Read: II Peter 2:9-12
Back when they used to let me attend Vacation Bible School (before the unfortunate Kool-aid incident of 1988), I loved the praise and worship time. Seriously, it might have been my favorite part of the whole thing (well, except for snack time… hence the unfortunate Kool-aid accident of 1988). Specifically, I loved the songs we got to sing. Since I grew up in a traditional piano and organ congregation, the songs we sang at VBS were a nice change of pace. They were catchy, they were instantly memorable and, best of all, they had motions! From “I’ve Got a River of Life” to “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” I loved them all. It’s been almost a quarter of a century since I learned some of these songs, and they still seem fresh in my memory!
While other kids may have claimed “Father Abraham” as their favorite, mine went a little something like this (sing it if you know it!):
I may never march in the infantry
Ride in the cavalry
Shoot the artillery
I may never zoom o’er the enemy
But I’m in the Lord’s army
I don’t know what it was that made me love this song so much. Maybe it had something to do with my obsession with G.I. Joe. It could also have stemmed from the fact that there aren’t too many church songs about warfare. But, in all honesty, it probably had more to do with the song’s motions than anything else. Whatever the reason, it was fun to sing about fighting in the Lord’s army and being a soldier for God.
As I’ve gotten older, however, I’ve realized the words of that song don’t really seem true. I mean, the church doesn’t seem much like an army at all, does it? There’s not all that much excitement. It doesn’t seem like we get to fight in any battles for the Lord. Truth be told, we probably spend more time fighting battles with fellow Christians than anything else. It seems like we spend most of our time just sitting around waiting for something to happen. If the modern-day church is an army, then it has to be the most passive-aggressive army of all time!
Yet, the New Testament affirms that we really are the Lord’s army. I say that because we are His representative force in a hostile and dangerous place. As His people, we have been deployed into a world that often stands opposed to God and His will. We have been sent out into this world to take a stand for Him and advance His Kingdom in this world. Several biblical passages talk about the nature of our deployment:
Psalm 119:19-20: “I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.”
Philippians 3:20: “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…”
Hebrews 11:13-14: “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.”
I Peter 1:17: “Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives here in reverent fear.”
The Bible is clear: We shouldn’t fit in here. We are strangers in a strange land. We live for a higher law, a higher Kingdom, a higher calling. As Christians, we follow a different King. This world isn’t our home. It may be where we live, but it certainly isn’t where we belong.
Still, God doesn’t intend that we should spend our days here just waiting for Him to take us home. We’re not supposed to sit idly around as we await His coming. No, He’s given us a mission, a task to accomplish while we wait. We’re supposed to go out into this world and tell others about Him. We’ve been deployed by our King to go out and bring others into His Kingdom. While it may not constitute warfare in the technical sense, it is a battle for the lives – not to mention the souls – of the people we see everyday. Eternity literally rides on our success or failure in this endeavor. For that reason, it is a mission worth fighting for.
You and I are a part of God’s army. We are a people commissioned to do His work, a people deployed to go out into this world and proclaim His Word. We don’t belong to this world, but God wants us to play a role in saving it. Our mission, then, is of the utmost importance. It deserves the utmost priority. We may never march in the infantry or shoot the artillery, but we are in the Lord’s army. It’s time we started acting like it.
Questions to Consider:
How does being “in the Lord’s army” affect how you see this world? How does it affect how you live?
Read II Timothy 2:3. How did Paul tell Timothy to endure hardship? How does this affect the way you deal with difficulty?