God! I have finished my course.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
fought. Greek. agonizomai. See Luk 13:24.
a = the.
fight. Greek. agon. See Phil. I. so and compare 1Ti 6:12.
finished. Greek. te leo. Compare App-1262Ti 1:2,
my = the.
course. Greek. dromos. See Act 13:25.
faith. App-150.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
7.] I have striven the good strife (it is hardly correct to confine to the sense of fight: that it may be, but its reference is much wider, to any contest, see note on ref. 1 Tim.: and here probably to that which is specified in the next clause: see especially Heb 12:1), I have finished my race (see reff.: the image belongs peculiarly to St. Paul. In Php 3:12 ff. he follows it out in detail. See also 1Co 9:24 ff.: Heb 12:1-2. Wetst. quotes Virg. n. iv. 653, Vixi, et quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi), I have kept the faith (not, as Heydenr., my plight to observe the laws of the race: but as Bengel rightly observes, res bis per metaphoram expressa nunc tertio loco exprimitur proprie. The constant use of in these Epistles in the objective technical sense, must rule the expression here. This same consideration will preclude the meaning have kept my faith, my fidelity, as Raphel, Kypke, al.):
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Ti 4:7. ) that good fight. Comp. 1Ti 6:12, note.- , the faith) The real thing, twice expressed by metaphor, is now in this the third instance expressed without a figure.-, I have kept) to the end, Rev 2:10.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Ti 4:7
I have fought the good fight,-It was for the good of man to save him from sin and its fearful consequences. It was for the glory and the honor of God. [The struggle had been bravely sustained in the past, and was now being equally bravely sustained to the end. His claim to the crown was established.]
I have finished the course,-It was to do his duty as a conscientious and noble hero of faith. He had fought it to a good end. [How had he finished the course? The question is answered in Pauls own words, in which he explains his own course with joy as the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus. He says: But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. . . . Wherefore I testify unto you this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I shrank not from declaring unto you the whole counsel of God. (Act 20:24-27.)]
I have kept the faith:-He had been true to the faith through all the difficulties, conflicts, dangers, and temptations. He had not shrunk from confessing it when death stared him in the face; he had not corrupted it to meet the views of Jews or Gentiles. With courage and resolution and perseverance he had kept it to the end. To be faithful to God to the end is to succeed. That is the only true success.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
have thought, 1Ti 6:12
I have finished: Joh 4:34, Act 13:25, Act 20:24, 1Co 9:24-27, Phi 3:13, Phi 3:14, Heb 12:1, Heb 12:2
I have kept: 2Ti 1:14, Pro 23:23, Luk 8:15, Luk 11:28, Joh 17:6, 1Ti 6:20, Rev 3:8, Rev 3:10
Reciprocal: Exo 39:42 – according Exo 40:33 – So Moses Num 4:23 – to perform the service Num 4:30 – service Num 6:20 – and after Num 8:25 – cease waiting upon the service thereof Num 32:27 – armed Jos 11:23 – And the land Jos 24:29 – after these Jdg 3:2 – might know Neh 4:17 – with one Neh 13:22 – Remember Psa 36:10 – and thy Pro 13:19 – The desire Pro 21:21 – findeth Pro 24:6 – by Eze 48:11 – charge Dan 12:13 – rest Zec 9:13 – against Zec 10:5 – because Mar 4:29 – brought forth Luk 6:23 – your Luk 12:37 – Blessed Luk 19:16 – Lord Joh 4:36 – he that reapeth receiveth Joh 17:4 – finished Rom 2:7 – patient 1Co 3:14 – General 1Co 9:7 – goeth 1Co 9:25 – striveth 1Co 16:13 – quit 2Co 5:8 – and willing 2Co 6:7 – the armour 2Co 10:3 – we do Phi 1:17 – that Phi 1:20 – whether Phi 1:27 – the faith Phi 1:30 – the same 1Ti 1:18 – mightest 2Ti 2:5 – is he 2Ti 3:11 – but Heb 10:32 – ye endured Heb 12:4 – General 1Pe 5:9 – stedfast Rev 2:10 – be thou Rev 11:7 – when Rev 12:11 – they overcame Rev 14:12 – the faith Rev 14:13 – and their
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
KEEPING THE FAITH
I have kept the faith.
2Ti 4:7
This was the satisfaction on which St. Pauls mind rested when he contemplated the close of his earthly work.
