Soldiers Of Christ
II Tim. 2:1-15
The Word of God compares the Christian life to many things. Christians are to be fishermen of men; witnessing and winning souls in the waters of the world in which they live. (Matt. 4:19, Acts 1:8)
Christians are also called to be dutiful and diligent farmers; breaking up the fallow grounds of the hearts of men, sowing the precious eternal seed of the Word of God, weeding and cultivating the field of the world and ultimately reaping and gathering in a golden harvest of souls for His eternal Kingdom. (John 4:35, Matt. 9:37-38, Psalm 126:5-6)
Christians are commanded to be builders, even master builders: skillfully laying the foundation of Christ and then wisely structuring and building their entire life into an enduring edifice that will glorify their God eternally. (Matt. 7:24-27, I Cor. 3:9-15)
Christians are enjoined to be spiritual capitalists; as good stewards of the grace of God, carefully managing and multiplying the talents God has placed into their care. (Matt. 25:14-30)
Christians are urged to be good athletes; running the race of the Christian life according to His rule book, enthusiastically and energetically and finally faithfully finishing the course He has set before them. (I Cor. 9:27, Heb. 12:1-3, II Cor. 5:10)
But one of the most challenging metaphors of the Christian life is presented in this simple passage. Here, as in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul compares Christian life to a soldier called to wage spiritual warfare. (Eph. 6:10-18) Many of the militant calls in the Bible to spiritual battle are based upon this easily understood analogy. Grand old hymns of the faith have been penned about the challenges and responsibilities of Christian soldiers.
Make no mistake about it, the battle of the ages is joined with Satan and his cohorts of evil. The war has been raging ever since his initial rebellion in the heavens. As the centuries pass, it only grows in its scope and intensity. As the population of planet earth explodes exponentially, more fodder is made available for the fight and more fuel is furnished for the fire of his fiendish, ferocious and vindictive wrath.
As the world is once more engaged in a violent and costly war, it would be well if we remember that scarcely a decade of history has passed without a major war being waged. War has torn apart nations. War has destroyed cultures and societies. Civil war and revolution have set father against son and brother against brother. Genocidal wars have virtually wiped out whole tribes and peoples. So-called religious wars have puzzled and perplexed the nonreligious and have made it difficult for true Christians in every age to effectively share the gospel of the love of God and the sacrifice of Christ Jesus for the sins of all mankind.
During the middle ages there was a One Hundred Years War in which virtually one-half the population of Europe was wiped out. In the last century, the world suffered two world wars and a number of other major conflicts. This century has begun with a war which perhaps will prove to be the most brutal, savage, deadly and longest world war of recent centuries; the War on Terror.
But even more importantly, not a moment has passed without a great epic struggle ensuing in the battlements of God's spirit universe. Great epics of literature have been written about it. Moses recognized this struggle when he drew a line in the sin cursed earth and said, "Who is on the Lord's side, let him come unto me." Elijah referenced it when he cried atop Mt. Carmel, "How long halt yet between two opinions, if God be God, serve Him, If Baal be god, serve him." Our Saviour called us to battle with these immortal words, "No man can serve two masters, he will love the one and hate the other, no man can serve God and mammon."
Poets have noted this struggle as well. Someone has said, "Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife "twixt truth and falsehood, for the good or evil side." Someone else said, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is that good men do nothing." I think it was Milton who said, "The hottest fires of hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis try to maintain their neutrality." Horace Mann is quoted thusly, "No man escapes when freedom fails, the best rot in filthy jails, and those who cried, appease, appease, are killed by those they tried to please."
Let us examine this simple challenge issued by Paul to the young pastor, Timothy, and, by implication, to every Christian soldier of every generation to come. Let us look at the qualities of the true Christian soldier who wishes to volunteer and serve in God's immortal army.
THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER MUST ENLIST IN THE LORD'S ARMY. (Verse 1, 4b) First of all he must be chosen by the Father in Christ in the ". . . determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.." ". . .from the foundation of the world. . ." Jesus said, " . . Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit . ." Such statements make it clear that God is very selective and has criteria for those he calls into his army. When we consider this, we must concede it is an honor to be selected to do battle in His companies of dedicated combatants. It is even a greater honor to serve under our Commander in Chief, the Lord of this universe.
