Soldiers who use their actions to motivate others to do good not only earn a medal; they earn the love, respect and admiration of their peers.
How much more should we, as Christians, follow the One who endured suffering and death to rescue us from the most horrible fate of all - an eternity in hell?
Apostle Paul, a jail bird if you will, wrote to young Timothy when he was being weakened in his ministry at Ephesus by relentless opposition from heretics, apostates and persecutors. Timothy is no different than any Christian who experiences difficulty because of following Christ. He just needed to be reminded again of his task...to suffer hardship as a GOOD SOLDIER of Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 2:3-4 "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."
A Good Soldier...
- Does not simply do the minimum duty, but rather is one who serves with everything they have in them.
- As a Christian, that's what we are called to do. Paul's words to Timothy are our marching orders...we must STRIVE to be a GOOD SOLDIER of Jesus Christ!
- Is willing to suffer hardship with the rest of the soldiers.
- Notice that Paul says "with me" - a reminder that he isn't asking Timothy to do anything that he wasn't willing to do. In fact, Paul was writing from a prison cell.
- In the United States, we have yet to shed blood for our faith. (Hebrews 12:4)
- We really don't have an understanding in our culture of what it really means to suffer for the Lord.
- Yet Jesus said, "If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." (John 15:20)
- Is marked by his separation from the "normal " life.
- When you are enlisted in the military, you do not have a 9 to 5 job or even a 60-70 hour work week.
- A soldier is a soldier 24 hours a day, everyday of the year.
- His body, his health, his skills, his time - all that he is - belongs to the military.
- Even when on leave, he is subject to recall at any time, without notice and for any reason.
- Separating yourself keeps you from being ENTANGLED in the affairs of everyday life. The thought is, GOOD SOLDIERS cannot be enmeshed with former things.
- We should never allow earthly matters to interfere with the fulfillment of our duty to the Lord.
- Temporal concerns and activities, innocent in themselves, have neutralized the effectiveness of many pastors, special ministries and churches. They they once labored faithfully in the primary purpose of serving Jesus to advance His Kingdom against the forces of darkness, they have unwittingly taken themselves out of the battle.
- Has a genuine desire to "please the one who enlisted him as a soldier."
- In a greater way, the Lord deserves our honor, affection and obedience for all He has done for us. He stayed the course and went before us to to WIN our freedom and eternal life.
Keep fighting soldier!
- God will use the PERSECUTION to change your DIRECTION and SHAKE you out of broken SYSTEMS, STRUCTURES and SHALLOW relationships!
- What you're CRYING about today...you'll be SHOUTING about tomorrow! Go ahead and thank God in advance that He used the PERSECUTION to pull you out of DYSFUNCTION!
- Realize that God can use the BLAST of the FURNACE to PUSH you OUT, PURIFY you THROUGH and POSITION you INTO your next level!
- Your PAIN will bring GAIN!