“That he [the soldier] may please Him [God] who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”~ 2 Tim. 2:4
The word “militant” comes from the 15th century Latin “warrior” meaning “ to serve as a soldier.” It carries with it such words as: combative; aggressive; extreme confrontation; zealous; force; etc.
From the above definitions we see today's Church, as a whole, is void of any of these characteristics. We have substituted being a top soldier by being a toy soldier. As a friend said to me, “We wear our armour during sleeping hours and our P.J’s during the waking ones.”
The Church is to always be on the offensive! Jesus said, “And I say also unto thee…I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,”~ Matt. 16:18. Gates don’t move, men do.
If there is any doubt to the necessity of a saint having a fighting nature, consider a few of the following: God is called, “A Man of War'”; and His Son, “the Captain of our salvation”; David said, “He teaches my hands to war”; we’re told to “endure hardness as a good soldier”; to put on “the whole armour of God.”; etc.
Remember, there can be a loving heart beneath that armour! A tough hide, but a tender heart.
We did not volunteer to be soldiers, we were drafted by God, says Paul. And further, “There is no discharge in that war.” You can run or fight, that choice IS yours.
We are told of one tribe in the Old Testament, “The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle,”~ Psa. 78:9. Is it any wonder then that God rejected them. “Moreover he refused…[and] chose not the tribe of Ephraim,”~ 78:67.
We no longer sing songs in church such as: “Onward Christian Soldiers”; “Am I a Soldier of the Cross”; and “A Mighty Fortress.” I like the line in one of our contemporary Southern gospel songs, “I went into the enemy's camp and took back what he stole from me.” David did; read 1 Sam. 30:1-19. David’s physical foes in the Old Testament become our spiritual foes in the New Testament
O, how we need to, as the military term goes, “Hold the Line!” To “occupy till He comes.” Don’t forget, YOU’RE IN THE ARMY NOW! Don’t, as a soldier of Jesus Christ, get entangled with the yarn of this world. Unsheathe your sword and hold it till the two of you become one, “ 2 Sam. 23:10.
Amy Carmichael penned:
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die, and rent
by ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?
No wound, no scar?
Yet as the Master shall the servant be,
And, pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who has no wound nor scar?
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