Soldiers of Christ

There are plenty of hymns that I haven't sung before. Some of them are very famous like Abide With Me. Others are more obscure, which is why I haven't sung them before. One of them, however, is called Onward Christian Soldiers. I have known about this hymn for a while, but I've never sung it.

I was reminded of it not long ago, when I was decorating my army surplus bag with a bandanna, a F.R.O.G. wristband and a set of Four Points badges. It seemed like the sort of bag to be owned by a Christian solider, so I Googled the hymn and found its Wikipedia entry. It said on the page that the hymn was written about 2 Timothy 2:3, in which Paul teaches Timothy that a Christian must endure hardships like "a good soldier of Christ Jesus". 2 Timothy 2:3 has since become one of my favourite verses in the Bible, for the simple reason that it spoke to me as soon as I read it.

A little under two years after I became a Christian, I developed OCD, and it troubled me a lot. One of the reasons it upset me so much was that it seemed like I had less peace now that I was a Christian than I had before I gave my life to Christ, which seemed a little backwards. My relationship with God was a lot different after I got the symptoms of OCD; it was more strained and I felt further away from Him because my situation just didn't seem to fit with my understanding of God as it was then.

But then I read 2 Timothy 2:3, and suddenly it all made sense. In Luke 9:23, Jesus says that anyone who wants to go with Him must take up their cross and follow Him. The moment we become Christians, we take up our crosses and follow Christ, even if at the time we are unaware of what that cross might be.

Since reading 2 Timothy 2:3, I have come to see our individual callings as a battle that we are given to fight by Christ. For some it may be dealing with opposition in missionary work, for others it might be the tiring process of trying to get a record deal in a worship band, and for me it is my OCD.

In one way or another we are all soldiers of Christ, called to fight our own personal battles. After all, no one said that being a Christian would be easy; in fact, for a lot of people it's the complete opposite. But whatever we have to face, we fight in His name and for His glory, and as long as we remember that, He will always give us victory.