THE Apostle Paul in his Epistles to Timothy, whom he addresses as his dearly beloved son in the faith, gives him many directions and counsels as to how he was to act in his capacity as a minister of the Gospel and as a servant of Jesus Christ. He does not lead Timothy to expect that he will have a smooth time of it in his “work of faith and labour of love.” He gives him clearly to understand that he has a conflict before him in the service of the Gospel—a conflict with lusts in his own heart, and with erroneous men and evil workers outside. “Fight,” says the Apostle, “the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”
The words of our text may have a special message to ministers of the Gospel and other public servants of Christ, who would be faithful to the trust committed to their charge. They are exhorted to be soldiers in the discharge of their duty—waging war against all manner of evil—and in this honourable work, to be “good” soldiers, enduring submissively all manner of hardness for the sake of Christ. The text, however, is capable of general application to all who are called out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel. Every truly gracious soul has entered upon a spiritual warfare, and it is the duty of all such to seek grace to behave as good soldiers, and to endure, with patience, hardness in the conflict. We shall, therefore, meditate for a little upon the text, in dependence upon the Spirit of truth, as a word of instruction and exhortation to all the children of God. It may be useful, therefore, to observe:
I.—The Commander that is brought before us, namely, Jesus Christ;
II.—What it is that constitutes any sinner a “soldier of Jesus Christ”?
III.—Some of the features or marks of a “good soldier” in this service; and
IV.—The exhortation to “endure hardness.”
I.—Let us notice, then, in the first place, Christ as the Divine Commander.
It is plain that this office stands related to the kingly authority of Christ. Among men, the king of a country is the supreme head of the army that belongs to it, and though he should not act himself in this capacity, as usually happens, still, the chief officer is the king’s direct representative. In the person of Christ the essential authority and the delegated authority of the King of heaven are both wonderfully combined.
It is evident that Christ possesses an essential authority as the co-equal of the Father and the Holy Ghost in the ever-blessed God-head. He is the King eternal, immortal and invisible, and in His essential deity, is the Commander of all creatures and things, animate and inanimate. He is “Lord of all.” But it is not in relation to His absolute authority and power as the eternal Son that he is brought before us in the text, though all that He essentially is in His own person, is certainly included.
The Lord Jesus stands before us here as Commander in His mediatorial capacity, and as the mediator between God and men, under the covenant of grace, He sustains the three offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. The Father has appointed him King of Zion and King of Nations (Psalm ii.). In this office he is the Captain of the Lord’s hosts. “Behold,” says the Father, “I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people” (Isaiah lv. 4). In the Epistle to the Hebrews, He is described as the Captain of salvation, who was made “perfect through sufferings.” There is a battle to be fought with the powers of darkness, and the mediatorial King must lead forth judgment unto victory.
Here we go on to notice that this glorious Commander, who is set before us in the Gospel, is not one who has a mere theoretical acquaintance with the art of spiritual warfare, but one who has had a deep experimental knowledge of it. He came into the world in the fulness of the time, and entered into the greatest of all conflicts that have ever been waged with sin, Satan, and evil men. His whole life on earth was a life of warfare. At special seasons, the battle was very hot. Witness his severe temptation by the devil in the wilderness, and the many attacks made upon His character, claims and work by the Scribes and Pharisees, during the years of His public ministry. Towards the end of these years, the prince of darkness marshalled all his forces against the Prince of life, and ultimately secured His condemnation to death at the hands of Herod and Pilate. He was led away to Calvary and was crucified between two thieves upon a cross. He cried, “It is finished,” and gave up the ghost. To the eye of natural sense, He appeared a defeated Messiah, but He was by no means so in reality. In all this suffering, He was doing the will of the Father for the accomplishment of the redemption of His people. He bore their sins by imputation in His own body on the tree, and by His obedience unto death, spoiled principalities and powers, and “made a show of them openly, triumphing over them” in His cross. His victory was made clearly manifest before men, and angels, and devils on the morning of the resurrection, when He arose in the evident character of a Conqueror over sin, death, and hell. This victory of His is the ground and pledge of every victory that His ransomed ones shall obtain in their own personal conflicts with the forces of darkness during their journey through the world. “They overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” It is therefore not merely a Captain of experience, but of victory—one who, in the words of a godly minister of the past, “has never lost and will never lose a battle”—whom sinners are invited and encouraged to trust in and enlist under, by the Gospel. This leads us to consider briefly:—
II.—What it is that constitutes any sinner “a soldier of Jesus Christ.”
