XV
Fighting Holiness
'Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.' (1 Timothy vi. 12.)
My object, in announcing 'Fighting Holiness' as my subject, is to make it quite clear that a Full Salvation does not mean a hot-house emotionalism or glass-case sanctity, but a vigorous, daring, aggressive religion, on the lines of the Saviour's words, 'The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force'.
If this text, 'Fight the good fight of faith', means anything at all, it means you must struggle for the thing you believe in. If you do not fight for it, the inference is either that you have little love for and confidence in your cause, or that you are indolent and unfaithful to that cause.
You say you believe in the rightness of God's claims upon the hearts and lives of men; you believe in the humiliation and passion of Christ to redeem men; you believe in the necessity for and possibility of rescuing human souls from the curse of evil and the eternal penalty of sin; but, believe me, your faith is vain if you do not stand for, and labour and fight to enforce, God's claims to proclaim Christ's redeeming grace, and to deliver men from going down to the pit.
The aspects of personal Holiness set out in terms such as 'perfect peace' and the 'rest of faith' are frequently before us, and I do not desire to reduce their value, for it is a blessed truth that 'we which have believed do enter into rest'. If by the 'rest of faith' is meant that calm confidence in the power and grace of God by which the believing and obedient soul is kept in perfect peace, then, all right; that, however, is very different from the only-believe-and-do-nothing policy of some people who adopt the phrase. Let there be no mistake about the fact that every consecrated man must take his place in God's fighting line.
The story of Mary of Bethany, 'who sat at the Lord's feet, and heard His word', also appeals to me; but the emphasis is not quite as some people put it. What Christ commended in Mary was not that she sat at His feet whilst Martha did all the hard work, but that she had 'chosen the good part—the one thing needful', which her anxious sister seems to have overlooked.
There is rest for the struggling soul who finds in Jesus a real deliverer. There is rest for the soul tossed about on waves of doubt and fear, who, anchoring in the haven of the Saviour's love, finds peace in believing. For the faithful but tired servant of Christ who 'works whilst it is called day', for the warrior also who has faced the enemy and braved the danger, there is rest; but the rest comes after the working and fighting is over.
I like the words 'fight' and 'fighting', because they involve taking a side, and devoting oneself to secure victory for the side one belongs to. I heard some one remark the other day, 'God wants fighting saints as well as kissing saints'; truly the phrase is not without its lesson for us. This is the very opposite to the attitude known as 'sitting on the fence', or that wretched fear which seems to possess some professed followers of Jesus Christ, who, outside a church or religious Meeting, are afraid to declare themselves for Him.' I am for Jesus Christ, and I want everybody to know it'; that is the line of the true Soldier.