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.
Suffer
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.
Separate
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).
Serve
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.