Soldiers of Christ Arise (Part One)

He leads me …

In 2016 Nina Harding produced a thesis for her PhD entitled Becoming a Soldier in the New Zealand Army. Although she remained a civilian, with the permission of the NZ Army, Nina followed a group of civilians into Army Basic Training, then on to Corps Training where the recruits develop specialist training as engineers, drivers, signals operators etc. From there she then followed them on to Battalion life, and finally through to deployment.

What she found has some very strong parallels with being a Christian.

Nina observed that the civilians who she saw join the Army did so because it offered a life of action, productivity (making a difference) and continual self-improvement through facing challenges.

This is not unlike the person who becomes a Christian. In the Christians case -

Action is the new culture of being a believer who participates as part of a group of people who meet together each week to worship God, receive teaching, and build each other up. This is a small part of what it means to be a Christian in a worldwide setting where there are so many needs and so many people who need to hear about Jesus Christ.

Productivity is about the outworking of being a Christian. We know what Jesus Christ has done for us, and so our practical response in love is our productivity. What God-given gift/s do we have that we can use for His glory, and how does He want us to use them?

Continual self-improvement is what the Church refers to as sanctification. In the believer’s case it is not something that they do on their own. Instead it is a process that the believer works through with the help of the Holy Spirit. As a Christian matures, the Holy Spirit helps them to become more like Jesus.

So we see that the type of change from a civilian to an army recruit is in part similar to the change from an unbeliever to a born again Christian. The similarities do not stop there. How soldiers define what it means to be a soldier is interesting too.

One Commanding Officer told a group of trainees and Nina that soldiers, ‘are the guys at car crashes who don’t just watch, but jump in and help. If you turn up at the pub, and some guy is beating on[1] his wife, it’s the soldiers who step in rather than stand by.’

On another occasion Nina was told that a soldier is, ‘someone who can switch on instantly. If you are switched on you are fully functional and operating at 100%, alert, aware of everything around you and poised to respond.’

This looks like what it is to be Christian too. Remember Paul’s charge to Timothy in Timothy 4:1-2 –

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. (NASB)

Then there is Paul’s challenge to the Romans –

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. (Romans 12:17,21 NASB)

The thing is, how many of us are ready to respond promptly like this if the Holy Spirit asks us to?

[1] 1. To attack physically. 2. To criticize or scold harshly. - https://www.thefreedictionary.com