Good Soldiers

“Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” 
2 Timothy 2:3-4

From a kingdom perspective, a good soldier has several responsibilities. Initially, we can expect challenges, wherein we might “suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal” (2 Tim. 2:9), endure hardship (2 Tim. 4:5), or even suffer (James 5:13).

Ultimately, a soldier has one purpose, “that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” Put another way, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10). Soldiers are called out of the normal life of a nation and dedicated to executing the will of the King.

Thus, from a spiritual perspective, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). The source of that friendship is a focus on walking by the flesh, which has no good thing in it and “cannot please God” (Romans 8:8).

We are to “fight the good fight” (1 Tim. 1:18) and to “Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:12), because “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

Fighting God’s battles with God’s armor insures the ultimate victory promised by our King, Creator, and “Captain of the host of the Lord” (Joshua 5:14). “He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 25:8).