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The Christian Soldier
After church services were over one Sunday evening, I was talking to a person who told me that someone had suggested to her that she should start getting up early in the morning to read her Bible. I don’t remember why that was, but she said that she did, and that she was surprised at how many times the Bible spoke about someone getting up early in the morning to do something. “And Abraham rose up early in the morning…” (Gen. 21:14). “And Jacob rose up early in the morning…” (Gen. 28:18). “And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning…” (Ex. 24:4). “So Joshua rose up early in the morning…” (Jos. 7:16). “Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early…” (Jg. 7:1). “So David and his men rose up early…” (1 Sam. 29:11). She said that she had been reading her Bible her entire life, but had never noticed that before. What had changed? When she was reading her Bible had changed, and that changed what got her attention in the Bible just a little bit. Her change in circumstances caused certain things in the Bible to stand out a little more. Since she had started getting up early to read her Bible, she noticed more when people in the Bible had gotten up early to do whatever it was that they were doing. This same thing can happen to us.
Our present and personal circumstances have a tendency to direct our attention to specific passages or concepts in the Bible, or maybe cause them to stand out a little bit more in our minds than they normally would. When someone we know passes away, it will tend to cause us to reflect upon certain passages of the Bible that deal with that. When we go to a funeral, there are certain passages of the Bible that we are more likely to hear than others. The same is true when we go to a wedding. What about the present conflicts in the Middle East? For many Americans, those passages of the Bible that have to do with war and fighting are going to grab our attention a little bit more now than they may have in the past. Whenever a soldier that has been out on the field of battle, and has seen first hand, the atrocities of war; a nurse of doctor who has had to deal with the ravages of war; or any mother, father, son, or daughter that has had to deal with the loss of war; when they open their Bibles up and they begin to read what Paul has to say about spiritual warfare, I believe that they understand better than anybody, with vivid clarity, what the message is that Paul is trying to get across to the reader—we are at war! It is not something to take lightly; it is not something to just skim over; it is something to stop and meditate upon. War is a serious topic. When Paul tells us by inspiration that we are all involved in a spiritual warfare it is something for us all to stop and take notice of with the gravest of concern! Warfare involves a life and death struggle to the very end. With Satan, there will be no surrender, only the victorious who found salvation from their great enemy in Christ, and then those who trusted in themselves and were defeated; there will be no middle ground!
I have never had someone trying to kill me, nor have I have tried to kill anyone. About the closest thing that I have ever come to physical battle is watching the movie, “Saving Private Ryan”, but I can tell you one thing for sure, warfare is as serious as anything can be.
Paul said, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier” (2 Ti. 2:3-4). If we are a Christian, we are a soldier in the Lord’s army, but we don’t want to just be a soldier, we want to be a “good soldier of Christ Jesus” and “please him who enrolled [us] as soldier[s].” So, in this lesson, we want to find out what it takes to be good soldiers of Christ.
(I) Good Soldiers Must Have Faith And Commitment To Their Cause
Our cause is to defeat Satan, to be victorious over sin and death. We have to want that more than anything and commit to the success of that. We have to care who wins or looses and do everything we can to see that that happens. The church is a volunteer army; nobody is drafted into it. If we are in the Lord’s army it is because we want to be there, we believed in its cause so much that we have volunteered our own lives to the fighting for it. God doesn’t force anyone to fight in His army. Someone who is drafted into the army, might not care about being a good soldier or the cause that he is fighting for, but the soldier of Christ does.
I still remember when I was in grade school. I can still see it in my mind, being out at P.E. and the coach splitting all the kids up into teams. We would play softball one day, kickball another, and dodge ball another. Well, not everyone always liked whatever it was the coach had us playing. They were forced to be there and to participate. And, I remember getting so upset because when we would play volleyball, for example, some of the kids were afraid of the ball and they would try to get out of its way rather than hit it. Others couldn’t care less about the came or who won, so they wouldn’t even try. Well, when I was a boy, I didn’t care what it was I was playing, I just knew I had to win whatever it was, but you can’t win at volleyball if you are afraid of touching the ball! In fact, you can’t win at golf, soccer, football, tennis, basketball, you name it, unless you do something with the ball, and you do it better than the other guy. If we are going to defeat our enemy, we are going to have to want to win, which means we want to get a hand on the ball and be willing to get dirty (not playing dirty, but willing to get some mud on us).
