¹¹But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. ¹²Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.  (NIV11)

Maybe you were giving instructions or teaching a class on important stuff and found that someone was simply not paying attention, no matter what you tried to get them focused.  Finally, in exasperation, you said, “This is serious!”

Or maybe you were on the other side — a teenager who thought learning anything was a waste of time, a bored employee, or part of a group that just had the giggles — and the instructor had to shout at you: “This is serious!”  You can probably remember the guilt or shame you felt — or amusement, if you still didn’t feel it was actually all that important.

But at times everybody recognizes that those three words signal a need to set everything else aside, prepare for something significant, and pay close attention.  If the doctor senses his patient isn’t going to follow through with the instructions he’s giving to keep her healthy — or alive — he may say, “Look, you can’t take this lightly:  this is serious.”  The wife whose husband is distracted might have to pull him away from his computer, phone, or TV and get him to stop with the “Hmm, sure, yeahs” and tell him, “Honey, I need you to listen to me right now.  Something’s happened.  This is serious.”  Or it might even be someone teaching a group that is paying good attention who wants to point out what they most need to remember:  “Don’t forget this stuff:  this is serious.”

Paul’s instructions here at the end of his first letter to Timothy are in that last category.  His young pastor friend wasn’t treating things as a joke and wasn’t distracted, but the apostle wanted to make sure he understood and remembered the deep and lasting importance of what he was telling him.  And though Paul doesn’t use the words “This is serious”, everything he says here communicates that:  none of these are stray thoughts, conversational filler, things to be put on the back burner, or matters to be saved for a more convenient time.  

And what Paul said to Timothy he says to us, as well.  When he addresses him as “Man of God”, that’s not another title for “pastor” or “missionary” or anything — it is simply a reminder to him of his identity in Christ and his relationship with the Lord.  So, in the same way, each of you hearing me right now, as a believer, is a “man of God”, “woman of God”, or “boy” or “girl of God”.

How does this happen?  It’s not your choice or doing; it’s all God’s.  

We can no more make ourselves people of God than we can make ourselves into dinosaurs.  Sure, there might be some desire or sense that it would be a good thing, but we just don’t have the ability or capacity to completely change ourselves from one thing into another thing — from sinners bound, deservedly, for hell, to saints bound for heaven.

Paul describes what we are like, on our own, in Ephesians 2:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. [Ephesians 2:1-3]

So no matter how “great” a Christian you may be right now, you started in the same place we all start:  as objects of God’s anger at our disobedience and evil, because every one of us breaks his commands and does what we want instead of what our Creator wills.  The price of that disobedience and disrespect is death and damnation, and along with it is disability: we are without any way to please God, to make up for our sin, or to convince the Judge of all that he should give us a break. We can’t in any way escape eternal death and merit eternal life on our own.

But what we could never do for ourselves, God determined to do for us.  Paul continues in Ephesians 2:

⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. [Ephesians 2:4-10]

This is what we are, this is what the Lord has made us. We are sinners saved by his amazing, unlimited, and unconditional grace.  His love has transformed us.  We belong to him by faith, which is itself his gift to us.  He called us by his gospel, washed and claimed us in baptism, announces his forgiveness and love in his Word and absolution, and conveys his greatest gifts to us in the Lord’s Supper, all while strengthening and guiding us as his beloved children — as men, women, boys, and girls of God.

And as we just heard there in Ephesians 2, we were created in Christ Jesus for something:  to do good works — that they would characterize all our life and behavior.  Which is what Paul, back in our text, is telling Timothy and us about the way we live with that reminder of identity: “Man of God.”

The apostle is making clear that this is serious.  There is a right direction for a Christian to go and there is also a wrong direction.  When he says, “flee from all this”, he is telling us to turn away from the evil and ungodly things of the world and the flesh — repeatedly, consistently, permanently.  In the previous verses Paul warned specifically against false doctrine, discontent, and striving for money.  If he were writing to us today, he might add cautions against rage and racism, score-settling and self-indulgence, chasing likes and follows on social media, pornography, impatience, and pettiness. These things lead us toward death and the devil and are hardly what should characterize the people of God.

Instead, Paul says, “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.”  Go God’s direction.  Make these virtues the things that demonstrate your identity.  It’s not just “being nice” or behaving well when you think others are paying attention.  No, this is serious — more than we might ever work in our careers toward success or wealth or recognition or even just satisfaction, as men and women of God we work to live according to God’s standards. We want to not only have but show his love toward others, to stand firm yet grow in faith, to keep moving forward in holiness and service, and to replace all harshness and anger with gentleness.

