A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
“Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life,
that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (II Tim.
2:3,4).
In
the soldier it is courage and self-discipline that are important. It
has been well said that the measure of a good soldier is not how much he
can “give,” but how much he can “take,” how much he can endure — how
much it takes to make him give up.
It
is a sad fact that many of God’s people simply do not want to be
soldiers. They are sure that the battle for the truth can be won by
“love.” They decline to obey God’s specific order to “fight the good
fight of the faith” (I Tim.6:12). Some even find fault with those who do
stand as soldiers for Christ and wield the Sword of the Spirit in
defense of the truth.
But
if God does not wish us to be soldiers in the fight of the faith, why
did He command us to be such in the first place, and why, in Ephesians
6:10-20, does He urge us to “be strong in the Lord and in the power of
His might,” instructing us to “Put on the whole armour of God,” naming
each piece separately, so that not one might be missing? Why does He bid
us to “take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”?
Does
He mean that we should put our sword in the scabbard and go on dress
parade, to show what fine soldiers we are? No! We are to wield the Sword
of the Spirit, “standing against the wiles of the devil”, and to keep
standing until, “having done all,” we are still found “standing.”
Four times in this passage the word “stand” is used, and God has provided a complete armour so that we may be enabled to stand.
But
there is more. A “good soldier,” says the Apostle, is careful not to
“entangle himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him
who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (Verse 4).
What
a lesson! Should not we, who have been bought with the precious blood
of Christ, be “good soldiers” for His sake, single-minded, and
disentangled from the affairs of this life?
Transformed By Grace -
Kevin Sadler
Transformed By Grace
#1 - Unity in Christ
Transformed By Grace #2 - One Body in
Christ
Transformed By Grace #3 - The Apostle of
Grace
Transformed By Grace #4 - The Gifts of
Christ
Posted By Cecil and
Connie Spivey
E-mail this BIBLE STUDY to all your friends
No comments:
Post a Comment