Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 2:3
The old apostle languishing in a Roman prison urges a young man serving the Lord in Ephesus to be a good soldier for Jesus Christ. Probably no other person who ever lived knew more about enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. In his own words, Paul had travelled that road: ‘Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches’ (2 Corinthians 11:23-28). With all that he had endured, Paul had no regrets as he reflected on his life. And he longed that Timothy would know the rewards of such a life.
Some 200 years before our King James Version Bibles were first printed, John Wycliffe produced his early translation of the Scriptures into English. Here is how he translated today’s text: ‘Travail thou as a good knight of Christ Jesus’. Like Paul, Wycliffe knew about suffering for Christ, and he also knew the thrill of enduring that hardship in the service of his Lord. You and I will never know what either of those two great knights of the Gospel endured. But the call comes to us, just the same.
A young man who was considerably overweight told his friends that he would consider marrying a girl only if she would be willing to carry him out of a burning building if he were incapacitated. His friends laughed, and said that no woman would ever be able to carry him. He replied, ‘I am not looking for her to be able, just to be willing’. That is what God is looking for from us. We don’t know what we are capable of as a soldier or knight in God’s service, nor do we know what we will encounter in that service. Perhaps that uncertainty keeps us back from a commitment to do all and be all that God wants of us. Consider the example of Saul of Tarsus. He had absolutely no reservations when he asked of God on the Damascus road, ‘What wilt Thou have me to do?’ And so, in light of our text, we are called upon to drop our reservations too. The question is not whether we are able but whether we are willing. Because he was willing, Paul’s life turned out to be thrilling and extremely rewarding. Ours can be too. As a good soldier, we will be committed to endurance, we will seek to please our great Commander, and we will practice daily those spiritual skills that we need in our service.
Do you hear our Lord’s call for knights to serve Him? Enduring hardness in that army has life’s greatest rewards. – Jim MacIntosh