Conclusion
Conclusion
Present yourself as a good soldier of Jesus Christ
Remember every one of you is called to be strong in the Lord and to commit himself or herself to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Put on your full armour of God and get ready to fight the spiritual warfare. Here are your spiritual weapons:
- Have faith as your shield and you are wearing a bullet-proof jacket.
- Trust the promise of salvation as your helmet, and you are protecting your head.
- Have the word of God as the sword to fight back, and you have bullets mounted in your gun.
- Have righteous deeds as breastplate, and you are opening fire with your gun.
- Fight the battle and support the army with your earnest prayers.
In order to be a good soldier, you have to be a sturdy fighter. Now we have the full armour of God to wear and the powerful weapons of God to fight the spiritual battles, great and small. Train yourself to use all these weapons skillfully. Prove to the devil that you are a trained soldier. You have God’s word in mind and in action to scare the devil away. Let him fear you, not that you fear him. In the battlefield, we do not need to fear because Christ is our commander in God’s holy army. We are sure to win in the end. What our commander demands from us is the loyalty of a soldier in the army.
But my final word is: you must always train yourself to use those powerful weapons. If you never use them, you never realize how powerful they are. Even if they are in your hands and you don’t know how to use them, you will still be the loser. If you don’t put on seatbelt, you can die anytime. If you don’t recharge yourself with prayer, you are too weak to fight. You will die too. So, train yourself to use more of the weapons until you are acquainted with them. They will become your powerful weapons in spiritual warfare.
On the other hand, if you are not armed with God’s weapons and not ready to use those weapons, you will end up becoming Satan’s captive and waiting to be rescued. When the war is over and you are finally rescued from Satan’s hands, you will not receive any award since you have become unproductive in the Army. For those who have put on the full armour of God and fought the war with God’s weapons, their loyalty to Christ’s Kingdom will be acknowledged and they will receive from him the crown of glory.
Paul at the end encourages Timothy as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, “And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. (人若在場上比武，非按規矩，就不能得冠冕。)” (II Tim 2:5) When the spiritual battle is over, our loyalty to Christ’s kingdom will surely please the King and we shall be awarded with the crown of glory. Paul himself says in II Tim 4:7-8 toward the end of his life on earth, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
The crown of righteousness is awaiting you to receive. Have you fought the good fight on Jesus’ return? That’s the question you will face at the end of the spiritual war.