Max Effort

“For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (1Tim 4:10).

Pet peeve alert! Few things get under my skin as an athlete saying, “We’ve got to give 110% in order to win.” Dude, that’s mathematically impossible. You can only give 100%. That’s all you got. You can only give 110% if you’ve been holding back to this point, say giving 85% to 90%. 

That’s the first thing that popped into my pea brain whenever I read Paul’s words to Timothy here. The apostle just told Tim the importance of hitting the spiritual gym to get in ripped and prepped to tell others about Jesus (1Tim 4:7-9). Sharing the Good News isn’t for wimps. “For this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (v10). Leave it all on the field. Give it everything you’ve got. We give max effort for others because Jesus gave max effort for us!

A team of false teachers have distracted Ephesian disciples from focusing on the game. Instead, they’ve duped folks into spend all their energy on stuff that really doesn’t matter (1Tim 1:3-7; 4:1-3). Myths. Endless family trees. Pointless controversies. Crackpot teaching about staying single and restricted diets. They’ve fooled folks into believing they can save themselves by subtracting stuff from their lives. Self-righteousness by subtraction didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now. 

Paul reminds Tim the reason it’s so important to be in top spiritual condition and be CrossFit (1Tim 4:7-9). “For to this end we toil and strive” (v10). Don’t miss the teamwork involved here. “WE toil and strive” (v10 emphasis added). As pastors, they’ve got a fight on their hands. But they don’t do it alone. This is a team sport. The apostle doesn’t face the opponent all by his lonesome. He knows Tim is a trusted teammate. Every minister must be prepped to play the biggest game of their lives. But we’re not flying solo. We have brothers and sisters who cover our blindsides and backsides. 

Together we “toil and strive” (v10). Toil. Strive. If it sounds extreme, that’s because it is! “Toil” is the Greek verb kopiao, which means working to the point of exhaustion. Striving. Struggling. Busting your butt until you’re physically and emotionally fried. In Luke’s Gospel, Simon tells Jesus how he and the crew of his fishing boat “toiled (Gr. kopiao) all night long and took nothing!” (Lk 5:5). When Christ sat down next to Jacob’s well, He was “wearied Gr. kopiao) as He was from His journey” (Jn 4:6) and totally wiped out. That’s what happens when you give max effort.

Just in case we might think we can simply roll our helmets on the field and win, Paul says we must “strive” as well (v10). This is agonizomai, which describes competing in first century sports with 100% effort. It’s where we get our word agonize. The apostle compares the race each believer runs with how “every athlete exercises (Gr. agonizomai) self-control in all things” (1Cor 9:25). When Jesus meets with Pilate, He tells the governor that if His kingdom was an earthly one, “My servants would be fighting (Gr. agonizomai)” to keep Him from being crucified (Jn 18:36). It’s about leaving it all on the field. We give max effort for others because Jesus gave max effort for us!

The man from Tarsus teams both of these words together in a letter to the church in Colossae. And here’s the shocker: he’s talking about the VERY same thing! “For this I toil (Gr. kopiao), struggling (Gr. agonizomai) with all His energy that He powerfully works within me” (Col 1:29). Did you catch that? We bust our tails but we do it in the strength and power of God! God specializes does His best work when our tank is empty and He gives us the endless power of His Holy Spirit. We give max effort for others with the max effort Jesus is working in us!

We leave it all on the field because “we have our hope set on the living God” (v10). Hope isn’t just a vague optimism. Gospel hope is an absolute certainty and stone cold, lead pipe lock. We can be absolutely sure because our God lives! Even when his world collapse all around him, Job held on tight to this very same hope. “I know my Redeemer lives!” (Job 19:25). We see His ever-presence in the very name He whispered to Moses from the burning bush (Ex 3:14). He’s the Great I Am. Our God is always in the present tense. Jesus tells the religious police, “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn 8:58). Bad grammar, but GREAT theology!

As followers of Jesus, we haven’t placed our hope some long dead religious leader. Every other founder of world’s major religions are dead and gone. Muhammed? Dead. Buddha? Dead. L. Ron Hubbard? You got it. Dead. There’s only One who walked out of the cemetery once and for all. Jesus Christ. When the women went to the tomb that very first Easter Sunday, the angel announced, “He is not here, but has risen!” (Lk 24:6). Guess what. If you go to the tomb today, He’s STILL not there! Our hope is in “the living God” (v10). 

But Jesus isn’t just for an exclusive group of people. He’s not just for the so-called One Percent. He’s not only available to folks who make a certain amount of money or members of specific countries. Christ “is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (v10). The Son of God came to our rescue when we couldn’t save ourselves. He made the ultimate cosmic dumpster dive, coming from the heights of heaven to filthy, sin-filled world in order to deliver us from our self-inflicted mess.

Jewish people waited for thousands of years for the One God promised to send. They expected Messiah to come to Jews and Jews alone. They had no idea He was coming THROUGH God’s chosen people as “the Savior of all people” (v10). But God has generously sprinkled this idea of a worldwide Rescuer throughout the entire Old Testament (Gen 18:17-18; Ps 18:49; Is 9:1; 11:10). 

Earlier in this letter, Paul tells Tim about “God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved” (1Tim 2:4). God demonstrates His love for the entire world by sending His one and only Son to the rescue (Jn 3:16). The Samaritans nailed it when they saw Jesus as the “Savior of the world” (Jn 4:42). Christ lays it all on the line for a lost and dying world, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2Pet 3:9). Jesus gave max effort for you and me!

But hope in Christ isn’t like Little League. Everybody does NOT get a trophy. Everybody does NOT get to spend eternity in paradise. Paul explains that when he writes how salvation is “especially for those who believe” (v10). The apostle’s statement takes universalism off the table. Universalism is the belief that God will save every last person who ever lives when it is all said and done. Instead, some scholars say a better understanding here is “While God is potentially Savior of all, He is actually the Savior of those who trust in Him.” 

God graciously grants eternal life only to those who place their trust in who Jesus is and what He has done for us. He lived the perfectly obedient life to God’s holy standard that you and I failed to live. He died the brutal and bloody death for our sin that we should have died. He rose to the spectacular new life that we don’t deserve. He comes to rescue anyone and everyone who places their trust in what He’s done on their behalf. Christ gave absolutely everything to do for us what we could never dream of doing on our own. Jesus gave max effort for you and me!

We should put everything on the line to win even when it hurts. ESPECIALLY when it hurts! Fight with focus and intensity. The battle requires us to bust our tail. There’s too much at stake. People’s eternal destinies hang in the balance. Bust your tail! No pain. No gain. Leave it all on the field. We give max effort for others because Jesus gave max effort for us!