A good soldier volunteers like Isaiah, who, when God asked in Isaiah chapter 6, “ Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Said, without delay, “here am I; send me.” It is going to be dangerous. “Here am I; send me.” It is going to require self-denial. “Here am I; send me.” Is there any still faithful enough to be my prophet? “Here am I; send me”, said Isaiah. He was a man who trusted God, had a zeal for Him, and was willing to go into battle for Him. The Christian soldier fights because he couldn’t stand not to; defeat is too unthinkable; and he only sees victory on the horizon because he knows that God’s army cannot loose. A good soldier has faith and commitment to the cause of Christ.
(II) A Good Soldier Must Be Willing To Sacrifice And Suffer Hardship
Part of being a soldier is enduring hardships. A soldier may be separated from his family; ordered to sleep out in the cold or rain; without electricity, running water, and good food. He may have to hike mile after mile with everything he has strapped onto his back. He may have to go places and do things where he doesn’t know if he will live or die. Paul said, “suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Ti. 2:3). A person cannot go into war without sacrifice or hardship. “Be not ashamed therefore of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but suffer hardship with the gospel according to the power of God” (2 Ti. 1:8). That does not mean that a Christian’s life is not full, and rewarding, or unpleasant, but if and when hardship should come, Paul said endure it as a good soldier and don’t give up or give in, but keep soldiering on.
As bad as the physical suffering may get for a soldier, though, a good soldier must know that the suffering may be as much mental, psychological and spiritual as it is physical. Much of the suffering that a soldier must endure has to do with grief, homesickness, fear, dread, and shock.
This may actually be more trying for Christians in our culture than physical hardship. We don’t have to worry about someone coming to our houses and taking us to jail for our religious beliefs; we are not going to be beaten for it. That does not mean however, that we won’t be mocked, avoided, or tempted. It doesn’t mean that our old friends or our family still won’t be coming around us and tempting us to fall back into that old way of life. That does not mean that the enemy won’t use our TV’s, radios, the internet, or some other means to try and persuade us to give up, give in, or role over either. A good soldier of Christ must endure mental stress and hardship as well as physical.
(III) Good Soldiers Must Be Loyal To Their Commander And Chief
There are not supposed to be any Benedict Arnolds in the Lord’s army. We aren’t supposed to be fighting for both sides and trying to have the best of both worlds. We are not supposed to be drawing our own lines, or fighting our own battles. God has already draw the lines, marked the territories, and drawn up the battle plans. It is His army and He is in charge.
Do you know that when I was in boot camp I was never trained to think for myself? Can you believe that? What I was taught was that what I thought didn’t really matter all that much. What was important was that we understood that there were no individuals. If someone went off doing their own thing, we would all suffer because of it. If, on the other hand, we all worked together as a team, we all achieved success together. That was able to happen when whoever was in charge gave an order and all the rest of us said, “yes sir or yes ma’am” and did it. When I got stationed on board a ship, things were quite a bit more relaxed, but it was still “yes sir and yes ma’am”. The captain of that ship never once asked me what I thought, where I wanted to go, or how I felt about his decisions. Well, that somewhat like the Lord’s army. He is the commander in chief and we say, “yes sir” and do as He commands. We don’t get to decide how we prefer to do things, when He has already given His word on it, and it is not all about me, myself, and I, but about we and us.
(IV) Good Soldiers Must Know The Great Fellowship We Have In Christ Jesus
I’m always amazed when I read about Uriah the Hittite. He was the husband of Bathsheba whom David called back from war after he had slept with his wife. What is so amazing about all of that, though, it how David could not get Uriah to go back home to his wife, who he had been away from for some time and who was a very beautiful woman, even after the kind had told him to, he would not while all the rest of the army was still out in the field.
And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of food from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Art thou not come from a journey? wherefore didst thou not go down unto thy house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in booths; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open field; shall I then go into my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, Tarry here to-day also, and to-morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. (2 Sam. 11:8-13)
That evidences the kind of close fellowship that existed between Uriah and his fellow soldiers. That is the kind of person I would want to be serving with.