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It is very clear, my friends, from the general teaching of the Scriptures, that none of our fallen race are soldiers of Jesus Christ by nature. All sinned and rebelled against God in the first Adam, and all are by nature under the banner of another captain than Christ, that of “the god of this world,” the Prince of darkness. As unconverted sinners, we are loyal soldiers in the devil’s army—fighting against Christ, and not for Him. May the Spirit of God bring this home with power to many who are still on the broad way that leadeth to destruction! Let us be assured that, if we do not awake to feel and realise in our consciences and hearts that we are serving sin and Satan by nature as lost sinners, we shall never seek in reality to enlist under Christ’s banner. Many, nowadays, seem to imagine that they were born lovers and servants of Christ—persons who give no real evidence of having ever been “born from above.” Natural men may be servants of a false Christ—a Christ of their own devising—but they are not so of the true Christ of God. “Ye are of your father the devil, and his works ye will do.”
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Who, then, are they that are made soldiers of Jesus Christ? They are such as are described in the 110th Psalm as a people made willing in the day of Christ’s power. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning.”
(1) Those who become Christ’s soldiers are made willing to part with the world, the flesh and the devil. They have been awakened by the light and power of the Holy Ghost, to see that they are in the hands of these enemies and that, unless they are delivered from them, they shall carry them away to eternal destruction. After a conflict, they are made willing to be done with these old masters for ever—if by any means they shall escape “the worm that dieth not and the fire that is not quenched.”
(2) They are made willing to part company with everything good or bad that comes into competition with Christ—their old religion and righteousness as well as their old sins. They have obtained something of the same spirit that Paul received when he said “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him” (Phil. iii. 8).
(3) They are made willing to close with Christ as their King as well as their Prophet and Priest. I do not say that any who ever in reality accept of Christ as their Prophet and Priest refuse Him as their King, for saving faith embraces a whole Christ in His three offices. But some appear to make choice of Him as their Prophet and Priest who do not give evidence that they embrace him as a King, and who therefore call in question the reality of their faith altogether. Some profess to believe the word of Christ in the Gospel, and to value Him as Priest for the pardon of their sins, who do not relinquish the service of sin. They still continue obeying the god of this world, and imagine that they can be saved by Christ at the same time. What a fatal mistake and delusion! Where there is vital union by saving faith to the Son of God, the sinner is made willing to part with all his darling lusts, and to have Christ as King in his affections. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. i. 21). And so, where a sinner has truly exercised faith on the name of the Son of God, he has, by divine grace, been saved from the dominion of his sins, and has engaged to obey and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Christ now reigns upon the throne of his heart. He hates his former evil ways, and it is his most earnest desire that the old man who is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, should not only be cast down but cast out for ever.
(4) They are made willing to take the Word of Christ as a light to their feet and a lamp to their path, and as a sword—the sword of the Spirit—to overcome their spiritual foes. Christ’s word is the supreme court of appeal with them—not the word of fallen men—as to every question of difficulty. “What saith the Lord?” “To the law and to the testimony.”
- I may notice here three fields on which the soldier of Jesus Christ is called to carry on the spiritual warfare.
(1) The first is the field of the Soul. Unless a sinner begins and carries on, by the grace of God, the conflict with sin in his own heart, he shall never be a true soldier of Jesus Christ. It is on the field of his own soul that the battle with every form of evil must first be fought and won. And they who know nothing of soul conflict with corruption and error, are not really out of the devil’s service, however fair their profession may be. Certainly it is better that people should have an outward conformity in opinion and practice to the statute book of the kingdom than that they should be wrong in every way. But let none be satisfied with outward conformity, for if the adversary exert all his might, they will be in great danger, unless kept by the restraining power of God, of making a complete surrender to Satan, to their everlasting destruction.
