FAITH CAPSULE: Are you a soldier who will always need a constant introduction as a soldier?
2 Timothy 2:1-13
Are you a Christian soldier by mouth or by act?
A Christian soldier need not be introduced as a soldier because warlike disposition will always point such out as one operating as a sold-out soul for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What kind of a soldier are you?
Are you a soldier who will always need a constant introduction as a soldier?
A soldier should contend or serves in any cause as a soldier of the Lord. Soldiers are to persist steadfastly in their cause and to persevere until an assignment, as expected.
An eligible and qualified soldier for Christ should be a sold-out soul for the cause of the cross that Jesus carried to Calvary.
Paul, the apostle, admonishes Timothy by using an illustration of a soldier. “You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 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 Timothy 2:3-4)
Paul’s illustration for faithfulness is that a soldier (follower of Christ) must endure hardship.
Unfortunately, Christian soldiers today do not want to endure hardship but will like to enjoy worldly pleasures or live lives of convenience and not commitment.
Are you an acclaimed Christian with no iota of desire to live life to experience the endureth life of Christ?
Endurance can be painful and can generate unwanted suffering.
Enduring hardship brings a good soldier out of a Christian soldier of Jesus Christ.
Christian soldiers cannot escape hardship in this world of wickedness.
The Christian soldiers without endure challenges in this world are soldiers that often entangle themselves in the affairs of this life.
It is evident in the word of Paul that no soldier engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life and answers to the cause of Christian soldiers.
Peter 2:11 warns against fleshly lusts: “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” Fleshly lust is the affairs of this world that will derail a soldier for Christ.
With lust, it is not possible to answer as a sold-out soul for the assignment of Christ.
Undoubtedly, fleshly lust is a principal target which Christian soldiers should not take for granted because it launches its attack regularly.
Are you working not to walk living lust?
Living lust will present great or small temptation that does not spare grave for fleshly lust ones.
It is so deadly that it only goes after its target, the soul of every Christian soldier.
As a soldier of Christ, you become captured by the enemy of all, the evil one, then your role as a soldier will mark you as a victim soldier in the hand of the chief of all wicked, the evil one himself.
Are you a Christian soldier by mouth or one with a sold-out soul for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to live life for Him.