1 Timothy 6:12

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession before many witnesses.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Paul writes to Timothy, his young protégé in Ephesus, issuing a charge between a warning against false teachers and the love of money (vv. 3–10) and the "good confession" before Pilate (v. 13).

The words — agōnizou (ἀγωνίζου) is a present imperative: "keep fighting," a sustained contest rather than a single act. Epilabou (ἐπίλαβου) is aorist imperative: "seize," a decisive, one-time grasp of what is already within reach.

The thread — 1 Corinthians 9:25 uses the same athletic agōn metaphor for disciplined pursuit of an imperishable prize; 1 Peter 5:10 ties the call to eternal glory in Christ.

Why it lands — It treats faith as an active, ongoing contest rather than a passive state, and demands that the reader seize what the call has already placed within reach instead of waiting for it to arrive.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

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.

Cross-references

1 Peter 5:10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.
1 Timothy 1:18 Timothy, my child, I entrust you with this command in keeping with the previous prophecies about you, so that by them you may fight the good fight,
1 Corinthians 9:25 Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable.
2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
1 Timothy 6:13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession in His testimony before Pontius Pilate:
Revelation 3:3 Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.
2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.
1 John 2:25 And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.