Get A Grip

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1Ti 6:12 AV)

I like what one commentator describes as laying hold on.  He says it means to get a grip.  This phrase is repeated in verse nineteen of the same chapter.  There is an idea floating around that adds strife to a generation gap.  Those of us who are approaching our twilight years, or who are in our twilight years, have our eyes fixed on eternity.  We see prophecy coming to pass before our eyes.  We know the LORD’s coming is near.  Every day we get up and our bodies ache, we have to go to the doctors for cancer treatments, or our life insurance representative wants us to update our coverage, we are reminded there is a better place than this.  The older we get, the more frequently we say goodbye to friends and family.  Paul tells us to set our affection on things above and not on this earth.  We are never instructed to live as if eternity was not a hope, dream, or concern.  However, to our detriment, we can become so obsessive about eternity that we are of no earthly good.  Rather, eternal life should be a motive and not a hindrance to fighting the good fight of faith.  As we stretch forward to get a grip on eternal life, we should strive harder, not less.

The Stanley Cup is unique in all of professional sports.  The Stanley Cup is awarded to the winning hockey team of the Stanley Cup series.  The Stanley Cup series determines the championship team of professional North American Hockey.  The cup is named after Lord Stanley, the Canadian governor who brought hockey to a professional level and hosted the first professional championship.  On the cup are the names of the players on each team of the year of the championship.  The original cup is at the NHL Hall of Fame.  Being as odd and thin as it is, it was deemed too fragile to continue serving as the only cup.  There was a presentation cup forged which serves as the cup that is presented to the winning team at the conclusion of the series.  The winning team is allotted 100 days following the conclusion of the series and each team allows their players the privilege of possession of the cup for a duration during those one hundred days.  When the one hundred days are up, the presentation cup is returned to the hall of fame, repaired, cleaned, and stored for the conclusion of the next series.  Wherever that cup goes, there must be two Hall of Fame reps accompanying it.  So, if a player takes it home, two people from the Hall of Fame become house guests.  Of all professional sports, no trophy like it holds such tradition and respect.  Because it does, the sight of the cup spurs the two competing teams to fight their hardest to attain it.  The record books will tell how many series were extended beyond five games because the cup was present in the building.  Something about that cup changes the combatants.  Laying hold on it is the motive for full commitment.

This is the idea Paul is trying to convey.  It is poor advice to ignore eternity as a motivating factor for service to the LORD.  Ignoring our existence of no pain, no sorrow, no sad goodbyes, no trouble, no persecution, or no temptation is not what God intended.  Otherwise, He would have never told us what heaven is like.  Eternity is where suffering ceases and sin has no place.  An absolute place of perfection where the saints will experience the fullness of God’s glory.  Like running track with the finish line before me, I could see the ribbons displayed on the table.  That didn’t slow me down.  That sped me up.  We need more preaching on heaven.  Not less.  We need more sermons on prophecy.  Not less.  We need to get a grip on eternal life or we will never fight the good fight of faith.  Eternity is the patience of the saints.  Not the cold water of the runner.