The Word of God teaches that not only has He chosen us, but His enlistment procedures require that we freely and of our own volition choose Him. We must voluntarily enlist into His service and commit ourselves to do battle for Him. God chose us through the cross, the gospel and the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. We voluntarily chose Him by an unconditional surrender to his way and will;. Repenting of our sins, trusting Christ alone as our Saviour and calling upon Him, is the only thing we can do without doing anything. (Eph. 2:8-9)
There is no conscription, draft or compulsory national service forcing the unwilling into the Lord's army. He has no bounty hunters or press gangs roaming the streets to grab the unwary and press them into service. Enlistment and enrollment into His glorious ranks entail an absolute allegiance and loyalty to Him. From the moment of the swearing in, based upon His oath of the New Covenant, we voluntarily pledge our enduring and everlasting fidelity to His cause.
God is not looking for mercenaries or those who loyalty and service is available to the highest bidder. He is not seeking those who will switch sides when real sacrifice is called for during the struggle and strife of immortal battle. His volunteer soldier must be ready, willing and able to respond wholeheartedly, heart, soul, mind and body from the opening salvo to the final post of his life upon earth.
There is no doubt a volunteer army is the best army. This is being proven once more on the battle field today. The army that will ultimately prevail in battle is the army comprised of volunteers who have a real committal to the commander and His cause. When David arrived upon the battle field and witnessed the cowering and cowardly conscripts of Saul's army that day, he cried out this immortal challenge, "Is there not a cause..?" Then David enthusiastically volunteered to carry the fight to the enemy of God. God blessed His volunteer with a great immortal victory for his nation and his God.
The volunteer soldier in the Lord's army must be willing to identify with his Commander in Chief and fellow soldiers. He must join up with a local unit, because God has ordained that His army is a militia type assembly. How is the volunteer sworn into such a unit? He must first confess his loyalty with his mouth and then outwardly identify or put on the uniform God has ordained.
It is significant that you can normally identify a serving soldier by his outward appearance. His haircut, posture, demeanor and walk will often give you the clues; even when he might be out of dress uniform. The same should be said of the loyal Christian soldier. But there is no doubt about the uniform. The vast majority of martyrs of the true Christian faith became so because they were saved by the grace of God and insisted upon being immersed by the authority of a New Testament Church.
Can you imagine a soldier enlisting in an army and then deciding he will wait until he is led or feels like it before putting on the uniform? Could he validly say, "I don't really want to wear the uniform because they might know who I am and then start to shoot at me. After all, they're really attacking that little mob of Bible Bashers and Wowsers in that Bible preaching and teaching church!"
A SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST MUST BE A WITNESS FOR CHRIST. He must be proud of being in God's army. Proud enough to trouble himself to become vitally involved in God's enlistment program. Just notice those men at public recruitment centers. It is clear they have a real pride in their service. If you pause to speak with them, you will soon hear a personal testimony about the advantages of enlisting. I know, because I did that one day and soon found myself a volunteer in the U. S. Air Force. They choose the best soldiers, real soldiers to recruit others.
If this is the case, why does Jesus say to all of us, "Ye are (all) my witnesses.."? It is clear that in His army he expects all to understand that we are members of an elite band of spiritual warriors. We are to be possessed of a vital esprit de corps that will move us to constantly and consistently seek others to swell the ranks of His volunteer army. As the faithful recruitment sergeant, we need only to speak of what we have heard, seen and experienced in the ranks of God's militia unit. We need only to do as Peter said, " . .be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:" We need only follow the lead of the militant David, "Let the redeemed of the LORD say [so], whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;.." We need only to follow the example of the brave and bold Paul, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: . ."
In the Word of God we have numerous examples of new enlistees who were bold enough to give immediate expression to their salvation. The woman at the well said, "Come see a man.." The man of Gadara went home to testify of his new found spiritual freedom and joy to those who were there. Upon his conversion, the great apostle Paul hit the ground running with a testimony upon his lips about the saving grace of God. That's all that is expected for the real soldier of Jesus Christ.
THE SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST MUST ENDURE HARDNESS. I have been impressed by the willingness of the members of our SAS forces and other Special Forces, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, to go out into dangerous isolation in the mountains and deserts; enduring unimaginable hardness in order to serve their country. Their toughness and hardness is a real testimony to their committal to their cause.
The soldier of Jesus Christ has not been promised a rose garden, but a Gethsemane. There is a real cross of hardness and service involved in the Lord's army. When the mother of the sons of Zeebeedee came and requested that her sons be given a place of prominence in the coming Kingdom of Christ, Jesus pointed out that there was a cup to drink, a cross to bear and a baptism of fire to go through. He asked them if they were able to fight such a fight and endure such hardness. It appears they sincerely, but rather flippantly without counting the cost replied, ". .We are able." Then when the crunch came in the garden, they ran away. The were not ready to endure the hardness But later, as seasoned veterans, they really were ready to lay down their life for Him.
