12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate,
14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing...
We are engaged in the fight of our lives: the fight for our lives, for eternal life, to enjoy abundant life. The enemy wants to rob us and keep us from experiencing the life that Jesus paid for, so that we can walk in victory. We can rely on God for the strength to stand, the power to fight, and the wherewithal to win over the sinful impulses that plague us day by day - He has provided His Word so that we can grow in Him and empowered us by His Holy Spirit so that we can be overcomers in Him.
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In 1st Corinthians 9, Paul lays out a wonderful analogy likening the Christian walk to a race and a fight, reminding us that we are to be actively seeking to please God. We can read:
25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
He was the champion. Seemingly at the top of his game. Having just won the world heavyweight boxing championship, his quality of life declined, according to Sports Spectrum, which says that:
His mental health deteriorated quickly. He said he was depressed and had lost all motivation to fight and to train. He gained a lot of weight, battled through drug and alcohol abuse and nearly attempted suicide.ChristianHeadlines.com said that:
“I woke up every day wishing I would not wake up any more,” the British boxer told BBC Sport in 2018.He said he “was rich, successful, young, healthy, had a family, fame — everything a man could dream of,” and added, “But I was still depressed...To subside that depression other things happened.” He sought out help and says now he is "back in love with boxing.”
As Sports Spectrum puts it, the WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who defeated Alabama's Deontay Wilder recently in a title bout...
...credits his Christian faith with helping him to turn from suicide. Fury has also been known to thank Jesus after fights since his triumphant return to boxing. He took the opportunity Saturday night to do so again:
“First and foremost, I want to say ‘thank You’ to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Fury said. “I said those who bring evil against me will not prosper. I said those who stand in the dark can never come into the light. All praise be to the one and only true God, Jesus Christ.”
Fury also has been known to speak about his faith on his social media accounts...Christian Headlines quotes Fury as saying: "I am living proof anyone can come back from the brink,” adding, “There is a lot of people out there suffering with mental health problems who think all their days will be grey, but life can improve again and you will start to enjoy the little things again.”
Fury has thirty wins, no losses, and one split decision, which came against Wilder in their first fight in 2018. Wilder only has one blemish on his record.
Well, as we look at possible applications, there is certainly a rich "fight" analogy for us. The apostle Paul used boxing as an analogy for exercising spiritual discipline. Tyson Fury is certainly an excellent boxer, but he has proven himself to be an effective fighter against those spiritual forces that had aligned against him, and there seems to be a modicum of success. I would contend that the biggest fight for Fury is not in the ring.
Our biggest fights are certainly not against other people or physical enemies, but are spiritual in nature: against the enemy of our souls and our own inclinations. Satan is waging war against believers in Christ, and the Lord has given us the tools to resist him. We also have to fight daily in the Spirit, so that we can win the victories over our fleshly desires and tendencies.
Finally, we can seek to adopt a triumphant mentality. The Christian life is not predicated in merely getting by, but in overcoming the sin that is present in our flesh. We are not to accommodate sin, but to put to death the deeds of the flesh, to confess our sin and to seek to walk in victory.
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