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‘No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him Who hath chosen him to be a soldier.’
2Ti_2:4
I. The Christian soldier is to be unentangled.—In the world—he must not be of it. He should aim at freedom from a worldly spirit. With regard to to-morrow he must have no anxious thought. His comrades should be one with him in the service of the Lord. His commercial or professional pursuits should be subordinate to the duties of his higher calling. He must not live in pleasure-seeking, or ever consider himself ‘off duty’—free to indulge in that which the service forbids.
II. The motive.—And all this ‘that he may please Him Who has chosen him to be a soldier,’ enrolled him in the Church Militant. What a grand motive is here put before us—pleasing Christ! Was not this the secret of St. Paul’s greatness? He stands in the foremost rank of those who have lived for Christ, who have fought a good fight; and do we ask, what brought him to this position, what was the reason of his success—his deep spirituality? The text is the answer. His whole life was spent with the aim and object of pleasing Christ. What, alas! is the motive in too many lives to-day in this selfish age? Is it not self-pleasing, self-gratification, self-aggrandisement? But Christ, Who pleased not Himself, said, ‘If any one will come after Me, let him deny himself,’ let him crucify self for My sake. Altruism is with too many in this twentieth century but a substitute for a truer conception of life. Love to Christ has produced more philanthropy than all other motives together. To see in every man a brother, and to aid him in his need because we love Christ, is one of the first duties of Christianity.
III. Have we been enrolled in Christ’s army?—Did we receive baptism rightly? Was our confirmation a reality? If so, the vows of God are upon us, and we are called to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The Roman soldier renewed his oath of allegiance every year. It was his sacramentum. Not once a year only, but often we are called to renew our allegiance to our Lord. At His Holy Table, at that Holy Feast, which is the Christian’s ‘sacramentum,’ as we prostrate ourselves before Him and receive the tokens of His dying love, we shall receive fresh supplies of strength to enable us to fight manfully under His banner, and to continue His faithful soldier and servant unto our life’s end.
Rev. Dr. Noyes.