Speaking forth the truth is our weapon in the battle. But it's not enough to just have the facts straight. Head knowledge isn't all there is too it. Verse 18 is not an isolated thought. We are to go to war holding faith, and a good conscience. We will remember in verse 5 that faith unfeigned and a good conscience are the stated goals of good doctrine. This is the fruit of good doctrine, and we need to hold on to it ourselves. We are hypocrites if we tell others, and fail to do it ourselves.
Faith is referred to numerous times in this chapter (not counting similar ideas like giving heed and accepting fully)
2- Faith (4102): Timothy genuine child in faith
4- Faith (4102): Fables don't minister, good doctrine does
5- Faith (4102): Goal of commandment
11- Committed to my trust (4100): believed- passive, God entrusts us with the gospel
12- Faithful (4103): Jesus has made him faithful
13- Unbelief (1 + 4103): Paul used to not trust God
14- Faith (4102): Christ gave to Paul
15- Faithful (4103): Believe fully that Jesus Christ came to save sinners
16- Believe (4100): Paul's example for us to follow
19- Faith (4102): We must hold on to fight the good fight
19- Faith (4102): Putting away makes shipwreck
Even worldly armies operate off of faith in their commanding officers. The troops respond to the commander. (Ex: The centurion with great faith in Mt 8.) Each soldier sees only a small part, and he trusts his commander to know the big picture and make wise decisions that will help everybody. Worldly leaders will not always live up to these expectations, but our Commander will never fail us. He always knows what's best for everyone, as He sees everything, visible and invisible. He is the only One wise enough to give directions that work out for the best of every single person. We are way over our head in this war. We don't have the strength or the wisdom to defeat our enemy. But if we will do God's will, it will be the absolute best thing we can do for everyone involved. If soldiers of this world will follow their leaders even unto death- and they do, then we more so need to follow God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
Why do Christians need faith to stand for the truth? The most obvious and important answer is that we can't do anything good apart from faith; not even have a good attitude. But I also think of needing faith as being like a pilot needing an air traffic controller. We need knowledge to skillfully handle the controls. We need to know what all the different knobs and levers do. But the problem is that our visibility is near zero. As humans, we see through a glass darkly. We often don't know what the other person is thinking, what they are feeling, or how to reach out to them the best. We are told to study and show ourselves approved. But when we are doing battle to help people be all they can be for the Lord, we need to be guided by divine intervention. Like the pilot needs air traffic controllers to guide them through stormy weather, so we need God to do a miracle to help us say and do the right thing at the right time. No matter how bad it looks, we need to trust God's directions. During a storm is no time for a pilot to lean on his own understanding.
Pilots crash a lot of times because they go by their instincts instead of trusting the instruments. I got lost in the woods once because I didn't trust my compass. We need humility (it's only reasonable) to believe God knows better than we do.
When I was a teenager, I had an incident with my parent's car. I had pulled too far into an intersection and wanted to back up. My Dad's boss just happened to be at the same intersection, and as I started to back up, he tried to stop me. He waved his arms frantically saying "no, no". However, I was awfully smart, and I just couldn't see a single reason why I shouldn't back up. I knew how to drive just fine, thank you. But what I didn't see was that there was a big triangular metal frame sticking out of the front of the pickup truck behind me (I don't remember very well, but it was probably to attach a snow plow too). I, with my excellent perception, backed into this large metal device with the back door of my parent's station wagon. I thought I could do just fine all by myself. And so it is when we don't trust God's vision, to see what we can't see.
We access God's help (grace) through faith. We have to trust Him to do it through us. If we lean on our own understanding, we can crash the plane and loose their soul. We don't have it together. God, please help us with pride. And please help us to trust you.
Holding means having, holding, keeping. When you are running with the football it's important to have possession, that is, to hold the ball, and to keep it. In this example it's the opposite of dropping the ball. As we are to hold others to the truth, so we must hold to faith. We need to keep experiencing it.
From Ephesians we also learn that we must fight holding faith. In battle it used to be real important to hold on to your shield- no matter what. Ephesians 6:16 says "above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." That's a strong statement to say we need faith above all. You can have all the truth in the world, but you can't stop a fiery dart without a shield. You may be able handle the sword with great skill, but without a shield a child can pick you off with an arrow. The enemy is shooting fiery darts at us. Don't drop your shield. We need to trust God, no matter what.
Having faith and a good conscious is one of the themes of the book. It will pop up again in chapter 4:1. There we will see how the flesh wants to settle for anything but faith. Faith is dying to ourselves and believing Him to do it through us. When we don't grasp our own wickedness while at the same time seeing His loving desire to live through us, then we are crashing the ship.
Last night I was talking through a situation with another brother and I caught myself loosing faith. It was a somewhat difficult situation to talk about, and I got flustered and said something out of the Spirit. I quit believing that God had everything in control, and I took something too personally. In the midst of those situations it's always easy to justify our actions. But how stupid it was to think I needed to rely on my own strength. Fortunately, God helped me catch myself before I spewed out any more garbage. When we stumble, and let a situation overtake us, we need to stop and get back up. Obviously it would have been better if I had caught myself before I said something unloving. But I was glad God helped me to not keep running my mouth in the flesh, like I have done a lot of other times. When we do drop our shield, we need to stop and pick it up right away.
We must also hold (keep, experience) a good conscience. A good conscious pictures doing all God tells us to do, without compromise. When we do all that we should, then we can have a clean conscious.
If we are sharing with someone, and we share all that God wants us to, then we can have a clean conscious. There's no dirty laundry, so to speak. We did everything God wanted us to do. We're clean of that man's blood. We are pure. We don't have to be ashamed in front of the Holy One.
Peer pressure also wars against a good conscious. We like to do the same things our friends are doing. And sometimes what everyone else is doing may be fine in and of itself; but if God doesn't want us to do it we need to obey God. Keeping a good conscious means following God without giving into peer pressure. It might mean not laughing when everyone else is laughing. It might mean asking questions about something that everyone else thinks is fine. God wants us to keep our conscious clear.
Compromise is the opposite of a good conscious. Compromise is a constant enemy when we hold people to the truth. It comes so easy when the going gets tough. Compromise takes the pressure off of us in a tough situation. If we will just back off some we can have a lot more friends. People won't get mad if we'll just compromise a little.
A chocolate soldier is someone who melts when the battle rages hot. God doesn't want chocolate soldiers. God, please help us. I wish I could say there was no one's blood on my hands. I've been forgiven, and I'm not discouraged, but I know there have been times I've compromised and fallen short in caring about people's souls. Thank God for the blood. And I want to go forward, trusting God, and do all that I should to care about people. It's so worth it to keep a clean conscious. It ministers peace, and the contentment of knowing that we successfully completed our mission.
God wants us to keep ourselves pure. That's how we keep a clean conscious. We find out what God wants (by faith), and we fulfil it (keeping a good conscious). Then we don't carry the burden of guilt and shame. Even in this present world there is great reward in knowing that we have fulfilled the will of God.
It takes more than just knowledge. It takes trusting God for a miracle, and then following Him in whatsoever He commands us to do. Trust God and don't compromise. It's so exciting to walk away from a situation and know we obeyed God. It overwhelms the soul.
It is easy to run into battle with head knowledge, and forget about God. To the angels looking on we must look like fools, running into the battle naked. It's not good enough to see someone else's fault. Our attitude must be right before we can help someone else. (Mt. 7:3-5). We must, by faith, be obedient to the will of God. And we must remain pure, holding a good conscience.