As a Good Soldier of Christ Jesus

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” (2 Timothy 2:1-7 ESV)

When Jesus Christ saves us from our sins and when he empowers us to live for him, and no longer for self, and in righteousness, and no longer in sin, this is not for ourselves alone to be kept to ourselves until Jesus returns for his bride. We who believe in Jesus with God-gifted faith in him are called of God to be his holy people to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. We are to be his witnesses, and we are to make disciples of Christ of other people, and we are to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth in sharing the truth of the gospel.

Not only that, but we are to encourage one another in the body of Christ in our walks of faith and obedience and in holy living unto the Lord. And we are to utilize the spiritual gifts given to us by God to minister to the body of Christ and to the people of the world. And we are to be those who are speaking the truth in love to one another, warning each other against false teachers and false teachings, and against hypocritical liars, and who are helping one another to maturity of faith in Christ. And we are to be teaching, admonishing and exhorting one another in our walks of obedience to God.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:11-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6] 

If you have ever been in the military, or you know someone who has served in the military, who has shared his or her experiences with you, then you should be able to get the illustration here regarding us who believe in Jesus suffering as good soldiers of Christ Jesus. For when a commanding officer tells a soldier that he must do something, he must do it, and soldiers must go through very strict training, and painful training, to prepare them for the military, to serve well their commanding officer. Now, I am anti-war, and I am against many of the practices of the military, but this illustration fits.

For, when we believe in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded faith in him, it is a lifetime commitment to serve Jesus Christ as our commanding officer. And we learn obedience through the things that we suffer, just like Jesus did when he lived in a human body. So suffering is for our good, although it is painful and not pleasant. And, as followers of Christ we must be disciplined in our service to him and not be lazy and not be selfish and not be idolatrous and adulterous, but committed to our Lord to obeying his commandments and to doing what he requires of us that we do.

So, we are not to be those who are going after what is worldly and fleshly and is contrary to our Lord and to his calling upon our lives and is contrary to the teachings of the Scriptures regarding how we are to live as followers of Christ. And we are definitely not to be engaged in anything that is sinful, especially in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord. And we are not to be looking to human beings to be our “saviors” to deliver us from what ails us, for what ails us as a nation (or nations) is sin, and only Jesus Christ can deliver us from slavery to sin and empower us to live godly lives.

And yes, even under the New Covenant we have rules that we must follow. We are not free to live however we want just because we are not under the Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification and dietary laws and restrictions that God’s people of old had to obey. We still have to obey our Lord’s commandments under the New Covenant, and they are written out for us all throughout the New Testament – Don’t do that, but do this. And this takes discipline, and it requires submission to Christ as Lord and that we do the works God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.

So, the Christian life is not a life of ease and comfort where we can sit back and just enjoy life now that we “prayed the prayer” to receive Christ and thus we are convinced that heaven is now what awaits us on the other side, but regardless of how we live. The Christian life is like living as a soldier in God’s army, and we are in warfare with our enemy Satan, and so we need to be armored up with the spiritual armor God supplies (Ephesians 6:10-20) so that we can fight off the attacks of our enemy and so that we can obey the commands of our commanding officer and not fall back into sin.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

VOICE OF TRUTH 

By Mark Hall & Steven Curtis Chapman

II Corinthians 12:7-10/I Corinthians 1:20-24

Oh what I would do to have

The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant

With just a sling and a stone

Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors

Shaking in their armor

Wishing they’d have had the strength to stand

But the giant’s calling out my name and he laughs at me

Reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed

The giant keeps on telling me

Time and time again, “Boy you’ll never win!”

“You’ll never win!”

But the stone was just the right size

To put the giant on the ground

And the waves they don’t seem so high

From on top of them lookin’ down

I will soar with the wings of eagles

When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus

Singing over me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CsiBjc0UIA

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