Combat Soldiers & Servants of the Gospel

I strongly identify with soldiers and law enforcement officers. While I have no experience with either vocationally, I feel a kinship with them. Their stories resonate with me the strongest. Why?

It is not simply personality, personal interest, or because I am a man. I identify with them because I am a servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our family has served as cross-cultural missionaries among an unreached Buddhist people group for over 25 years. The spiritual warfare of gospel ministry mirrors many of the experiences of those in the military and law enforcement. Anyone committed to lifestyle of gospel ministry, no matter what their vocation, is engaged in this spiritual warfare.

The Scriptures describe gospel ministry using spiritual warfare terminology.  The apostle Paul, in his first letter to cross-cultural missionary co-laborer, Timothy, urged him, “wage a good warfare” (1:18), “fight the good fight of faith” (6:12), and “guard the deposit entrusted to you” (6:20).

Paul continued these same themes in the second letter to Timothy: “guard the good deposit entrusted you” (1:14), “share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2:3-4), “continue in what you have learned and have believed” in times of great evil (3:13-14), and “endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” in the face of serious opposition (4:5). He said of his years of ministry that he “fought the good fight” (4:7). These terms—fight, guard, endure, suffer—describe the spiritual reality of gospel ministry—war, the battle for the souls of men and women.

One day, after watching a powerful story covering World War 2, my mind was busy pondering the similarities between physical and spiritual warfare. I got out a piece of paper and jotted down what came to mind. Each one of these could be illustrated biblically with great profit to our souls:

• One soldier, expressing his mind about being completely surrounded by the enemy said, “We’re paratroopers. We’re supposed to be surrounded by the enemy.” As Christians, and especially those most engaged in the spiritual battle, we must remember that being in the “hot zone” is simply our reality.
• The “band of brothers” theme was strong in this account. It is through shared experience, especially those where we are stretched beyond our limits and suffer, that close bonds are formed. In the ministry of the gospel, there is a special bond between elders, pastors, cross-cultural missionaries and all others that have oriented their life around ministry. They understand one another in what those unengaged cannot. It is a brotherhood of gospel laborers.
• PTS (“post traumatic stress”) happens to some soldiers who have been in the midst of the battle. For some troubled thoughts comes after reflecting on what they endured. There is serious trauma that occurs because of the hardships and seeing such evil up close. Gospel ministry can be very traumatic as well as we battle with sin and unbelief and see suffering because of the gruesome consequences of sin.
• Sustained, uninterrupted battle breaks down even the toughest of soldiers. Intense battle mode cannot be sustained indefinitely. All soldiers need rest and recouperation or they will no longer be battle worthy. The same is true of gospel servants—they must have rest and spiritual refreshment.
• New recruits are often self-confident thinking they are up to the task. Many think war will be fun. They are not prepared for the cost and the effect that battle has on the mind and body. Many who enter Christian ministry begin the very same way. Once you start engaging in the hand-to-hand fighting ministering to people in pain and sin, the end of your wisdom and strength comes quickly.
• When individual battles take place, soldiers are not thinking about the big picture and purposes of the war but survival and keeping each other alive. While Christian workers are much more motivated by the purpose of their war, they, too, become much more interested in their fellow soldiers’ welfare during the battle.
• Soldiers can leave the military with a sense of entitlement because of the suffering that they have endured. Sometimes pastors and missionaries can slip into this mindset as well and think that they deserve privileges and special treatment because of what they have faced for others.
• No matter what the books and movies portray, the strength of solid battle group is its unity and discipline. Mavericks and loners, those who refuse to be team players, are dangerous to the whole group. The same is true in gospel ministry. It doesn’t matter if the ministry is a camp, Christian School, Bible college, local church, Sunday School ministry, or missions organization.
• True character is revealed in battle. “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small” (Prov 24:10). Intense stress because of personal attacks, persecution, the multiplication of problems and problem people, etc., will push us beyond our strength and reveal whether the gospel laborer is trusting in his/her own strength or that of the Lord.
• You must keep doing the right thing in the middle of the battlefield. This requires real discipline acquired through training and drills. Those without good training become cannon fodder. There is no place in serious gospel ministry for the undisciplined and untrained.
• In their pride, experienced soldiers are tempted to look down on the greenies, the freshmen, who have just come in. While training and hard-earned experience are valuable, and the newbies often are clueless, veterans must not forget they started at the same place. The same is true for missionaries and elders in local churches.
• On the other hand, experience handled well leads to humility. Those who’ve seen battle and lived to tell about it remember well how they came to an end of themselves. Their own weakness and mortality have stared them in the face. This encourages them to mentor the younger recruits. And so it should be for servants of Christ.
• There is much meaning and fulfilment for soldiers that fight for a good cause. There is much pride in having done their part. Fighting against evil is honorable and provides purpose. For the Christian soldier, this is a huge benefit. Many soldiers have had to fight in wars whose meaning and purpose was sketchy, even immoral, but this is never true for us.
• Many soldiers are tempted to deal with their stress through sexual immorality and substance abuse. Sadly, instead of turning to God for grace and strength in times of weariness and frustration, some Christian workers fall into the same patterns.
• Soldiers don’t forget the battles that they have fought. In fact, they really want to forget them and they can’t. Often, these become cyclical nightmares. There is a real mental and emotional cost to warfare, not just physical. Spiritual warfare takes its toll as well, part of the sufferings that must be endured for Jesus’ sake.
• Veterans that have experienced hard things earn respect from their brothers in arms. The same is true for soldiers of the cross. Paul referred to his hard experiences in ministry, his sufferings, as worthy of respect. Endurance through suffering brings “cred” to one in ministry.
• Willingness to sacrifice and even die for your brother in arms is held among the highest of virtues in the military. Soldiers that love their fellow soldiers enough to sacrifice themselves to save others are held in honor and remembered. Servants of the Gospel must be like their Lord and be willing to sacrifice for others, even unto the death, if necessary.
• It requires a huge amount of support to send out soldiers into battle and to sustain them. Supplies, ammunition, food, water, medicine, transportation, etc., require a lot of time and money to provide. Many battles are lost because the supply lines are cut and soldiers are left to suffer in diminished strength. Christian ministries and individual servants of the Gospel need support and supplies of different kinds to stay engaged in the spiritual conflict.
• Those soldiers that have experienced real battle find the return to civilian life very difficult. Life among those that have never experienced such intense testing or have not fought mankind’s worst evils can be hard. There is no way that a civilian who has never seen war can begin to comprehend what a soldier goes through. Pastors and missionaries, too, are little understood by those who’ve never fully entered the battle like they have. This can create a strong sense of loneliness.

This ends my list of meditations on the comparisons.

Praise the Lord that there is great reward for those of His servants that endure suffering and fight the good fight in faith to the end.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Tim 4:7-8).  

Photo by Simon Infanger on Unsplash