The Soldier Whom Hell Dreads

"Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him."

~2 Timothy 2:3-4

Who then is an effective soldier of Christ? Whom do the regiments of hell dread? I say "dread" not as though the Christian soldier possessed strength & power in and of himself, but I say that there are those soldiers of Christ that hell dreads because sadly today, there are many who profess to have enlisted in Christ's army whom hell does not consider a threat at all since the "love of many (has) grown cold" (Matthew 24:12) and these people are soldiers only in their badges but do not fight well.

But all hell feels a shiver down its spine when facing the soldier who is happiest in Christ alone. Though all the ranks of demons should lay siege to that Christian soldier and impoverish all sources of temporal pleasures, they will still find him safe and secure in the fortress of Christ His Commander, from whom the soldier draws all his strength and rations. The devil may catapult that Christian with heartbreak, sickness and disappointment and yet that Christian has a secret, inexhaustible reserve of joy in His Captain and His promises.

All hell struggles in vain to dissuade that Christian soldier who has his eyes fixed on eternity and the kingdom of God since they struggle to bribe him into abandoning his mission through sinful, worldly enticements. They may send gifts of compromise or flares of distractions and yet his gaze is steadily fixed on the horizon of eternal joys that await him in his Master's presence.

It is also difficult for hell's infantry to bring down that Christian soldier who is most humble since his success lies in abandoning all self-reliance and resigning himself entirely to the protection of his Lord and King Christ Jesus and therefore that though the devil may try to elevate that Christian to the pinnacles of pride so that he may become giddy with success and fall, the Christian soldier instead directs all praise to God for His provisions and loves the Giver far more than His gifts.

They also dread that Christian soldier who is a man of godly sorrow for he is a deadly warrior in the battle since he hates his sin for how it bruised his Lord and strengthened by the victory that His Lord gained on Calvary, that Christian soldier viciously kills sin and tears out the weeds of ungodliness from his life before they can bear any unpleasant fruit.

I desire with all my heart that you, my brothers and sisters who have "put on the full armour of God" (Ephesians 6:10), may find that your true strength and victory lies in your complete surrender to Christ and surrounding yourselves with thw wise counsel of other faithful Christians who like you, are knights of the cross of Christ. Your Brother and the "Captain of your salvation" is pleased to have you fight alongside Him, so then let us fight well against sin and bring him our bounties of obedience and service when He returns to bring us to inherit the kingdom prepared for us from before the foundation of the world. (Matthew 25:34)