(2) The field of the World. The Captain of salvation in His intercessory prayer said, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John xvii. 15). The soldiers of Christ are in the world, but not of it. It is theirs to wage war with the sinful habits, practices, and maxims of the world. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” True, Jesus recommends them to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves,” but this is evidently not in any way that will compromise the commandments of God, and bring dishonour on the name of Christ. “Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” He has left us an example that we should walk in His steps (1 Peter ii. 21). And let everyone study this example so as to follow it in thought, speech, and behaviour. Thus only we shall war a good warfare, and obtain the crown at last.
(3) The field of the visible Church. It is clear from these Epistles that Paul expected Timothy to have much conflict in this field. Men of erroneous views about the things of God’s kingdom had already risen in the Church, and had departed seriously from the faith, and the Apostle, the inspired ambassador of Christ, exhorts Timothy as follows: “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which were before on thee, that thou mightest war a good warfare: holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck; of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.” How clear it is from these words that it is the duty of the faithful soldier of Christ, whether in pulpit or in pew, to bear testimony against error in Christian doctrine! And how mistaken they are, surely blinded with a white mist from hell, who decry all controversy in the visible Church! They generally say that controversy is incompatible with the spirit of the love of Christ. Were Paul and Timothy not animated by the love of Christ? And what of the most eminent saints and witnesses in subsequent ages? Athanasius, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Samuel Rutherford, Donald Cargill, Owen, Goodwin, and many more. Were these defenders of the faith ignorant of the love of Christ? If they were ignorant of it, we may well wonder who has known anything about it.
Let no one think that I imply that every person who enters into controversy on the sound side of a question is necessarily animated by the love of Christ—men may take this up in a natural way as well as other things—but it surely tells nothing against public witnesses but rather in their favour, when they add to their other evidences of being new creatures in Christ, zeal for God’s truth in their day and generation. Surely, on the other hand, it tells very seriously against high-flowing professors of religion who make a great cry about the love of Christ and yet will surrender the word of Christ, the very life-blood of the Church, to the presumptuous demands of unbelief. May we get the spirit of the Divine Leader and Commander in all its completeness, who said, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up,” and “I lay down my life for the sheep.”
III.—We now proceed to observe some of the features or marks of “a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
(1) One of the first requirements of a good soldier in an earthly army is faith in his leader.
If a man is destitute of this, all his other powers are paralysed. Still more is faith of divine operation necessary in relation to Christ, the heavenly commander. Success entirely depends upon it. “Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” And the soul must be kept looking to and trusting in Christ as its all and in all, who will prove a good soldier in the spiritual conflict.
(2) A second feature of a good soldier is strength.
A weak man physically is not capable of much in the ordinary army. The soldier of Christ requires much strength. The Apostle exhorts Timothy: “Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” The common soldier generally looks to himself as the seat of his strength. But it must not be so with the “good soldier of Jesus Christ.” He must be sensible of his own weakness and inability, and look to his Divine Captain for the supply of all his spiritual strength. The Apostle says elsewhere, “When I am weak, then am I strong.” The strength of omnipotence is available to the soul in Christ. But the moment the spiritual soldier becomes self-confident and self-sufficient he loses all his spiritual vigour: he ceases to be “a good soldier.”
(3) Another mark of a good soldier is courage.
A timid or cowardly man will never make an efficient soldier. The children of God who desire to be faithful to Christ must seek to be “strong and of a good courage.” Unbelieving fears suck holy boldness out of the followers of the Redeemer. “The fear of man bringeth a snare.” The Captain Himself feared not the face of man or devil, and every poor soul is directed to look to Him for the courage needed to overcome his spiritual enemies. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Many weak creatures in days gone by obtained much gracious boldness to stand fast in the faith, in spite of the most dreadful temptations to the contrary. They were lifted above all fear, and made willing to face the scaffold and the stake and lay down their lives for the sake of Christ. The holy courage of the martyrs came by “looking unto Jesus”—a way that still stands open even to us.