The soldier of Jesus Christ must realize that the tougher the opponent and the more terrible the battle the tougher the training. Satan is tough. He is powerful. He is described as a lion going about seeking those to destroy. The real spiritual warrior comes to understand this and trains and prepares to wield the weapons of spiritual warfare when the inevitable battle arises. When the going gets tough, those who have become toughened can get going. (Eph. 6:10-18)
THE SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST MUST BE SEPARATED. Paul could not have placed this proposition more bluntly than with his statement in Verse 4 ". . . no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life..." (See also II Cor. 5:17, 6:14-17) The soldier remains in his world, but is not to be a part of it. It is significant that before great battles soldiers are usually restricted from access to the world around them. They are separated into a fighting unit. The distractions of the world cannot be a part of their life. They are often separated from their loved ones and friends. The real soldier must be single minded and have only one objective; fighting and winning the battle looming up ahead. If he acts otherwise, he may end up being classified a deserter or traitor.
Everything is to change when one enlists in God's army. Appearances change. Attitudes change. Habits change. Life-styles change. Paul tells us we cannot be conformed to this world. He also tells us we are to have the mind and purpose of Christ. We must set our affections on things that are above , not the things of this world. Soldiers do not to talk like the world. They do not act like the world. They do not walk like the world. (I John 2:7) Paul tells us we cannot imitate the fashion of this world and please God. God calls His soldier to a transformation of values and attitudes and actions. This is one reason it is so sad to see pastors and churches adopting the music and methods of the world in a vain and misguided attempt to attract a worldly crowd and make them "comfortable" in a church of the living God!
Many today bemoan the fact that our culture has effectively abandoned the values and standards of previous generations. Many are not aware that this is simply because we have abandoned the God of our fathers and mothers. Those who struggle with the effect of this upon their children and grandchildren need to realize that this began with earlier generations. It has just found its full fruition in this generation. The soft attitude of fathers and mothers have led to our situation today. It became an accepted custom long ago to be AWOL from the ranks of His people. Those who have felt it was more important for their children to participate in sports, athletics or even what they call, "quality family time together..." rather than faithfully attend the Lord's house together, are reaping what they have sown. A nation of Godlessness and rampant promiscuity and immorality. Real soldiers of Jesus Christ must separate themselves from such a world.
SOLDIERS OF JESUS CHRIST MUST LIVE BY THE RULES. The soldier has no options. He must obey the commands of his Commander in Chief. As someone has said, "If he says jump, the proper response is, 'how high?'" Unconditional and unreserved obedience is always the order of the day. It is not the soldier's place to wonder why, it is his but to do or die.
God's Word and will are not optional or negotiable. His law of obedience is legislated in the blood of Christ and is written with His love upon the cross. For the Christian soldier it is: "Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." If we are to win the battle and be crowned we must strive lawfully; according to His holy Word.
The story of Saul in I Samuel 15 teaches us that God is better pleased with obedience than vain sacrifice. It also teaches us that rebellion and overt disobedience is worse than witchcraft in the eyes of God. When the apostles were challenged to voluntarily stop preaching the gospel they simply said, "Then Peter and the [other] apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29)
I read some time back that the soldiers in the new German army are allowed to elect their leaders and to vote on orders they may wish to obey. It seems that some armies have even formed their own labor unions. Can you imagine this in a real war situation?
It is well known that in years past basic military training has sometimes required a soldier to do what might seem silly and unreasonable to an onlooker. For instance, dig a deep trench and then immediately fill it back in. Why such exercises? Unquestioning obedience is necessary in the day of battle.
This is doubly so in God's army. God's commands are always correct. We never have a right to question the clear commands of His Word. We cannot pick and choose the commands we would obey. Serving Him is based upon convictions rather than preferences. It is true that some may view His Word as being outdated, archaic and narrow. It is ours to study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need to be ashamed, rightly dividing His Word of truth. When we have arrived at that truth, it is ours not to reason why, but to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Have you been saved by the grace of God? Have you professed your faith openly before men? Have you followed the Lord in scriptural baptism? Is God calling you to turn from sin and rededicate your life to Him? Is He calling you into special service for Him? Why not take your stand as a Soldier of Jesus Christ today?