But there’s no pretending that living this way will be a walk in the park.  We heard Jesus in our Gospel today speaking seriously of the costs and consequences of following him, and so we should understand why Paul here tells Timothy to “fight the good fight of the faith.”  Living as a Christian is always going to be a struggle — against the desires of our sinful flesh, against the temptations of Satan, and against the pushing and pulling of the godless world we live in.  

Imagine living in a coastal village in England in the 9^th century when suddenly a band of Vikings appears on the beach and runs at you with swords drawn.  Would saying, “Sorry, guys, I just don’t feel like fighting today” stop them and send them away?  Of course not — they would take whatever they wanted, do whatever they wanted, and probably kill or at least enslave you, too.  In the same way, to not fight the good fight of faith is to give ground to, or even to give in to the enemies of our souls.  This is serious.

Which is why the apostle also says to “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.”  You know, I don’t get the sense that many Christians in our culture think all that much about eternal life, but Paul here presents it as something to get a grip on and not let go of.  The knowledge that we are living not only for this world but also for an everlasting world to come should transform and energize our daily lives.  On the one hand it reminds us to conduct ourselves as citizens of heaven and strangers to sinful society; on the other hand it helps us face danger and discomfort, confident that nothing that happens to us can interfere with — only speed up — our living forever in bliss and joy with Jesus our Savior.

That’s what you, men and women of God, were called to, and that’s the faith and certainty you have confessed, numerous times, and will again.  We have Christ himself as an example and guide in this:  standing on trial before Pontius Pilate, Jesus could have denied who he was, made excuses, kept silent about the truth or lied to avoid it, all to save his skin, but he would not — before the man who had the power to sentence him to death, and knowing exactly what it would cost, Christ still confessed and gave witness.

Eternal life is a big deal. Your confession of faith is a big deal.  The One whom you confess and the One who won you eternal life is an even bigger deal.  So Paul wants us to understand that he’s not merely giving human advice here, to take or leave as we see fit — when he charges us “to keep this command”, he does so “In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus.”

You know, sometimes Christians forget that the “rules” and standards for life they have been given and taught are not the hang-ups of their parents, the obsessions of their pastors, or the outdated ideas of a backward church, but are actually the words and will of their Creator and Lord, who gave them their life and soul — and can send them to hell or heaven. They don’t stop to think that it is “the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” who is speaking.  So, yeah, the commands we have here, and throughout the Bible, are given seriously and meant to be taken seriously.

And not just “sometime”, in a future that never arrives, or when it’s more convenient.  Paul also points us here to “the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ”, to remind us that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who rules all things, could return to us any moment — the best news ever for those who greet him with faith, and the worst news possible for those who are not ready and remain in their sin.  If we “fight” with the end in sight — if we remain faithful and keep working at all we have been called to be and do — we will not lose our grip on the cross and on all that awaits us in heaven.

But it will not be to our credit or glory.  After describing our Savior and God with great praise and deep truths, Paul says, “To him be honor and might forever!”   We do the things we do not because we are great but because our Lord and Deliverer is great; the blessings we have and are promised are not rewards for our works or goodness but are entirely undeserved gifts from our gracious God, who did everything to save us from our sins so we could be his people.  So, no, we neither give ourselves credit for being Christians nor give the respect and devotion due only to the Lord to anyone or anything thing other than him — not to a parent or a movement, not to a politician or a purpose, not to any merely human idea, principle, goal, figure, hero, or cause.  To our Lord Jesus Christ be honor and power forever.

Still, we don’t fight the good fight of faith just because of who He is. It is also about who we are.  Being a man or woman of God is not a job, it’s an identity — it’s who we are and what we are and how we live.  It’s not something we ever take a break from in the summer or sit back and take for granted.  

So we keep on keeping on, with the power the Lord gives us through the gospel — fleeing all that is evil and ungodly, pursuing all that is good and godly, fighting the good fight, confessing our hope and confidence, and — “without spot” and without “blame” — holding tight to our faith, our calling, and our eternal destiny, knowing that soon our Savior will appear to judge the world and take us home.  It is work, but it is all joy because of the grace of God who gives it and because of what awaits us.  

We do not ever want to forget:  This is serious.  Amen.