(4) Still another feature of the good soldier is wisdom.
An unskilful or foolish man, though well equipped with weapons, will not prove a satisfactory warrior. He will come short when he might be victor. Prudence as well as other virtues is needed in fighting. So it is in the Christian warfare. The inspired book of Proverbs dwells with great force and usefulness on the graces of wisdom and prudence. The Apostle Paul was a man of great courage and wisdom combined, and in this very chapter gives several counsels of Christian wisdom. He says to Timothy, “Flee youthful lusts.” Sometimes soldiers flee before their enemies at the dictates of prudence, not with a view to yield but with a view to get a better vantage-ground, from which they may obtain the victory. So with the Christian. He must, on occasion, flee from the places and circumstances of temptation, to his private place, that he may thence get the victory over his foes. Again, “And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men; apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” Christian wisdom calls for the exercise of gentleness, patience, and meekness in carrying on the good warfare.
(5) A fifth feature of the good soldier is self-sacrifice.
A soldier must be willing to sacrifice everything except conscience for the sake of the cause which he serves. And the good soldier of Christ must, like Paul, be willing to suffer the loss of all things—yea, of life itself, if required—in the service of the Gospel. Self must be mortified at every step, and Christ exalted. “If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.”
(6) A last feature I shall mention is final perseverance.
There is no discharge in this heavenly warfare—no turning back. The good soldier of Jesus Christ will fight the good fight of faith to the very end; he is invincible. There is to be no surrender to the devil or his suggestions. There may be, and there will be temporary shortcomings and falls. But the cry of the soul under these is: “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise: when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.” He shall get on his feet again, and use greater care and watchfulness in the future. “He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.”
IV.—Let us now notice the exhortation to “endure hardness.”
1. Here we shall observe first, certain forms of “hardness,” which the good soldier is called to endure.
Some of them have been alluded to in passing already.
(1) He has to endure the hardness of common affliction.
He is not exempted from the afflictions that are common to the world at large—afflictions in his body, family, or circumstances. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Ps. xxxiv. 19).
(2) He has to suffer the hardness of human opposition.
The Apostle says to Timothy further on in this Epistle: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (chap. iii. 12). Apart from public controversy, everyone who is faithful to Christ and His word, in his daily avocation, will meet with more or less opposition from the carnal, and it may be, the religious world. Persecution does not assume the same form in every age. There are many subtle forms of it in the present day. If a man, for example, will maintain a steadfast regard for the sanctity of the Sabbath, he will find himself exposed to contempt and derision, and may have to suffer the loss of employment on account of his steadfastness. What is this but persecution for the truth? If a man is scrupulously honest in business, he may suffer in the same way. Numerous illustrations might be given of this point, but we must proceed.
(3) The good soldier is exposed to the hardness of Satan’s temptations.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter v. 8). He seeks to devour the Christian in a vast variety of ways, and assaults him with many temptations. He knows the good soldier’s weak point or besetting sin—for the most eminent of God’s people have these to more or less extent—and he will do his utmost to cast in his fiery darts there. The soul, however, must seek to be prepared for these assaults of the adversary, and not to be too much discouraged by such difficulties in the way.
(4) The good soldier is called to endure what I shall describe as spiritual privations.
