'the Good Soldier'-1(2025)

The GOOD SOLDIER-I—2Timothy 2:1-3(:1-4)

Attention:

Twila Paris’—‘What Did He Die For’...

*Read 1st part regarding soldier.*

What Did He Die For

Twila Paris

He was twenty-one in 1944

He was hope & he was courage on a lonely shore

Sent there by a mother with love beyond her tears

Just a young American who chose to rise above his fears

And as I watch him struggle up that hill

Without a thought of turning back

I cannot help but wonder...

What did he die for?

When he died for you & me

Made the sacrifice

So that we could all be free

I believe we will answer each to heaven

For the way we spend a priceless liberty

Look inside & ask the question...

What did he die for?

When he died for me...

********************

To the darkest day in A.D. 33

Came the mercy & compassion of eternity

Sent there by a Father with love beyond His tears

Blameless One, the only Son to bear the guilt of all these years

And as I watch Him struggle up that hill

Without a thought of turning back

I cannot help but wonder...

What did He die for?

When He died for you & me

Made the sacrifice

So that we could all be free

I believe we will answer each to heaven

For the way we spend a priceless liberty

Look inside & ask the question...

What did he die for?

He died for freedom

He died for love

And all the things we do to pay Him back

Could never be enough...

What did He die for?

When He died for you & me

Made the sacrifice

So that we could all be free

I believe we will answer each to heaven

For the way we spend a priceless liberty

Look inside & ask the question...

What did he die for?

When He died for me.

Need:

“It is foolish & wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”—Gen. George S. Patton(1940’s)

“We who are left, how shall we look again happily on the sun or feel the rain,

Without remembering how...

They who went ungrudgingly & spent their lives for us...Loved, too, the sun & rain?”—Wilfred Wilson Gibson, Lament(1916)

The patriot’s blood is the seed of freedom’s tree.”—Thomas Campbell, Stanzas(1808)

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."—President Thomas Jefferson(mid-late 1700’s - early 1800’s)

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”—Tertullian(~200AD-early Church father).

Tertullian attended the games where gladiators killed each other & criminals were eaten alive by beasts, merely for the enjoyment of the spectators. He also witnessed Christians being executed that same way. He was struck with the courage with which these slaves—men & even little slave girls—faced a hideous death. After investigating, Tertullian himself became a Christian, & turned to writing in defense of this despised & victimized group.

Paul encouraged Timothy to answer the personal commitment that he was to give to his calling in Christ Jesus, as a good soldier.

And so,

The level of commitment needed, for a believer to fulfill their calling in Christ, is comparable to that of a good soldier.

BUT...

What rules does a ‘good soldier’ live by?

1—The good soldier of Christ lives & dies by the rule of...

STRENGTH(:1)

:1—“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

Paul had just informed Timothy of those who had failed him personally(1:15) & of the one who had “refreshed him”, namely Onesiphorus(1:16-18).

So, Paul, in revealing the extremes of acceptance & opposition from those closest to us, calls Timothy to “be strong.” Timothy’s strength is centered in & can be found or rediscovered “in the grace” that is found “in Christ Jesus.”

BUT...

?Why is “strength” found in “grace?”...

Because: Only by God’s loving “graciousness”, is He able to receive you to Himself. He accomplishes that thru your personal faith in what He “graciously” offers—that is Christ Himself. So only by that faith is any person enabled to do what God calls you(the faithful believer) to be involved in. That kind of “strength” is found in the rightful employment of God’s “grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

AND...

?Why is such “STRENGTH” needed by the believer?.....

.....Spiritual “Strength” is needed to OVERCOME the world’s deceptive influence & pull upon each of us.

—WORDS—

“Strong”—endunamow—To be strong, endue with strength, strengthen; To receive strength, be strengthened, increase in strength.

2—The good soldier of Christ lives & dies by the rule of...

The TEAM(:2)

:2—“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Those “things” that Timothy had “heard” from Paul—as an apostle—& publicly declared before many others, Timothy is to likewise entrust to others—who themselves are capable of relaying them in their proper context(spirit, boldness, factuality, etc.).