The first fight principle that I want to cover is one that will be relevant to many of you in the near future. The principle itself says that the very moment you move forward to attack your opponent is the exact point at which you are prone to being attacked yourself.

Let’s look first at the physical fight in order to better understand what this means in the spiritual battle. Every fight starts with the two combatants separated and on their feet. In order to engage one another, each fighter must move toward the other until they are within attack range. In most fights, this constitutes that “feeling out” phase where they are both standing just outside the other’s striking range trying to “find their distance”. However, as soon as one fighter decides to attack he must close the distance to bring the other fighter into range. In doing so he places himself within range of his enemy.

From a physical fight perspective, this is a well documented part of the sport. It is a whole section on Randy Couture’s video series titled “Learn to Fight and Win”, and is also featured on the same series by Dan Henderson (and probably others…). It is played out in almost every fight on every pay per view. This is where fighters like Chuck Liddell and Pedro Rizzo make a living as “counter strikers”. They notoriously wait for their opponent to move into range with an attack and then strike. I believe this is what Paul is warning Timothy about in the following passage:

"This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith." 1 Timothy 1:18-19

Paul not only commands Timothy to fight, but immediately follows with “keeping the faith and a good conscience” which is the spiritual fight version of the “hands up, chin down” advice taught to every fighter. Likewise, when we choose to close the distance on our opponent in a spiritual sense we are putting ourselves at risk of attack in the same way as a physical fighter. Therefore, in the same way that a physical fighter would not rush toward the opponent in a careless manner, we too must prepare for the enemy’s attack against us.This attack will come in one of two areas (or both!). He will either attack our faith or he’ll try to get us to do something that will violate our conscience. If we do not intentionally guard ourselves then we foolishly open ourselves up to “shipwreck”, Paul’s spiritually equivalent phrase for being knocked out in a fight.

In the coming weeks we will examine these two areas, faith and conscience with the goal of understanding how the enemy attacks us! Guard your faith and your conscience. If you have chosen to fight, you will be attacked.

Keep your hands up and your chin down