| The Christian Life | April 1940 |
Christian Soldiers
WHEN the Lord used the illustration of the life and service of a soldier to picture certain truths concerning the Christian life, He did not intend to imply that a Christian should use carnal weapons, nor smite and destroy his fellowman. There are, however, certain characteristics of a soldier which aptly illustrate necessary qualifications of the Christian life. It is true that the Christian must strive insofar as possible, to live peaceably with all men. He is not to be a promoter of strife, nor ill will. His words and actions should be of such a character as to promote peace, especially among peace-loving and righteous people. His efforts will, however, be misunderstood, and because of this he will find himself at enmity with the world. The Christian will have enemies but he is not to fight these enemies; rather, he is to love them and bless them. Thus it is clear that the soldier illustration does not show the Christian’s attitude toward individuals, especially in its belligerent aspects.
There are enemies, however, which the Christian can appropriately and profitably engage in battle. One of these is his own fallen nature. Here is an enemy that should be kept down and under control. The Christian will find that in order to do this, he must be continually on the alert. It is indeed a lifetime job for the New Creature to successfully give battle to the old nature which ever insists upon rising up and interfering with the doing of the Father’s will.
Closely allied with the flesh as an enemy, and working in conjunction therewith, is the spirit of the world. We are to fight against the spirit of the world, its selfishness, its lust, its insane desire for pleasure, its intolerance, and all of its other manifestations of ungodliness. Care needs to be exercised, however, that in fighting the spirit of the world and of the worldly, we do not find ourselves fighting the individuals who possess this spirit. These we are to love and to help, not by agreeing with them and working with them, but by precept and by example endeavoring to show them the better way.
We have a third enemy—from some standpoints the most formidable of them all—which is Satan, the devil. He is the commander-in-chief of all our enemies. He artfully employs the world and its spirit and subtly works through the fallen tendencies of our flesh to ensnare and overcome us. Against this powerful and ingenious adversary we must give strenuous and determined battle day by day. Only through the grace furnished us by the Lord, can we ever hope to gain the victory over such an enemy—yea, we might say, over such a powerful combination of enemies, as is arrayed against us in this unholy trinity of the world, the flesh and the devil.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FAITHFUL SOLDIERS
There are certain characteristics of a well-trained soldier which the Christian can emulate with profit. The true soldier does not debate his cause. He is rightly supposed to have settled upon its justice and righteousness before he enlisted to be a soldier. Just so with the Christian. He, too, should have counted the cost, and have determined that the course upon which he is entering is a proper one; one that is worthy the giving up of all that he has, and the exercise of all the energy he can muster. The terms of his enlistment require the surrender of his own will to do the divine will. Hence to debate the wisdom of anything the divine will exacts from him is to manifest qualities of unfaithfulness as a soldier.
Furthermore, a soldier expects to make sacrifices. He does not expect to enjoy the comforts of home and other pleasures of life that are customarily enjoyed by those who are not soldiers. The Christian presents himself a living sacrifice to God, and from that moment onward he has no right to complain of any hardships that may be imposed upon him. The true soldierly spirit in him causes him to exclaim:
“I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord
I’ll say what you want me to say.
I’ll do what you want me to do, dear Lord,
I’ll be what you want me to be.”
Another characteristic of a faithful soldier is that spirit of obedience which is represented in his willingness to use the weapons that are given to him. This is most important with the Christian soldier. The Christian’s only weapon of offensive warfare is the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. No matter how precarious a situation may be, no matter how threatening his enemies, he is not supposed to resort to carnal weapons of any kind, but to rely wholly upon the sword of the spirit.
The Word of God also constitutes most of the Christian’s defensive weapons; that is, the Truth of the Word is to him an armor of righteousness. It is an armor which protects the head as well as the heart. Paul tells us of the helmet ‘of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness. He tells us also of the shield of faith, and of the sandals of peace; which, he declares are a preparation of the Gospel of peace. Properly analyzed, it will be found that each of these pieces of the Christian’s armor represents, from one standpoint or another, the import and value of the Truth of God’s Word in the Christian life.
The true spirit of Christian loyalty, therefore, in this aspect of our warfare, will demand that we give all diligence to put on the whole armor of God, and use it in the way that God intended. This means that we will endeavor to have on the helmet of salvation; that is, insofar as possible we will endeavor to obtain and maintain a clear mental perception or understanding of God’s plan. But we will not stop with the helmet, but rather will endeavor to make a personal application of that Truth, accepting and applying it by faith so that it will become to us indeed a shield of faith and a breastplate of righteousness.
And the will not forget the girdle of truth, which is that part of the armor which represents the importance of our serving the Truth. If we are to experience the full protecting value of the truth in our own lives, we cannot hold it in selfishness. Hence, it is only as we view it from the standpoint of love and the blessing that it will bring to other hearts as we endeavor to make it known to them, that we can experience the full advantage, the protecting and building value, of the Word of God.
Another thing which a loyal soldier will not do is to fraternize with the enemy. So the Christian is advised that he must not love the world, neither the things of the world. Nor can the Christian afford to be sympathetic toward that enemy which is his flesh. And above all, the loyal Christian will ever be on the alert to resist every effort on the part of Satan to become friendly. In other words, the true Soldier of the Cross will not compromise his standing in the Lord’s army by in any way entering into fellowship or friendship, either with Satan and his many schemes, or with the world and its spirit of selfishness. Nor yet will he yield to the fallen and depraved desires of his own nature, reckoned dead. He will employ the various weapons provided for him through the Word, both for defensive and offensive purposes, in order to give effective battle against all the forces that are opposed to him, not for a moment yielding either to their show of strength nor to the cunning of their flattery.
Finally, the true soldier will be obedient to superior officers. Jesus is the Captain of our Salvation, the Scriptures tell us; and surely no Christian soldier can be said to be a good soldier if in any way he is disobedient to his Captain. To be truly obedient, we should be on the alert to hear and to obey every wish of our Captain, irrespective of the cost or hardship. Indeed, we will expect hardship because, as the apostle tells us, even Jesus, who is our Captain, was made perfect through suffering. As soldiers in His army, we cannot expect to be above our Master. He suffered, and we will suffer with Him, joyfully, enduring hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.