Temporal privations are well known among the armies of the world, especially when engaged on the field of battle in a long and difficult conflict. It is the lot of the soldiers then to suffer the want of many comforts that they enjoy at other times. They must frequently fight on very short rations, and expose themselves to excessive cold and heat. The Lord, in His holy and wise providence, sometimes tries His people in a similar manner upon the field of spiritual conflict. Perhaps when they set out on their Christian course they enjoyed great spiritual enlargements of soul, and were fed abundantly with the finest of the wheat. They never seemed to lack any spiritual comfort they desired. “The bread and water of life” were plentifully supplied to them by the Spirit of all grace. Christ in the gospel was brought very near to their souls in all His rich fulness, and they were enabled to eat and drink their fill of Zion’s provision at the gospel and communion tables. But this did not always last. God, in His mysterious providence, withdraws his comfortable presence from their souls, perhaps as a chastisement for an unsteadfast heart, and they are sent out to fight their spiritual enemies, with a few crumbs, if anything, in their wallet. The warm beams of the Sun of Righteousness are denied, and they feel they are walking in an atmosphere of intense spiritual cold. Job knew much of this when he bewailed his desolate condition and cried, “O that I knew where I might find Him that I might come even to His seat!” And if it is not the cold of desertion that they exactly feel, it may be that to which I have already referred—the heat of fiery temptation. Both indeed may be felt together at the same time. Such are some of the spiritual privations that Christ’s soldiers are called to experience at certain times in their history. “I am poor and needy; make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying” (Psalm lxx. 5).
2. Let us pass on to observe, secondly, the nature of the endurance which Christ’s soldier is called to exercise.
It is manifestly the endurance of filial submission and patience—not a merely compulsory resignation with rebellion at the heart of it. This principle of filial submission is in the soul of every person in whom there is a real spark of divine life, though they also are deeply conscious of the workings of rebellion in the corrupt heart. But where this life is, there is regeneration; and where regeneration is, there is a nature in agreement with the will of God.
(1) The good soldier is to seek grace to realise that “the hardness” he suffers is the appointment of Him who is holy, just, good—who “doeth all things well,” however trying His dispensations may sometimes be to flesh and blood.
(2) He is to exercise submission and patience in the remembrance of his own sin and unworthiness.
If God had dealt with him in accordance with His justice alone, He would have sent him to hell long ago. And his daily shortcomings and provocations are still deserving of God’s displeasure and curse. On the other hand, many mercies are mingled with all the hardness he has to suffer. He must seek, therefore, to feel and say with Jeremiah, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?”
(3) He is to endure hardness in the spirit of one who also remembers that the Lord doth not ordain affliction, because He takes pleasure in the sufferings of His people, but for wise and good ends, for their soul’s good and His own glory.
“This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” He will make sin exceeding sinful, holiness desirable, and Christ precious in the eyes of the good soldier. The Lord will also make it plain before men, angels, and devils, that His servants will serve Him for His own sake, and not merely for the benefits they receive from Him. Though He slay them with trials and sufferings, yet they will endeavour to trust Him and follow Him to the end. The excellency of God’s grace and power and faithfulness, yea, of all His attributes, is to be seen in upholding His servants in the fire of tribulation and in enabling them to be “more than conquerors” through the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
3. The exhortation itself. “Thou therefore endure hardness.”
Paul is the speaker, but he is the spokesman of the Lord of hosts, and the Most High here exhorts, encourages, and commands His people to endure in the spirit of the gospel all the hardness that falls to them in His service. Thus He sets before them the standard of their Christian obligation, and makes it sinful for them to kick against “the cross” and to endeavour in an unlawful way to get rid of it.
Some poor struggling soul may cry, “Who is sufficient for these things?” Your sufficiency is of God, who is able to make all grace abound toward you for the discharge of every duty. You have no might whatsoever to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ or to endure hardness in His cause; but the Father has placed an infinite fulness of strength in the Captain of salvation, who says to you, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
In conclusion, let each one of us examine himself and herself on this great matter. Are we soldiers of Jesus Christ or not? If we are not, then we are soldiers in Satan’s army, and if we continue so to the end we shall have Satan’s reward, “the outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for ever.” Let us seek to lay this dreadful prospect to heart in time. Now, Christ is enlisting soldiers under His heavenly banner. He is willing to receive you, however, unworthy. And happy are they who by grace are made willing to have Him as their Saviour, Lord and Captain. He shall lead them on to eternal victory. Their everlasting song will be: “Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.”