On June 12, 1944, just six days after D-Day in World War II, a young
lieutenant named Richard Winters led his men to the outskirts of
Carentan. As the officer in charge of Easy Company, of the 101st
Airborne, he was tasked to clear the large French town of its German
defenders. It would be a small battle, but it played a significant role
in the massive effort to rid the world of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
As Winters led his company up the road toward town, the company started
taking machine gun fire from a German MG42. The men instinctively dived
for cover into ditches on either side of the road, and stayed
there--they froze. Not only was the success of the mission in jeopardy,
but the men were easy targets for enemy machine gun and sniper fire.
What happened next proved to be the turning point in the battle for
Carentan -
it's the stuff legends are made of. Lt. Winters went into the middle of
the road and, with bullets hissing past him, started yelling at his
troops to get up out of the ditches and engage the enemy. His words,
coupled with his heroic action, motivated the men to get up, get in the
fight, and gain a decisive victory over the Germans.
Winters' disregard for personal safety in his effort to save his men
from certain death didn't just earn him a medal; his actions earned him
the love, respect, and admiration of his men. They followed him
faithfully from Carentan, through the nightmarish Battle of the Bulge,
and on to triumph at Hitler's Eagle's Nest.
Soldiers willingly follow men like that, men who demonstrate acts of
self-sacrifice in the most harrowing of circumstances. How much more
should we, as Christians, follow the One who endured suffering and
death
to rescue us from the most terrifying fate of all, an eternity in hell?
That was the idea that entered Paul's mind when, at the end of his own
ministry, having been imprisoned by the emperor Nero, he wrote to
encourage the young pastor Timothy. Timothy was facing severe conflict
in his ministry at Ephesus, and the relentless opposition from
heretics,
apostates, and persecutors was weakening him. And just like any
Christian who experiences difficulty because of following Christ, he
needed to be reminded again of his task--to suffer hardship as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:3-4, "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." A good soldier is one who does not simply
do
minimum duty for his Lord, but rather is one who serves Him with
everything he is and has. As a Christian, that's what you are called
to.
Paul's words to Timothy are your marching orders, too, as you strive to
be a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
The first mark of a good soldier is the willingness to suffer hardship
with the rest of the soldiers. "Suffer hardship" literally means to
suffer evil or pain along with someone else. By adding "with me," Paul
assures Timothy that he hasn't asked anything of him that he wasn't
willing to do. In fact, Paul was writing from a prison cell.
As a Christian in the Western world, I'd bet it is sometimes difficult
for you to understand what serious spiritual warfare and suffering for
Christ mean. Even though the secular environment in our society is
increasingly hostile to Christianity, you are not faced with loss of
job, imprisonment, or execution because of your faith. With few
exceptions, being a Christian won't keep you out of college or from
getting a good job. But the more faithful you are as a Christian, the
more Satan will put roadblocks, hardships, and rejection in the way,
the more evident the spiritual warfare will become, and the more frequent
and obvious the hardship will become.
You have been called to endure hardship, and every Christian who has
gone before you has had his share. And although you haven't yet shed
blood for your faith (Hebrews 12:4), you will experience hardship as a
Christian for your faithfulness--count on it. Jesus said, "If they
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:20). But be
encouraged for He also said, "In the world you have tribulation, but
take courage; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Jesus is the
perfect Commander who leads by example and will bring you to certain
victory in the end.
Secondly, a good soldier is marked by his separation from the "normal"
life. A "soldier in active service" does not have a 9 to 5 job, or even
a long 60- to 70-hour work week. He is a soldier 24 hours a day, every
day of the year. His body, his health, his skills, his time--all that
he is--belongs to the military. Even when on leave, he is subject to
recall at any time, without notice and for any reason. And whenever ordered
into dangerous duty, he is expected to put his very life on the line
without question or hesitation.
Consequently, he is separated from his normal environment, so that he
will not "entangle himself in the affairs of everyday life." Paul is
not speaking about things that necessarily are wrong in themselves. It is
not that you, as a Christian, should have no contact at all with your
former friends and surroundings, but that you should never be caught up
and enmeshed in them. Those things are irrelevant to your soldiering
and are always subject to being relinquished.
You should never allow earthly matters to interfere with the
fulfillment of your duty to the Lord. Temporal concerns and activities, innocent in
themselves, have neutralized the effectiveness of many pastors, special
ministries, and doctrinally sound churches. Though they once labored
faithfully in the primary purpose of serving Jesus Christ to advance
His kingdom against the forces of darkness, they have unwittingly taken
themselves out of the battle.
Just as the dutiful soldier places his life willingly on the line in
the service of his commander, so also will you, as a faithful Christian,
willingly deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ (Luke
9:23). And you will find yourself echoing Paul's words: "I do not
consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may
finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord
Jesus" (Acts 20:24).
The final mark of a good soldier is a genuine desire to "please the one
who enlisted him as a soldier." The men who followed Lt. Winters
through terrible conditions and battles in Europe did so willingly--he had
earned their respect and affections. In an even greater way, the Lord
deserves your honor, your affection, and your obedience for all He has
done for you. His own courage on the battlefield is unparalleled. He
stayed the course and went before you to win your freedom and eternal
life. And now He seeks your loyal service in His army.
The Christian's greatest desire is to please Christ, and his fondest
hope is to be rewarded for faithful service, to hear his Master say,
"Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few
things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of
your master" (Matthew 25:21).
With that hope in the forefront of your mind, let your life be animated
and driven forward by your love for Jesus Christ. And make it your
ambition, "whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him" (2
Corinthians 5:9)--He is your spiritual Commander-in-Chief.
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