We too, are bound together by a common cause, which is our faith. We are in the same struggle together and are in a common fellowship with each other. That means that as soldiers, we should be able to trust each other, lean upon one another, and even sacrifice for each other. We also have a common bond with Paul and Timothy; they were our brothers who came before us and whose struggles and labors we should be continuing. Any army that does not have this close fellowship, or that is divided and struggling against itself, will not be able to overcome the enemy, because it will already be in the process of defeating itself.
(V) Good soldiers Must Know The Nature Of The Battle
We are not engaged in physical warfare, but a spiritual one:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds), casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be made full. (2 Cor. 10:3-6)
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Eph. 6:12)
We are trying to defeat and conquer sin and spiritual death. When we see a person involved in sin, we do not want to attack that person, we don’t want to hurt them in any way, we want to attack the sin that that person is struggling with. We are fighting against Satan and his influence. We are fighting against everything that is against God. All manner of wickedness is against God. We are fighting against murder, strife, backbiting, hate, envy, fornication, religious error, drunkenness, revelry, and so on and so forth. These are the things that we are fighting against, not only in our own lives, but also in the lives of others.
Such an effort involves both offensive and defensive actions. “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:10). There is not just the pulling down or the building up, as with buildings, and there is not just rooting up or just planting as with gardening. There is the breaking down along with the building up and the rooting up along with the planting; both are necessary.
(VI) Good Soldiers Must Avoid All Distractions, Which May Bring Defeat To The Cause.
Going back again to Second Timothy 2:4, it says, “No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.” That does not mean that we are to have nothing to do with anything in this world whatsoever; we have to live here after all. It’s as someone once remarked, “my treasure may be in heaven, but my stomach is hear on earth.” Paul was saying that a person who is involved in a struggle does not entangle himself with other affairs. We don’t allow ourselves to get so caught up in the other things in life that we become hindered from doing the Lord’s work.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 Jn. 2:15-17)
The Hebrew writer compares it to running in a race. In 12:1 he writes:
Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Have you ever seen a marathon runner running with baggy shorts, hiking boots, or a backpack? No. Why? If he wants to win that race, he is going to get rid of anything that will slow him down or be a hindrance to him. If we are going to win this “race that is set before us”, then we are going to have to get fit, shed the extra pounds, get rid of anything we can that I going to be a hindrance to us, and focus on our goal.
(VII) Good Soldiers Must Know the Enemy
Part of knowing the enemy is first, knowing who your enemy is; friendly fire can kill just as surely as that of the enemy. He is smart, sneaky, he knows us, and we must never let our guards down or under estimate him. “Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).
Or what king, as he goeth to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and asketh conditions of peace. So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt therefore is good: but if even the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? (Lk. 14:31-34)
(VIII) Good Soldiers Must Be Properly Armed
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, And on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (Eph. 6:10-20)
We are to be strong not in our own might, but Paul said, “in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” We are to be fully armed, he said put on the whole armor of God, not just thee helmet, not just the sword, but all of it. We must make our stand against the “wiles of the devil.” There is specific armor that we are to have, both offensive and defensive: loins girded with truth, breastplate of righteousness, shod with preparation of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, the word of God. And we must have proper vigilance: standing, wit prayer and supplication, in watching and perseverance.
I don’t know if you ever watched the Wiley Coyote cartoons, but that’s kind of how the Devil is, he’s always tricking and deceiving with some kind of plot or scheme, always trying to catch us in some kind of trap.
(IX) Good Soldiers Must Be Confident In The Outcome
We know that we are not fighting this fight in vain because our commander in chief has already gone on before us and demonstrated his power over sin and the grave.
But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord. (1 Cor. 15:57-58)
And,
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ro. 8:31-39)
Conclusion
I want to be a good Soldier for Christ, don’t you? Will you do the things that we have discussed in this lesson so that you can please Him who hath chosen you to be a soldier?
We have a great homecoming awaiting us when the victory is won. I have seen victory parades and victory marches. I have heard victory songs and legends of triumph. But, nothing can possibly compare to the glory that awaits us over there. There is indeed a great day coming as the song says that we sometimes sing! “A great day coming by and by, when the saints and the sinners shall be parted right and left. Are you ready for that day to come?”
Are you ready? If you have not already obeyed the gospel, will you do that this evening? If you are ready to become a child of God right now, please come… |
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