Steemchurch: I am a soldier of Christ

2 Timothy 2: 3-4
You, then, suffer hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one who militates is entangled in the business of life, in order to please the one who took him for a soldier

Ecclesiastical 2, 1 - 6
Son, if you decide to follow and serve the Lord, prepare your heart for the test. Straighten your soul, your heart. Be firm and do not worry at the time of misfortune. Join the Lord and do not separate so that at the end of your days you will be exalted. Accept willingly whatever happens to you and be patient in the vicissitudes of your humiliation because gold is purified in the fire and those who please God in the crucible of humiliation. Trust Him and He will come to your aid. Straighten your ways and wait in Him

A good soldier is one who does not limit himself to doing the least for his commander, but rather is the one who serves him with all that he is and has. As Christians, that is what we are called to be. Paul's words to Timothy are his marching orders to strive to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

We must not stop fighting. We must erase the word surrender of our vocabulary and be always in the line of battle, presenting ourselves before our Commander and Chief Christ prepared for a new struggle. Sometimes, we will lose valuable things or we will not receive the response we desire, but that never stops our daily walk with Christ and, above all, never separates us from his love

He must never allow earthly matters to hinder him in fulfilling his duty to the Lord. Otherwise, you will experience difficulties because of our fidelity to Jesus Christ. Just as the obedient soldier voluntarily places his life in the service of a commander, we as soldiers of Jesus Christ put our lives at his service

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• Willing to suffer hardships along with the rest of the soldiers

The first mark of a good soldier is the willingness to suffer hardships with the rest of the soldiers. "Suffer penalties" literally means "to suffer evil or pain together with another person

You have been called to endure difficulties, just as every Christian before you has had to. And although surely he has not yet been called to shed his own blood for the sake of his faith (Hebrews 12: 4), all of us, in one way or another, will experience difficulties because of our fidelity to Christ. Jesus said: "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my word, they will also keep yours "(John 15:20). But courage, brothers, because Jesus also said: "In the world you will have affliction; But trust, I have overcome the world "(John 16:33). Jesus is the perfect commander in chief who leads by example and will lead us to a sure victory at the end.

• Do not get "entangled in the business of life"

A good soldier is characterized by his separation from "normal" life. An active soldier does not have a job of 9 to 5 or a week of work of 40 or more hours of work. An active soldier is a soldier who serves 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Your body, your health, your knowledge, your time, everything that has to do with the armed forces. Even when you are on vacation you must remember that at any time, without prior notice and for any reason, you can call and respond to it. And when he is ordered to carry out his duty, although the dangerous sea, he is expected to be willing to reflect on his own life on the line without hesitation or hesitation.

In the same way a soldier of Christ is separated from his usual environment, for he is called not to "entangle in the business of life." Paul is not talking about things that are necessarily bad in themselves. It is not saying that you, as a Christian, can not have any contact at all with your old friends and surroundings. What you are saying is that you should never find yourself caught and entangled in them.

• Seeks to please whoever took him for a soldier

The Christian's greatest desire is to please Christ, and his greatest hope is to be rewarded for his faithful service and to hear his Lord: "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you much; enter into the joy of your lord "(Matthew 25:21). And with that same hope in your mind, be encouraged forward for love of Jesus Christ. And like Paul, we can say: "we also seek, either absent or present, to be pleasing to you" (2 Corinthians 5: 9). "