Committed To Christ

If we are to remain faithful to God we must make a commitment to obey his word and trust him.  This will not always be easy, as II Timothy 3:12 warns us.  “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”   Sometimes, it seems hopeless to keep on serving God.  II Timothy 2:3-5 instructs, “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.  And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.”

A new enlistee in the army has to go through basic training to give him the mental and physical toughness to face the situations he may face on the battlefield.  In the same way, Christians need to develop a mental and spiritual toughness to face the persecutions and attacks by Satan and ungodly men in this world.   Like the soldier, we must be ready to drop everything else to concentrate on serving God, and like an athlete competing for a prize, we must follow the rules, in this case God’s guidelines if we expect to receive the rewards for serving him. 

Before we can teach others to trust God or to walk in the Spirit, we have to experience it ourselves, as II Timothy 2:6 reminds us.  “The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.”  If the farmer has never eaten properly, or if he doesn’t eat the fruits of what he produces, he will be unable do the work required.   We will not have the mental and spiritual toughness we need to withstand the persecution and privations we face, until we experience them, and we will definitely be unable to teach others to have such toughness.  .   

Much as we might prefer to avoid the trials, they are just as necessary if we are to serve god as it is for the soldier to go through basic training.    Without those experiences we have no understanding what it means to truly trust or serve God.   The trials we face are critical for us to learn to trust him.  II Timothy 2:7-10 tells us, “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.  Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel: Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.  Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” 

Jesus, God’s own son had to go through the suffering of death to accomplish God’s purpose, as Hebrews 5:7-10 tells us.   “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.”  If he had to go through such suffering to serve God, we ought not to think we are too good to go through similar suffering.  Matthew 10:24 tells us, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.”   We are not better than the Lord.

Jesus was exalted to the right hand of God and made our salvation possible because he willingly suffered those things.  If we are to receive God’s blessings and rewards, we must be willing to suffer the trials he gives us.  II Timothy 2:11-14 tells us, “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.  Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.” 

Those who remain faithful even in suffering will receive the rewards he has promised.  Those who by their actions deny him will miss their rewards.  God is going to do what he said, whether we believe it or not.  He will not change to satisfy our ideas.  I Corinthians 3:13-15 tells us, “Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”   We need to be very careful in teaching others, to make sure they understand these principles, because arguments about what God meant serve no useful purpose for christians serving only to subvert or draw people away from the truth.