To Strive or Not to Strive

In Psalm 46:10, the Lord says, “Be still, and know that I am God . . .” The original Hebrew that is translated “be still” has also been translated “desist,” “stop your fighting,” “cease striving,” and “stop your striving.” Yet in the New Testament, Jesus and Paul both spoke of striving as a good thing. So should we strive . . . or should we not strive?

Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary defines strive as either to devote serious effort or energy or to struggle in opposition. So depending on what your energy is devoted to or what you are struggling for or against, striving can be positive or negative. In either case, it involves considerable work because it “implies great exertion against great difficulty and specifically suggests persistent effort.”

Unholy Striving

The Hebrew word used in Psalm 46 for “be still” or “cease striving” is raphah, meaning sink or relax. In this instance, it specifically means “let alone, i.e. do nothing, be quiet” (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Why were the people to do nothing? From what were they to cease striving?

The entire verse is “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” This psalm may have been written when the Assyrian armies surrounded Jerusalem in 701 B.C. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had already captured all the fortified cities of Judah and was taunting the God of Israel.

The psalmist was reminding the people of God that the Lord was sovereign and that he was in control. Though God often wants our active participation in his work, in this situation the Israelites were to calmly wait on God and leave everything to him. They were to refrain from striving to protect themselves or to secure the honor of the Lord. God did not need their help with that. They did leave it all in his hands and, as a result, “the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp” (2 Kings 19:35). God’s people should never strive to be God.

Another example of how not to strive is found in the New Testament. When Jesus stood trial before Pilate, he said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place” (John 18:36). Fight is translated from the Greek agōnízomai meaning “fight, labor fervently, strive” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance). In this verse, it means “to contend with adversaries” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon).

Jesus was saying that his followers would not fight men in order to protect him because men are not his real enemy. Since his kingdom is spiritual, his adversaries are spiritual. As his followers, we belong to his kingdom and have the same spiritual adversaries. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). Therefore, we are not to strive against our fellow man.

Righteous Striving

Agōnízomai has some other nuances. One is “to contend in the gymnastic games” (Thayer’s). Think Olympics. Such athletes strive from an early age to train for the top prize. Paul used athletic games as a metaphor for our spiritual life. “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25). Our crown is a heavenly inheritance (2 Timothy 4:8). To finish this life strong, we must strive, or exercise persistent effort, in spiritual and moral disciplines.

Another slight nuance ofagōnízomai is “to endeavor with . . . strife, to obtain something” (Thayer’s). When Jesus taught about entering the kingdom of heaven, he said, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to” (Luke 13:24). It is important for each of us to strive to find the narrow way to God.

Paul also used this word in a letter to the church at Colosse. He said of Epaphras, a fellow believer, “He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured” (Colossians 4:12). Like Epaphras, it is good for us to strive in prayer for the spiritual maturity of other believers.

One more variation of agōnízomai is to “struggle with difficulties and dangers antagonistic to the gospel” (Thayer’s). When Paul’s death was near, he wrote to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). According to the Greek definition, Paul was saying he had struggled to the end with every idea that stood against the gospel, every thought that rose up to turn people away from God rather than point them to him. Like Paul, we are to strive with everything that is in opposition to the gospel of Jesus.

A Greek word related to agōnízomai is antagōnízomai. It means “to struggle or strive against” (Strong’s Concordance) and is used in Hebrews. “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Hebrews 12:4). We are to strive against sin, against anything that would pull us away from God. It requires constant vigilance.

Is it bad to strive? Yes, when we are trying to do God’s job or anything else he hasn’t asked us to do. Or when we are quarreling with other people. Jesus came not only to unite us with God, but so we would live in unity with each other.

Is it good to strive? Yes. We must do whatever it takes to find the narrow way to God and then diligently practice spiritual disciplines to become more Christlike. We should never cease in our resistance to sin. We are to labor in prayer to help accomplish God’s purposes on earth. And we must constantly stand against every idea that opposes God. The rewards of good striving will be well worth the work.

Scripture quotations are from NIV.

Hebrew and Greek definitions are from Bible Hub. See Resources.

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