[April 14th, 1878.]
The fight of faith may mean first the fight which faith wages; in which faith is one of the contending parties; the world, the flesh, and the devil is the other party. In this case faith is to be taken in the subjective sense. It is an inward organ by which we perceive things unseen and eternal, and through which we experience their favor. In this view the fight of faith is that spiritual conflict which is so fully described in Gal. 5. and Eph. 6 and elsewhere. Second. It may mean the fight for the faith. The command, then, is the same as in Jude ver. 3: “Contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.” In this case faith is used objectively for the doctrines believed. Paul speaks of those who have “erred from the faith.” He speaks of himself as having “kept the faith.” He draws a broad distinction between the “wisdom of the world,” and the “wisdom of God.” By the former he means the opinions or convictions which men arrive at by speculation. These may be either true or false. In neither case do they belong to the category of faith.
By the wisdom of God he means the truths supernaturally revealed by God; things which “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” These constitute the faith for which we are to contend.
They are objects of faith, because they are received on testimony, the testimony of God. The faith therefore delivered to the saints and which we are to preserve, propagate and transmit, are the truths supernaturally revealed which are contained in the Scriptures.
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The first necessary condition of contention for the faith is the firm conviction that the Bible is the infallible rule of faith, i.e., that whatever the Bible teaches God teaches, and therefore is infallibly true, and consequently no man can reject it without rejecting the testimony of God. If a man allows himself to depart from what he sees the Bible teaches, there is no security for him. He may believe anything.
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A firm conviction of the importance of the things thus revealed. Without holiness, no man can see God, and without truth there can be no believers. Our own salvation and that of others depends on the truth. Look at the heathen world and those once Christian countries which have lost the truth.
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An inward experience of the power of the truth. No man contends for anything which he does not value. The want of this experience is the great source of error.
The way to contend for the truth is,
First, to confess it, to proclaim it. The power is in the truth.
Second. To answer misrepresentations and gainsayers.
This should be done with meekness, speaking the truth in love, remembering that Paul may plant and Apollos water, but it is God who gives the increase.
The Very Last
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