Be a Good Soldier: Four Reflections

So don’t be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, or of me his prisoner. Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God. He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began… Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life; he seeks to please the commanding officer. 2 timothy 1:8-9, 2:3-4 CSB

There’s a lot in those few verses… The author, Paul, is writing Timothy from prison and is near being put to death for the Gospel. We’ve written in previous articles about affliction while pursuing God, but here we can draw at least four more implications this has for us.

1. We are to share in the sufferings of our fellow believers. It’s easy to lose sight in our comfortable American churches where we are hardly persecuted for our faith, in that, we believe that our rights to freedom of religion are set in stone. Freedoms are never a guarantee for the church, they never were. Jesus said the church would be persecuted, not ‘may’ be persecuted (Matthew 24:3-14). The persecuted church has no guaranteed rights but has the ultimate hope of being God’s possession.
2. Our suffering for the Gospel is about relying on the power of God, not our own. If we make it through persecution by our own strength, who gets the glory? 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 CSB: “We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia. We were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” Why were they afflicted to the point of death? So that they would not trust in themselves but in God who raises the dead.
3. Our service for the Gospel was planned before time began. As offensive as this truth may sound, God has work planned for His followers that was planned before time began. Ephesians 2:10 CSB: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.” Also see Jeremiah 29:11, Ephesians 1:4-6, Ephesians 1:11-12, amongst many others. 
4. We are soldiers, on mission, in a foreign land. We are soldiers, the boots on the ground, in hostile territory with a mission to love God and love people (Matthew 22:36-40) by taking the Gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:18-20), whether that means your office, your family, or Cambodia) while living our lives to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Although the afflictions on the surface may be physical or mental, our battle is an invisible battle with forces that can’t be seen (Ephesians 6:12).

Simple mission? Not quite. We complicate things by our sin, pride, and selfishness. It’s only by “relying on the power of God” that we have hope in completing this mission!

-Austin