What Kind of Soldier are You?

[This will not be a blog with decisions and a scenario, but instead, it will be a topic related work.]

We all know that in this world we are at war daily. Whether it is at war with our emotions, family, colleagues at work, or with a dishonest salesman, we are fighting some sort of fight. People like Martin Luther King Jr. fought for equal rights, as well as people like William Wilberforce who fought for the abolition of slavery, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, and the many nameless, faceless others fought for humanity -for those who have no voice. Sadly, today, many people fight for vanity, and personal interest or pleasure.

So, what does a good soldier look like? Here is an excerpt from a writer in the late 17th century.

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”

From The Crisis, 1773, Thomas Paine

That was written by a man who knew what a soldier was. He was in the midst of a civil war [if I am not mistaken] and saw what true patriotism meant. It is in war only when we see if we are strong enough.

What war am I talking about? Well, there are two types; Ephesians 6 verse 12 in the Bible describes it this way, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Napoleon Bonaparte said the following, “There are only two forces in the world; the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”

So, even Napoleon admitted that the spiritual is the major battle -not the sword. So if the spiritual is the superior fight, aren’t the battles we experience spiritually related?

A simple skirmish with a co-worker suddenly changes into a plan by Satan to steal your joy, peace, and sanity. A little more complex than it sounds first off, isn’t it? Although, this is mainly a lengthy topic, I will not go into detail on it now.

Now there is much to be said in terms of medals of valor, courage under fire, various crosses and even nobility. But, the biggest mistake that man has made was to think that through a war of death, life could be established. Meaning that they thought [and some still think] that killing all the opposition creates victory. This might be true in the directly physical battles of war, but not in common sense. Say an army of 10 000 marches and defeats another army of 10 000, the first army might only come off the field ‘victorious’ with 3 000 soldiers alive or wounded. How is the loss of the 7 000 a victory? No one wins in war…

Now where am I going with this? Well, what kind of soldier are you? Do you think that by ‘taking out’ the problematic person, you create peace? Do you think that winning your side in an argument with someone is the ultimate goal? We have seen that by killing 10 000 you lose at least 7 000 of your troops…

Let me use an example; Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who fought for equal rights for the American black community. How did he fight? Did he counter the government? Did he take up arms against the United States? Civil War? Revolution? No, I quote from him, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” His approach was love. He had a reason to fight the opposition with guns, but he chose to let God fight for him -he chose roses. Did it work? Well, the movements he started still live on to this day. He did liberate his people from being a ‘lesser race’ according to white Americans.

Now what does that have to do with us? Well, how do you win your battles? I’m sure you are familiar with the movie Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson, following the story of a soldier who served in the Americans medical corpse who refused to carry a gun. Long story short, he got the medal of courage under fire because he pulled out injured comrades while the Japanese fired bullets at him. One by one he hauled injured soldiers down the hill [known as Hacksaw Ridge] and he asked God to help him. See? Did he get the medal of courage under fire by returning fire?

So, our fight should be a fight of love, not war. When under fire, do we return a volley? Do we fight fire with fire? Or, do we choose not to retaliate? Do we choose, rather, to fight fire with water?

The Bible clearly tells us, "The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” [Galatians 5:19-21 NIV] Those are all the weapons that we are not to use. If we ever find ourselves fighting with these weapons, it means we are fighting with the wrong ammunition.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." [Galatians 5:22-23 NIV]

So, what all my words are boiling down to is the following; our weapons must be like the weapons spoken about in the specific Bible verse above.

Are we “sunshine patriots” like Thomas Paine said? Determined to fight the fight of faith when it is all sunshine and roses, but when we get ‘attacked’ by Satan’s plans, we retract our oath of valor and sink into the safety of spiritual ignorance by attacking with our tongue, attitude, and mortal intellects and the weapons spoken about in Galatians?

We are in a war of spirits; we fight not with our weapons, but by the power of Jesus Christ.

ask you again, what kind of soldier are you?