day no. 16,969: battle from beginning to end

1 Timothy 1:18
Wage the good warfare.

1 Timothy 6:12

Fight the good fight of faith.

Paul's first letter to Timothy is literally book-ended with battle plans.

"Where there is grace there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight." — J.C. Ryle, Holiness

Wherever you go, there will be warfare. Since there will be fighting one way or the other, let us fight the way He taught us. Since there will be warfare, let us wage it where, when, and how God demands it that we may fight well and for the Lord.

"It is a fight of absolute necessity. Let us not think that in this war we can remain neutral and sit still. To be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil, is to be at enmity with God and in the broad way that leads to destruction. We have no choice or option. We must either fight or be lost." — J.C. Ryle, Holiness

So, fight we must, but fight back we must not. We do not return evil for evil. We do not merely counter strike because we have been punched. We do not let our enemy determine the battlefield. We do not submit to their definitions of struggle. In other words, we must fight, but we must not fight like they do.

2 Corinthians 10:3

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

We do not let our own sins win. We do not let them determine what we do. The Spirit leads us into battle, not the flesh. We do not follow the flesh anywhere, but we strive by the Spirit everywhere.

Jeremiah 9:23-24

Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

So, we must fight, but we must not rely merely on might. We must trust the might of God over the muscle of man.

Zechariah 4:6

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Might does not make right, the Almighty does.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Everything will eventually submit to Christ, but not at the point of our swords. The Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, will cut them down and pierce their hearts. Christ will lead captivity captive by crushing the imaginations and machinations of vanity. The high-minded arguments will fall and the haughty will end up underfoot.