Ambrose of Milan : Let godliness move you to justice, continence, gentleness, that you may avoid childish acts, and that rooted and grounded in grace you may fight the good fight of faith. Do not entangle yourself in the affairs of this life, for you are fighting for God. For he who fights for the emperor is forbidden by human laws to enter upon lawsuits or do any legal business or sell merchandise. How much more ought he who enters upon the warfare of faith to keep away from every kind of business. Let him be satisfied with the produce of his own little bit of land, if he has it. If he has not that, let him be content with the pay he will get for his service. — On the Duties of the Clergy 1.36.184 Athanasius of Alexandria : In another place the apostle says, "And all those who will live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." Then, to help prevent people from renouncing godliness when they are persecuted, he urges them to cling to the faith. "You, therefore, continue in the things you have learned and been assured of." Just as brothers become strongly knit together when one helps another, so faith and godliness, coming from the same family, cohere together. A person who gives his attention to one of the two is strengthened by the other. Consequently, wishing Timothy to live godly to the end and to fight the battle in faith, St. Paul says, "Fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life." — FESTAL LETTERS 9 Basil of Caesarea : Remember the good profession which you witnessed before God, angels, and men. Remember the hallowed intercourse, the sacred company of virgins, the assembly of the Lord, the Church of the holy. Remember your grandmother, grown old in Christ, still youthful and vigorous in virtue; and your mother vying with her in the Lord, and striving to break with ordinary life in strange and unwonted toils; remember your sister, who copies their doings, nay, endeavours to surpass them, and goes beyond the good deeds of her fathers in her virgin graces, and earnestly challenges by word and deed you her sister, as she thinks, to like efforts, while she earnestly prays that your virginity be preserved. All these call to mind, and your holy service of God with them, your life spiritual, though in the flesh; your conversation heavenly, though on earth. — Letter 46, To a Fallen Virgin John Chrysostom : "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life." Lo, there is thy reward, "whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession," in hope of eternal life, "before many witnesses." That is, do not put that confidence to shame. Why dost thou labor to no profit? "Fight the good fight." Here he commends his boldness and manliness, that before all he confidently "made profession," and he reminds him of his early instruction. "Lay hold on eternal life." There is need not only of profession, but of patience also to persevere in that profession, and of vehement contention, and of numberless toils, that you be not overthrown. For many are the stumbling-blocks, and impediments, therefore the way is "strait and narrow." It is necessary therefore to be self-collected, and well girt on every side. All around appear pleasures attracting the eyes of the soul. Those of beauty, of wealth, of luxury, of indolence, of glory, of revenge, of power, of dominion, and these are all fair and lovely in appearance, and able to captivate those who are unsteady, and who do not love the truth. For truth has but a severe and uninviting countenance. And why? Because the pleasures that she promises are all future, whereas the others hold out present honors and delights, and repose; though all are false and counterfeit. To these therefore adhere gross, effeminate, unmanly minds, indisposed to the toils of virtue. As in the games of the heathens, he who does not earnestly covet the crown, may from the first give himself up to revellings and drunkenness, and so do in fact the cowardly and unmanly combatants, whilst those who look steadfastly to the crown sustain blows without number. For they are supported and roused to action by the hope of future reward. — Homily on 1 Timothy 17 Oecumenius : Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of eternal life, to which you were called, and you made the good confession before many witnesses. Fight the good fight of faith. The fight of faith, both what has been said, and the courageous one in trials. And immediately the reward of such a fight, eternal life. to which you were called. For everyone who comes to baptism is called to this. the good confession. Rather confession, it refers to that in baptism, when we confess to renounce the Devil and to join and believe in Christ. A command about purity, obedience until the end. — COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY Origen of Alexandria : For they themselves hold as it were the charge of our souls, to whom, "while we are yet little ones," we are committed as to "guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father." They themselves therefore now say of the progress of each one of us: "for now I have known that you fear God." For the sake of example, I have the resolve of martyrdom—from this the angel will not be able to say to me: "for now I have known that you fear God"; for to God alone is the resolve of the mind known. But if I shall have come to the contests, brought forth "the good confession," and steadfastly undergone all the things that are inflicted, then the angel can say, as though confirming and strengthening me: "now I have known that you fear God." — HOMILIES ON Genesis 8.8 Tertullian : In like manner, O blessed, consider whatever is hard in your present situation as an exercise of your powers of mind and body. You are about to enter a noble contest in which the living God acts the part of superintendent and the Holy Spirit is your trainer, a contest whose crown is eternity, whose prize is angelic nature, citizenship in heaven for ever and ever. — TO THE MARTYRS 3.3