‘I am a soldier in the army of the Lord.’ This is a line from a popular Kenyan Sunday school jingle. It was meant to strengthen the resolve to live for Jesus. ‘If I die, let me die in the army of the Lord’. It was triumphant and we loved to belt it out. None of us could really contemplate the weight of what we said, but we sang our little hearts out. It was after I grew up that I discovered that the idea behind the song was rooted in a biblical text. The Bible employs various metaphors for what it means to be a Christian. Christian as a Soldier is one of them.
Apostle Paul says “to fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim 1:18; 6:12). This depicts the Christian faith as war. Thus, to be joined to Christ by faith is at the same time to be enlisted as a soldier in his army. This is not some deeper level, super-spiritual designation. It is what it means to be a Christian. Every Christian is a soldier. The captain of our salvation (Heb. 2:10) has a word on how to conduct ourselves on the battlefield of faith and life. 2 Timothy 2:3-4 contains two main lessons in this regard:
A Good Soldier of Christ Endures Suffering Patiently.
The text is explicit. “You therefore must endure[a] hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. “(2 Tim. 2:3). Soldiering involves suffering and sacrifice. This verse has a sense of military curtness. God has no intention of making devotion to Christ feel easy and breezy. The Bible takes this fact for granted. The idea here is reminiscent of Jesus' own words "If anyone should come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." (Mat. 16:24).
To a first-century Palestinian Jew, Jesus' talk about the cross was unmistakable. The cross was an object of terror and pain. No one would ‘take up their cross’ to the place of pleasure. Bearing a cross preceded inevitable death. Even today, Jesus’ call implies possible death. Our Lord doesn't feel the need to embellish his call with a false promise of convenience and comfort. He shows us his cards. We are also reminded that “it has been granted to all of us for the sake of Christ, not only to believe in him but to suffer for him.” (Phil 1:29).
The command to endure hardships is very counterintuitive, isn't it? It doesn’t say to avoid suffering at all costs or dodge pain by all means possible. Rather, the fitting response to the hardships that befall a believer is patient endurance. The suffering addressed here is that which specifically comes to us because we are Christians. Peter calls it suffering for righteousness sake (1 Pet. 3:14). These hardships may range from a disdainful sneer from an unbelieving colleague at work to the public slander we are subjected to by people who hate God. It might refer to subtle mockery on social media or severe persecution such as being beheaded because of faith in Jesus. It relates to the pain of a sister who gets passed over for promotion at work simply because she won’t give in to the bosses' demands that she dishonour her Lord. To sign up for Christ’s army is to sign up for hurt and hatred from the world.
Even so, good soldiers don't pack up and leave the battlefield. They endure, sometimes to the death. We “share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God” (2 Tim 1:8). Jesus invites us to fight for him and with him. We fight with and are fought by enemies within and without. Within, we have our sinful flesh. Without it, we have the Devil and a God-hating world that hates us too. We are not soldiers on a display parade. We are soldiers at war. We fight both aggressively and defensively. We attack and are attacked. That’s why we suit up all the time (Eph. 6:10-21).
A Good Soldier Expresses Single-mindedness Practically.
“No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier” (2 Tim 2:4). Here is a call for total devotion. A soldier is to throw away entanglements and distractions. The word entangle means to involve oneself in something. Hebrews 12:1 says to throw aside every weight and sin that easily entangles. A good Christian soldier disentangles himself from sinful habits, bad company, laziness, fear, unbelief, disobedience, bitterness, unforgiveness, filthy entertainment and such things.
Soldiers live in barracks to pursue a unique kind of life. They can't always be out and about living like civilians lest they get distracted. Similarly, a Christian soldier should garrison his or her heart (Prov. 4:23). As you examine your life today, what may be distracting your devotion to Christ? What sin is dragging you out of the battlefield? What pleasure has made you throw away your weapons? Also, there are good things that have enormous potential to distract from a single-minded, exclusive commitment to Christ. Money, work and marriage are common culprits. The goal of single-mindedness is the pleasure of our Captain. A good Christian soldier lives to please one person: not others or self, but Jesus. We please him by continued faith in him and simple obedience to his word. The Bible contains our marching orders. We don't treat it with carelessness, or casualness or deviate from it.
How do we fight?
As it relates to the actual battle, we fight by prayer. Prayer is a wartime walkie-talkie [^1] that we use to ask Jesus for help as we fight. We also fight by preaching the gospel. We know the gates of hell shall not prevail against us as we engage in combat (Mat. 16:18). This is why a Christian soldier evangelises the lost with courage. Thirdly, we fight by upholding the sword of God (Eph. 6:17). Lastly, we aim to remember constantly that we can't obey his commands by our strength, but he enables us to (Phil 2:13). Dear Christian soldier, have you been fighting to win?
[^1]: This phrase is not original to me. I got it from John Piper. I think it was a sermon I heard or a book I read.