I. When St. Paul said that he had kept the faith, he evidently believed that there was a faith to keep.We hear much about a Pauline theology. It is a favourite idea. These doctrines are not Christs but St. Pauls, stamped with his peculiar character, and enforced only by his own personal authority. This text proves very clearly that he had no such idea about his belief and teaching. To him the truth which he believed was not a doctrine which he had discovered, but a faith which he had kept. There are schools of thought, and there are revelations of God. Each teacher must be either a leader in the first or a messenger of the second. St. Paul considered himself and boasted that he was the latter.
II. What sort of a creed may one hold, and expect to hold it always, live in it, die in it, and carry it even to the life beyond?
(a) In the first place, it must be a creed broad enough to allow the man to grow within it, to contain and to supply his ever-developing mind and character.
(b) And the second characteristic of the faith that can be kept will be its evidence, its proved truth. It will not be a mere aggregation of chance opinions.
(c) And then the third quality of a creed that a man may keep up to the end is that it is a creed capable of being turned into action.
Bishop Phillips Brooks.
Illustration
The true faith which a man has kept up to the end of his life must be one that has opened with his growth and constantly won new colour and reality from his changing experience. The old man does believe what the child believed; but how different it is, though still the same. The joy of his life has richened his belief, his sorrow has deepened it, his doubts have sobered it, his enthusiasms have fired it, his labour has purified it. This is the work that life does upon faith. This is the beauty of an old mans religion. His doctrines are like the house that he has lived in, rich with associations which make it certain that he will never move out of it. His doctrines have been illustrated and strengthened and endeared by the good help they have given his life; and no doctrine that has not done this can be really held up to the end with any such vital grasp as will enable us to carry it with us through the river and enter with it into the new life beyond.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
2Ti 4:7. A good fight is one that is waged on behalf of a good cause and against a bad one. A course means one’s career or race of life, and finish means to complete or make full. Paul’s active work was over because of his chains, and in that sense his race was run. But the teaching of the scripture is that Christians must be faithful until death in order to gain the crown (Jas 1:12; 1Pe 5:4; Rev 2:10). That is true, but a man can be faithful even when prevented by unavoidable circumstances from further activity in the work. Paul’s activities were stopped by the enemy, and in that sense his course was finished. Kept the faith. The law of God, which is the basis of the faith, will live until it has accomplished its divine purpose, hence it. is not left for man to “keep” the faith in the sense of pre serving its existence. So the phrase means that Paul had kept himself true to the law of divine faith, always advocating it whenever he had the opportunity.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Ti 4:7. I have fought the good fight. The Greek is wider in its range, and takes in every kind of contest I have striven a good strife would perhaps be nearer. The words that follow show that St. Paul, as in 1Co 9:24, is thinking specially of the Greek games.
I have kept the faith. What had been expressed before figuratively is now stated simply. So far he has not failed; he has kept the faith (in its objective sense) which had been committed to him.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith:”
What a joy to know you have fought a good fight. Many I have talked to can only hope – wish – that they have done a good job for their Lord. In fact I don’t know that I’ve ever talked to anyone that was confident that they had done all they could for their Lord in this life.
Paul might be our example here – do all that you can do and do it as best you can, then rely on the knowledge that you have done what God has desired of you.
I have kept the faith is one that we all should be able to evaluate. We know when we have failed the Lord, so we can know if we have done well.
Again, in this verse, he uses tenses that would indicate he had more than a premonition of his coming death – a knowledge of its coming is highly indicated.
I have included an appendix which contains a further study relating to this text and the believers feelings toward death see appendix one.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
Paul used three more figures to describe his life as he reviewed it. The first two are athletic metaphors (cf. 2Ti 2:5) describing a boxer or wrestler and a runner (cf. Act 20:24). The third is that of a faithful steward who has kept (guarded) his charge (cf. 1Co 4:2; Mat 25:14-30; Luk 19:11-27). Another view is that the first figure is military, the second athletic, and the third religious. [Note: Simpson, p. 159.] A third view is that all three figures are athletic. [Note: Earle, "2 Timothy," pp. 412-13.] Paul had lived the Christian life and served the Lord as He had commanded. 2Ti 4:6-7 constitute Paul’s epitaph.
Paul probably meant that he had run in the noblest race of all, namely, the ministry of the gospel, not that he had done his best in the contest. [Note: Fee, p. 289; Lea, p. 248.]