by Pastor Dave
1 Timothy 6:11, 12 (NAS). But flee from these things, you man [woman] of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, fait, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the food fight of faith; take hold of eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Wow, there is so much I could say about this little section of scripture. How to narrow it down… What comes before verse 11 is a list of things that show how the worldly, fleshly, carnal person will behave. See verse 4, it says conceited, understands nothing, morbid interests, controversial questions, disputes about words, envy, abusive language, evil suspicions. Verse5 continues with constant friction, deprived mind, deprived truth, thinking that godliness is a means of great gain (in religion to see what they can get out of it).
Now look at the word “but”. This word tells us that we, as men and women of God, are to pursue a different path. Pursue means a deliberate effort, an action, a sense of going after something. We are to abandon the way of the flesh, the way of the world, the carnal and we are to pursue the better way, the way of righteousness. We are to fight the good fight. Fight against our sin nature, fight against the old way of life, fight against bad habits, fight against our desire to do our own thing. We are to follow the way of the Holy Spirit, to be led by the Spirit. For that is what we are called to as true Believers, true Christians.