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Soldier of Jesus Christ
II Timothy - 2:3-4
"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."
As with all structured military units, soldiers are instructed to
obey their commanding officers and follow orders.
While Jesus is ultimately our Commanding Officer, He
will not force His soldiers to obey His orders or accept His
missions.
Just as with our salvation, we are given free will to make a choice.
Many times during Christ’s life on earth, He told His followers
that He did only as He saw His Father do in heaven.
He was not a rebel or Lone Ranger
that tried doing things on His own.
This is why He called
us to serve Him through the Church. We are called to be
members of His Body in the Church. His
Churches are our Spiritual Boot Camps!
Jesus
was fully man and fully God, but told His followers that was not
something to be held on to. He
emptied Himself of His Godhood so that He would only follow His
Father’s will and not His own.
This
is what He is showing us how to do.
We need to do with our life as we saw Him do, and as the Holy
Spirit guides us. |
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Another
important aspect to the military is the chain of command. Our Lord Jesus Himself
did not perform His ministry alone.
Instead, He enlisted others as followers and gave them
authority and responsibility.
It is through these
followers of Christ that we have the New Testament.
Through these inspired writings in the New Testament, we can
easily form a “chain of command” for us Soldiers of today.
While all of us have direct
access to our Father through Jesus and prayer and need no one on
earth to
intercede for us, God does put people in authority over us for a
reason.
These people include our parents, elders, pastors and
other spiritual counselors. God
also tells us that it is He that establishes the governments and the
leaders as well. This
authority will be dealt with in a separate lesson in more detail.
In this world we can only
serve one master. We can serve our Heavenly Father or we can
serve Satan. The Bible tells us this in John 8:42-47. There is no neutral
ground in Spiritual Warfare. You
either serve Christ or you serve Satan.
(1)
Endure hardship
(2)
Soldier of Jesus Christ
(3)
Engaged in Warfare
(4)
Entangles himself
(5) Please our Commander
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Soldier
of Christ