Being a Good Soldier

II Timothy 2:3-4

When my parents went to the Navajo mission field, they had no support promised, so Dad took a job with the Navajo Tribe as a construction foreman. He started a church just off the reservation and when the opportunity presented, applied for a piece of land at Navajo, New Mexico. He was required to give up his job when he was approved as a missionary, and his income dropped to a tenth what he’d been making. The house we lived in was a rented from another mission group that had decided it wasn’t good enough for their people, but it was the only thing available.

In addition, Dad had severe allergies, especially to pine and juniper. Those are the most common trees on the reservation, and Navajo was the site of one of the largest sawmills in the world, producing vast amounts of pine lumber. Sometimes, Dad’s eyes would swell completely shut, and he had to take allergy shots and treatments weekly.

Bill and Nita Miller started at Crystal, New Mexico, and Nita also had severe allergies which required regular shots and treatments. Bill had other serious health conditions. Jesse Chaney, who started the church in Crownpoint, New Mexico had severe health problems. I grew up thinking that such things were just part of life and accepting them as part of serving God.

Imagine my surprise when one missionary left another field because of his wife’s allergies. In discussing it with her, we learned that her allergy was a mild allergy to dust, and required no treatment. Another missionary refused to go to the field because he couldn’t find a house as nice as he demanded while a third refused to come until he had at least $3000 a month in support. At the time, all the BBFI missionaries on the Navajo field combined did not have that much support. Clearly their idea of missions was different than that of those doing the work.

Paul’s instruction to Timothy compares the job to that of a soldier. A soldier must give up his own personal comfort and goals in order to please those he serves. He needs to know who he serves, and Galatians 1:10 stresses the recognition of who we serve. “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” To serve God, Timothy must give up his own comfort, and goals, as well as efforts to please other people. The goal is to please God. Efforts to please others prevent our pleasing God.

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 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.” (II Timothy 2:3-4)


In Matthew 6, Jesus addressed the same point. He makes it very clear that we ought not be focused on what the world has to offer, but on eternal values. What we value most will determine our priorities.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

If one is to serve Christ, he must focus completely on what Christ demands. To do otherwise is like being cross eyed. One can never be sure what he is actually seeing because his vision switches from one eye to the other. Sometimes he see both things at the same time, and is confused as to what is what. Matthew 6:22-23 describes the problem. “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” It is nearly as bad, and sometimes worse than being blind. One can never commit because he doesn’t know what is real. As James 1:8 says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

Many politicians find their loyalties divided between their party and their constituents and are forced to choose on or the other. It is the cause of many of the problems in the United Stated. Similar conflicts arise for Christians between what God has commanded and what the groups they belong to demand. As Jesus said, It is impossible to please both.


“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (Matthew 6:24-25)

Trying to get the things we need and want, whether by getting them ourselves, or by pleasing others so they will give to us diverts us from what is most important. It ignores what God does everyday around us.

“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (Matthew 6:26-30”

These are the things everyone needs, and God has promised to supply them. Fretting about them is effectively calling God a liar. He cannot.

“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” (Matthew 6:31-32)

Rather than allowing our focus to be divided, we need to concentrate on pleasing God. He will take care of supplying the things we need and want. We can’t foresee future problems, so there is no use worrying over them. We have enough to deal with at the moment.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:33-34)