Years ago, I heard a story about a man named Audie Murphy a World War 2 soldier. He was a small-statured man who saved the day when 200 Germans and six tanks overwhelmed his unit. At one point, he jumped on a tank after it burned and fired a gun for an hour killing 50 of them. He did this while having shrapnel in his leg he later recalled wondering how he was alive. We all like stories of heroes, and I think for good reason. We all want to be someone with courage who doesn’t back away when the battle heats up. Someone who runs toward danger in the service of others, sacrificing their own safety for the well-being of their friends.
I wonder how much more we should be soldiers for Jesus, those who follow Him. After all, He is our Leader and Commander who sacrificed Himself by enduring the cross, and physically, emotionally, and spiritually, took the penalty of our sins and reconciled as God.
The original text for Timothy 1:7 in Ancient Greek tells us “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of self-control.”
The key is to be strengthened by God’s grace. God’s grace is not just a pardon for sin. It is the power of living. God’s grace is His constant never ending, gracious disposition. If we are in Christ Jesus, God is 100% for us -now and forever. There is nothing that will change that. Not because He thinks we are amazing, but because we are in Christ Jesus. And that I think is meant to strengthen us.
In 2 Timothy 2:3-4 Paul tells Timothy, “You therefore must endure hardship, as a good soldier of Christ. No soldier on duty entangles himself in the affairs of life, that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.” A good soldier is not merely a soldier. Someone who is in the military could be dishonorably discharged and if so he wouldn’t be a soldier at all. Paul commands Timothy (and you and I) to be good soldiers of Christ Jesus.
To be a good soldier is to be willing to suffer. Paul says to Timothy in to share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Paul, who is in prison for sharing the message of Jesus is saying to Timothy. Suffer with me for the truth of the gospel and for our Lord.
The first mark of a good soldier is the willingness to suffer. To share in suffering literally means to suffer hardship with someone else. That is not calling us to go looking for opportunities to suffer, but it is most certainly calling us to choose that path when there is a fork in the road, and the other path is cowardice. Choose the path of suffering for Christ and His truth. That is what a good soldier does. We have plenty of opportunities to suffer for Jesus, and when we suffer in the path of obedience -slander, mocking, or worse, we need to remember that we are joining a group of saints, both now and the cloud of witness who have gone before us.
A good soldier is on duty all the time. Paul goes on to say in 2 Timothy 2:4 “No one on duty entangles himself in the affairs of life, that he may please Him who enrolled him as a soldier.” a good soldier is never on leave. His assignment might change, but he is called to active duty at all times. No matter what we do in life whether it is changing diapers, cleaning or mowing the yard we still need to be a faithful soldier and do it for the glory of God. A good soldier is not tied up and not or so inner woven with worldly affairs that it Hibbetts them from faithful service to Jesus. A good soldier doesn’t allow themselves to be tied up and become ineffective in service to their King.
When a person joins the military, all that they are belongs to the military -their body, their time, their skills, their effort, everything. They are the militaries 24 hours a day. When we choose to become believers we belong to Jesus. Romans 14:7-8 says, “For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
There is no time when a mother is not watchful over her children. And there is no time when a father is not leading, guarding, protecting, or providing for the mother or his children. There is not a time when we shouldn’t be concerned for unbelievers, friends, parents, or children. There is not a time we should be indifferent about loving and caring for other believers. There is not a time when we should not be watchful and vigilant over our own souls. Proverbs 2:23 says, “Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”
There are many false teachers that ravage the church, stray friends that walk away from Jesus, and a bloated governments that will always lust for more authority to rule our lives telling us when and how to do something. And a good soldier stays active all the time against the spiritual forces of evil.
Charles Spurgeon wrote “The good Christian is a soldier in an enemy’s country always needing to stand on his watchtower, constantly needing to be contending, though not with flesh and blood, with far worse foes, namely, with spiritual wickedness in high places.”
A good soldier aim to please his commanding officer. A good soldier wants to please, the one who enlisted them, namely Jesus in everything and at all times. That is their chief aim. They are not mostly concerned with other duties that have not been assigned to them. Where ever Jesus has us, we should aim to please Him and glorify Him. Listen to how Paul says it in Acts 20:24, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
Paul said his aim was not to live as long as he possibly could or to make a bucket list of exciting adventures to get it done before he died. His aim was to finish the course that he was put on by Jesus. His aim was to please his master. So wherever we are at home or away, we should make our aim to please Him.
“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither” – C.S. Lewis
From Pity to Praise 